The thing with that is and although I agree Rovers asked the RFL if it was ok and they said yes. Obviously Mason could get in the country at this point but could not play so surely if they could Rovers were smart to both ask the question and do what they did.
If Sunday is anything to go by Rovers were 600 fans up on the corisponding fixture last year which was at the end of may(better weather) if that trend continues before Dobbo is back they will be roughly £60,000 better off on gate reciepts alone.
To be self sustaining as both the RFL and other clubs want us to be then surely it was the right thing to do?

edited

That was constructive, no wonder most debates turn into a slagging match!!!

I'm all for signing has beens if they perform like Willie did in his first game!

oh ffs chill



mason even said himself he considered retiring if he couldnt get over here asap

to the op origanal post, i think it is down to your clubs over use of southern hemisphere players that irk fans so much, the mason affair has just added more to it

maybe you should wait until he plays against a stronger team

(no offence cru fans)

as long as they stop making references to 'Big Willie style' i will let them off. only masons wife should hear that sh*t.

Just not in the spirit of the game is it. Like #6 says it is the fact you have a huge amount of "overseas" players. What amuses me about it all is a number of Rovers fans I know thought it was disgraceful that London had more "overseas" players than anyone else at one point in time, yet when the boot is on the other foot they are just playing to the rules.

Hypocrisy is a 2 way street



Lets face it the RL only gave the nod because of who it is (Mason) if it had been a lesser known player I am sure they would have given a different answer, but as Mason has definitely brought some press attention to the RFL they will see it as a worthwhile compromise.

That is of course just speculation but if you had signed some unknown Aussie and asked the RFl can we deregister Dobson till we get this bloke a dodgy Tongan passport and will you then allow us to reregister Dobson when it comes through? I think a polite no would have been expected.

There is a resentment because Hull KR, instead of putting money into their youth system, are doing their best to bend the rules of the game in order to get more Aussies over here.

Wasn't it Rovers that also exploited the loop-hole to get exemptions for Australians in order to keep Lovegrove?

Basically, we create quotas and they find ways to break them. And it isn't the first time. And they get away with it. That's why there's so much animosity. No matter what rules we put in to benefit the development of the game, they will no doubt be looking for a way to get around it. It's against the spirit of the game.

The two English lads let go by Hull are, I assume, Hodgson and Wheeldon?

Wheeldon played about 60 Superleague games for Hull and never really improved between him making his debut and him leaving for Rovers, we gave him his chance but he never took it. Hodgson wanted to move somewhere that would allow him first team rugby as he was always going to be playing second fiddle to Danny Houghton (another product of our academy). He was not replaced by an Aussie.

Whilst we are on the subject would you like to explain why Justin Morgan spent all last season banging on about Mariano, Spaven etc and how good your youth setup is only to let them go at the end of the season?

No surprise your biggest issue has something to do with the rival club...

Which two English lads were these? And which Aussies were these?

We got rid of two Aussies last year and replaced them with two Aussies.
The year before, we got rid of another two Aussies and replaced them with two.
The year before that, we got rid of two Aussies and signed two.

We've not replaced any youth. We've kept the same (relatively low) number of overseas players to compliment our youth development.

When we get rid of English players, it's because they haven't developed over a number of years (i.e. Wheeldon, Hall, Lee, G.Horne), because they couldn't get in the team (Hodgson) or disciplinary reasons (Tansey, Brough, Thackray). When you get rid of them, it's because you either have another Aussie to put in in their place, can't be bothered to develop them anymore after a year or two, or didn't want them in the first place and only signed them because you couldn't squeeze another Aussie in.