I agree totally with the point your making too many of them just aren't up to standard and certainly shouldn't be earning top dollar here and keeping young english kids out of the game.

From an Hull point of view though O'Meley was very good for us last season.

Widders has played well for Cas in the years he's been over here and has become a fans' favourite. Additionally, he does a lot in the Community. May not be an household name but then the players that tend to perform well over here rarely are.

Why cant they just put a cap of say 5 genuine non federation trained players?? Then everyone else has to be home grown or fed trained (including French). Is it illegal or something? Other sports seem to do it, Cricket or ice Hockey for instance. The rules as they are are so flimsy.

just a question to ponder - due to EEC employment regulations could an SL or C/C1 club have team made up of only french or other EEC member state players ?

Well that's what the rules are, however, clubs get around them with exemptions...

Bit harsh on Glenn Morrison DG. A true pro, class player and coaches the juniors at Wakey. If thats not adding something then I'm not sure what is.

Also how can you say Mason at Hull KR adds anything, hes only arriving in the next wweek or so and no one knows how he'll settle over here. I hope he's at his best as he will be great to watch but we won't know until the season gets underway. Same goes for all other new signings you've listed.

Ben Cross for Leeds looked like a quality addition yesterday, no nonsense tough and hard working, it was only a friendly but the signs look good with him, Delaney looks like he's shed a few pounds too, was disappointed with him last season but I think everyone will see a different player this year.

You are right about Morrison but he is at the End of his career now. If he is coaching then fine but i would rather see a good young player on the Wakefield roster.

As for Mason if he lives up to his rep, puts bums on seats he may turn out to be a good signing.

Cannot really comment on Cross as yet to see him. Hopefully he will turn out to be a better buy that fatty Eastmond.

As for Widders at cas, i would bow to Fully's judgement. BUT i would say that another good young local lad coming through would do more for RL: in Cas than Widders

I doubt there is a junior player with the ability Morrison posesses at this moment in time, however with him mentoring and guiding player x then he may well help develop him into as good a or even better player than himself. What you need to realise this season at Wakey is that the majority of the squad are going to be relative youngsters with not so much first team experience. Morrison is going to be one of the most important people at our club this coming season in my opinion and quite a lot will be resting on his shoulders. I beieve he is of the right temperament and stature to handle this and bring out the best in our 'project' players.

Shut up.

to be fair Solomona is world class too

And then you end up with an inferior competition in which English players cannot develop as far they otherwise could.

There needs to be a gradual reduction, especially closing loopholes wherever possible or maybe making overseas players cost more on the salary cap in some way so as to try and deter clubs from signing overseas players. But much more importantly this has to be backed up with a massive increase in the quality of coaching of young English players from age 4 all the way up to the pro ranks. There are big failures in a lot of the coaching at virtually every level from my experience.

I personally think we could lose maybe 30% of our overseas players immediately and see a negligible drop in standards. However i think that when we do see that drop, and clubs start doing more, i think we will get more out of what we have, but also we will be forced to expand the player pool. And i cant see why that wouldnt put us at the very least the level we are now very very quickly.

Moving forward from that needs more from the RFL at youth level, and huge amounts more from clubs at scouting, training and coaching levels, from scholarship to first team. We barely scratch the surface in coaching and preparation the Aussies do.

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phased out over a short-term period yes IMO