Then the sport as a whole is screwed. Means that players can up and leave whenever they like - this is why the RFL needs to put funds behind it instead of having us fight their battle.

His newest spin is that he was depressed and Castleford did nothing about it - given our heavy integration with State of Mind and that our Chairman has been quite vocal about his experience with mental health issues, I highly doubt it

Surely the fact that Solomona/Sale seem to change their story every five minutes isn't helping their cause. Hope not, anyway.

And of course the RFL and the sport as a whole should back Cas to the hilt.

Given that part of Monday's – I assume case management - hearing appears to have included Solomona's lawyer arguing that he should be able to call a consultant psychiatrist as a witness when it comes to trial and the judge ruling against that because medical records would be enough to show up any history of depression …

The oddest thing for me in a way is the RFU's attitude. On the surface, sticking two fingers up at RL when asked to intervene is fine and probably chortleworthy amongst the RFU bigwigs, but when you look at the possible ramifications of what Sale and Solomona are trying to do, there would potentially be major knock-on effects for that code as well. If a player can just 'retire' from one sport and walk straight into another, what's to stop a player 'retiring' from London to play in south west England or France - particularly if they want to move back to where they are from? The depression argument if allowed would make things worse as well.

If Sale win using some of these arguments it won't necessarily only be RL clubs that are vulnerable. But the outrageous nature of what is being tried on here has massive impacts on the value of contracts, firstly in RL, so the RFL have to back Cas IMO.

You only need to look at the blokes stance on turning out for England in league compared to in Union to get a feel for his character and what motivates him.

Im sure Cas aren't losing too much sleep anymore given their form and in particular the form of his replacement.

Probably not. It just means that any new contracts will reflect this. It will be similar to gardening leave clauses in industry. It would probably say that if A should retire then if he wishes to take part in sport X, Y, or Z in future ........ The issue will be with existing contracts.

Castleford's form (without Solomona) or, the quality of his replacement, is not the issue here.
It's whether a contracted player can "retire" from one code of rugby and sign a new contract with another.
The club that I support are close rivals with Cas but, on this issue, we're shoulder to shoulder with them.

Exactly - that's why its important to pursue it with the backing of the RFL.

Should a player be allowed to retire from Rugby League and then pursue a career in football?

No, not if he has a contract to fulfil in RL.
Unless there is agreement on both side's the contracts should be completed, after all, that is why people have them.
Remember, a contract is to protect both parties and hat would have happened had he been injured while playing for Cas, should they have "retired" him without paying up.

Sale appear to have tried to sign him "legitimately" and when Cas turned down their offer, they appear to have used some very dodgy ways to persuade him to switch codes.
Its not acceptable and if the same thing had happened in reverse, the media would be all over it.
Mind you, it's not likely to happen but, that's not the point.

Unsubstantiated rumour but I heard that Leeds (can't remember if it was Hetherington or Caddick) were very much behind Cas in this dispute and were prepared to assist financially if need be.

Are they not preoccupied financially with redeveloping Headlingley ATM?

So the RFL are behind Cas then.

He certainly didn't seem very depressed on the 'just tattoo of us' tv show (certainly not my choice of show. Filmed back around February.. Not sure someone who is depressed should be encouraged to get mystery tattoos they won't get to see until it's done...