Quote: dirtbag83 "I was too to be honest. It's the same for us with Carmont, Richards and Leuluai. Think this will definitely be Carmont's last year (surely he'll actually retire this time!) and Leuluai and Finch are both out of contract at the end of the season too so I imagine our quota will come down. I hope we can persuade Leuluai to stay on but I think he fancies a crack at the NRL'"
He'd by mad not to, if the salary cap down there goes up, as people say.
As we've mentioned, the number of antipodean players has to go down as players like Meli or Carmont retire. Clubs who have persisted in getting as many jonny foriegners in as possible will REALLY suffer once they start to retire if they have no invested youth.
To be fair, Flanders may not even make our 1st 17 next year and if Meli left now we've youngsters like Makinson and Wheeler to fill in for him. Perry played 1/3 of a season last year and Sia played even less in 2010. Tony P is a star player, Perry and Soliola have an awful lot of ability and Laffranchi and Hohaia are big names at least. We've more than I'd like, but I think we're pretty responsible with it.
We could effectively field a back line of Wellens, Foster, Makinson, Wheeler, Gardner, Gaskell & Lomax next year, which would go pretty well and all of whom were products of our academy system (gardner only kind of).
Other clubs have similar boasts - Wigan, Cas, Leeds and all, even the much mocked HKR, have some youngsters coming through.
The quota system will continue to tighten and we'll see more of the 238 odd weekly shirts being filled with brits, rather than journey man Aussies - Even in East Hull.