Shane Richardson, formerly of Hull FC and other Super League assignments, is looking to recruit English players for South Sydney. He is impressed with union international George North, as well as Kallum Watkins and Ryan Hall. www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/n ... a19bae8522 If this comes to pass, Souths could have more than a third of the England squad.

Shane Richardson, formerly of Hull FC and other Super League assignments, is looking to recruit English players for South Sydney. He is impressed with union international George North, as well as Kallum Watkins and Ryan Hall. www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/n ... a19bae8522 If this comes to pass, Souths could have more than a third of the England squad.

Yeh not going to pay $4 to read speculation but thanks anyway.

Here is the article that is apparently inaccessible to othersRabbitohs snare Shane Richardson again thanks to a former coach[/size

[sizeTHE AUSTRALIAN[/size
JANUARY 23, 2016 12Brent Read
Senior sports writer
Sydney

As he pondered his future late last year, the persistence of Russell Crowe and the pull of South Sydney slowly wearing him down, Shane Richardson picked up the phone and called John Lang.

For years the pair were inseparable, forging a bond that yielded success in two states, the Shire and ultimately South Sydney. Richardson had a decision to make and he wanted to hear the thoughts of the straight-shooting Lang.

“He said ‘What do you want to do, what is your passion?’” Richardson said. “I said my passion is at the coal face. It gave me real clarity.”

Richardson took a holiday, gave it some more thought and returned with his mind made up. Having finalised his blueprint for rugby league's future, a master-plan crafted over nearly 12 months as the NRL's head of strategy, Richardson tendered his resignation to ARL Commission chairman John Grant earlier this week.

He will remain at Rugby League Central for the foreseeable future — his contract dictates he must wait another 60 days before taking up his new role as the Rabbitohs' general manager of football — but Redfern is about to undergo a revolution.

“A fair bit of time when I was doing my stuff for the NRL, I had a fair look at structures and the way clubs are run in baseball and the NFL,” Richardson said.

“They put a greater emphasis on separating football and the administration side of things. Russell has had that in his head for a while. He came to me and said what if we broke this up and you had a job where you get all the good things in football.

“I thought it over when I was going away on holidays. If I was going to do it I had to do it now because once I completed the paper, next thing was implementation.

“It was going to be one of those things where once I started to get into the next stage, I couldn't not finish it.”

Publicly at least, the NRL insists it remains committed to that plan, part of which would see a radical overhaul of the NSW Cup and age limits on the signing of players, both by clubs and player agents.

The task of crystallising Richardson's thoughts now resides with head of football Todd Greenberg. Richardson has steered clear of publicly advocating anyone for the NRL chief executive job vacated by Dave Smith — he ruled himself out as a contender early in the process — but it is understood he has told influential figures that Greenberg is the right man for the job.

Meanwhile, he will return to clubland and attempt to reinvigorate a Souths side which looked stale and lacking in inspiration towards the end of last season.

It is understood Richardson is ready to scour the globe for outside backs to strengthen the club's premiership credentials. High on his list will be rugby union superstar George North — it is believed Richardson previously has had conversations with the Welsh centre about the prospects of a code switch.

Richardson also has a high opinion of Leeds centre Kallum Watkins and England winger Ryan Hall, while closer to home he along with many others admire the work of Wests Tigers fullback James Tedesco.

Regardless of who arrives, Richardson is ready to radically alter the way the club recruits players, his conviction only strengthened by the time he spent at the Cleveland Browns, where Paul DePodesta has been appointed as chief strategy officer.

DePodesta was a central figure in the development of ‘Moneyball’ at the Oakland Athletics.

“I spent a bit of time in Cleveland when I was away talking with them about what they are doing with DePodesta. It’s not straight out statistical stuff but it is a way and means.

“I have been working with my son for a while on a system of recruitment based on injury and body size and background. I want to put that into practise.

“I want to do things differently. I want to think out of the box with what we are doing. We thought out of the box a bit with the Burgess brothers and the way we recruited Greg Inglis. There's a few players I want to bring to the club. I don't think it is as major as people are making it out. I think it needs some subtle changes. That's what I do. I deal with players, I deal with agents, I deal with the discipline of the club.

“In a lot of ways it will take a lot of pressure off Madge (Maguire) and allow him to be the coach of the football side. I know that is what he wants.

“My role is to get the recruitment right, get the best players, make sure our salary cap is in line, make sure our discipline and culture is right.

“I don't intend to get in there and tell Madge how to coach. What I will be doing is making sure we set ourselves not only to win the first fixture, but more importantly win for the next five years.”

Inevitably, his appointment has prompted speculation over the tenure of chief executive John Lee — the Souths boss has already been linked with a switch to the NRL.

“John and I have talked this through,” Richardson said.

“It is not something that has just been thrown at him. We have pushed it around. I get on really well with John. I haven't got a challenge with it at all.

“It is the direction the club wants to go.”

There is actually no quote by Richardson saying he wants to sign them. It is guess work.

I know Hall has no interest (and hasn't for a long time) in moving to Australia. I've also heard rumours that Watkins isn't interested too and both are for the same reason, they've both got a young family that they don't want to move them to the other side of the world.

South Sydney desperately needs a pair of classy centres, and a winger. Money can change a lot of minds. In Ryan Hall's case a fellowship in maths at a major Australian university might also be tempting.

Where in that article did you pick up that Richardson wants to sign them? And even if he did, Souths couldn't afford them. They had to release players to fit Sam under the cap

They'd also have to pay a sizeable transfer fee for Watkins or Hall as both are signed up for the next few years. IIRC Hall is signed up until the end of 2018 and Watkins the end of 2019.

Yeah if money was going to change Hall's mind it'd already have happened unless you think no other NRL team have tried to get him since 2009 when he became a successful starter for both England & Leeds.

Unlike Sam Burgess and Sam Tomkins, some guys are more wise in knowing such moves aren't right for them and their family and they would only end up coming back in 12-18 months.

I have never been against SL players leaving for the NRL, even in the case of my own teams players. However, i do think Hall has missed the boat now, if he was going he would have gone a couple of years back imo. Watkins could possibly go but as others have said he has shown no real desire to do so and he is hitting his mid twenties now.It's a big decision to make when you have had kids too.We will see, pure speculation for now as ever.

Exactly. He'll be 29 by the time the 2017 season started and when was the last time an NRL team took on an English player at that age? More likely they'll go for the next promising guy at an early age like they have done with Joe Burgess.

Also Hall is due a testimonial year in 2017 (and Watkins in 201icon_cool.gif so both have upcoming financial incentives to stay at Leeds.

Australia, especially Sydney, and especially Coogee, is a wonderful place to raise a family. I would think that Kallum Watkins and his family would not mind too much the chance to frolic in the surf for six months of every year, especially if the four Burgess boys, Sam's and Luke's family, and mother Burgess, are also down there so often. Don't put it past Kallum Watkins to consider the migration option if Souths offer him a four year contract.

People have not commented here on the great boost for English rugby league it would be if George North was to go to South Sydney.

George North can do without any more concussion scares. I cannot see a switch of codes. More likely he will be an early retiree.

I remember some time back reading one of the puff pieces about the amazing subtlety of tactics that you get in rugby union, which pointed out the great skill in going through phase after phase in attack on your opponents' line, until George North was left with only a prop to defend against him in the corner. And I thought of course, well, if GN needs to be up against a prop to score... He is lionised by the British media, but he's never struck me as anything that special: he's certainly no Joe Burgess, and he's no Ryan Hall either. I wouldn't see him as anything but 'average SL winger' standard at best.