A big name in RL? Surely you mean SL. The name has more to do with brother Sam than him. A dangerous attacker who could be a turnstyle in defense.

What the chairmen want... This is why rule by committee never works. If the rfl told em all to clear off were making the rules, there'd be uproar, but we'd be better off for it.

True but that is also capped at 50k - so there's 100k maximum - hardly much to write home about in the face of money from elsewhere!

its a bit of a myth that this is what the chairmen want. That document is based upon a review conducted by Maurice Watkins and was prepared by Nigel Wood, Ralph Rimmer, Blake Solly, Sue Allen, Jon Grant and David Gent. Largely it deals with things outside of clubs control (i.e the complete abdication of responsibility for expanding the game, the removal of any responsibility for the game outside England, the removal of any responsibility to grow new clubs)

The only thing the SL clubs really had to vote on was the number of clubs in SL, that was pretty acrimonious and a fairly bad-tempered thing with people walking out and allegations from all sides. This new structure and these policies will not work if only because one side really doesnt want them, the other side is made up of clubs which have been 'bought off' with free money (and thats not even addressing the fact that a lot of its suggestions are contrradictory and counter-productive)

And everything within the document had/ has to be voted on by the chairmen - you can lead a horse to water and all that...

The home grown cap cap is a classic example. An intelligent way to increase the cap, and encourages doing in so which is beneficial to England, chairmen end up taking a vote on "golden tickets" and an argument over marquee (without wanting to reopen that debate, read average Aussies) signings for so long it hasn't been able to be implemented... Imagine how long any suggestions of the rfl assuming more control would
last...

These are all RFL suggestions and they dont need to be voted on by the clubs.

This is typical of the Nigel Woods RFL. They suggest something, implement it, then simply say 'dont blame us guv' when the obvious deficiencies are pointed out

The home grown cap is a classic example of the fact that Nigel Woods RFL cannot think something through.

In Isolation a home grown exemption/reward makes sense. It incentivises clubs to do what we want.
In Isolation reducing the number of academies but increasing their funding to turn out better players makes sense.

But those two things arent compatible. Reducing the number of academies to 10, means only 10 clubs will be able to bring through the requisite number of players of the requisite quality. They will be the only clubs able to use the home-grown exemption to its fullest. They will then be rewarded by being able to spend more on players because of that. This will create a huge gap between the 10 clubs with academies and the 14 without. Where the 14 without simply cannot compete as they will have less money to spend on bringing more players in, whilst operating under the same cap but without the discounts.

It's good for RL and SL that Joel has returned!l

He probably won't worry about a big salary this year - as he'd of made in 3 years (especially as a member of the England Elite Squad) what he'd of earned in 7 or 8 years as a top level RL player.

Another who failed at Union. Watched him play a few times and looked woefully out of his depth

Regards

King James

I can understand why Leeds fans are so devastated after that Wembley try.

So much so that he was called up to represent his country against Australia, no less.

No doubt he got so bored of standing around watching his overweight comrades laying all over the ball or kicking it into touch every 2 minutes that he lost interest?

Welcome back Joel!

he was thrust into the England team on the back of being a big money convert and was proved to be way out of his depth at that level.however, he is not the first and wont be the last to go through that experience.

I suppose he made a better fist of it than others have and he comes back to SL with a few good years left ahead of him (providing hes the same player that left) and a few more quid in his pocket so I doubt he has regrets.

go to the saracens forum and look at posts before his call up to England and before his Injury they was loving his performances and offloads. To say he failed is just utter turd, Im sure some would say Ashton was a flop in union if he was ever to return.

I said he made a fist of it,which he clearly did at club level.on the international stage however, he fell woefully short.go read the reports and summarisations.

TBH I couldnt give a tosh whether he made it or not for the rah rah international side and am glad to see him back just hope he is the same player.

Not cutting it at international level doesn't mean he flopped in union (not implied at you), and look at the other factor that his inside centre was billy twelvetrees, i don't think SBW would look good playing outside of him.

Under no circumstances can people say he flopped he worked his way into the 1st team at Saracens and the England set up, he played the 1st year in reserves.

Im just hoping he still has those rugby league instincts like line speed, not tackling flatfooted, running angles and hitting holes.