Second time he’d failed a drugs test and he’s been in trouble for other stuff before. Cronulla were hardly going to keep him on.

Why not? Best player ever to grace SL apparently

For the reasons I’ve just stated plus it brings a bad light on the club if they don’t act and at least make it look like he’s a reformed character.

And how will it look if/when they re-sign him next year or after his contract ends? Cronulla aren't that bothered about the 'Bad Light' angle, they've got Andrew Fifita playing for them

He would pass that character test or whatever it’s called that they have so he would look like a reformed character who’s put his past behind him and all that rubbish. With Fifita, he’s talked about how he had severe depression and tried to kill himself so I think he gets away with it. Why would Barba ask to leave? He was playing very well and I imagine will have been settled.

A valid attempt to take sense with the moron, I salute you Baxendale.

Barba was skint and not getting paid while suspended, quite along time from the end of the season to 12 games (end of May) in.

Gallen didn’t get sacked when he racially abuse a player on the pitch or when he got suspended for taking performance enhancing drugs.

And of course Matt Lodge has a nrl contract.

Begrudgingly, I'd probably give it to Jamie Lyon. One of the few who went back to Australia afterwards and still played at a high level.

Lyon's about the only one in that list who NRL fans would recognise as being a star player at their peak who've gone to SL. Most NRL fans would think Barba was way below his career-best form at the Bulldogs even though he did win a GF with the Sharks.

IMO SL's problem is not getting enough players of just below that calibre at their peak - the likes of Richards etc - and there haven't been a lot of real quality older players coming over for a few years for a while either. That's purely down to economics, especially since the tax laws stopped NRL players effectively being paid tax-free for a couple of years work, and now the NRL cap making the gap between wages in SL and NRL enormous.

Not necessarily saying he is the best but I wouldnt have swapped Richard Swain for anyone else mentioned on this thread. Privilege to see that guy in the black and white.

Jason Smith wasnt bad either.

Jamie Lyon
Lesley Vainikolo
Ali Lauitiiti
Henry Paul
Robbie Paul
Matt Gidley
Trent Barrett
Stacey Jones
Steve Menzies
Joe Vagana


If he carries on as he is Barba will be in the top 5.

Regarding Henry and Robbie, Robbie actually says in his book Henry was the better player. Loved watching both of these play. Topics like these are always subjective, how can you compare Lauiti'ti, to Lyon, to Vaininkolo, to the Paul brothers. All were a joy to watch. In my own humble biased opinion, Henry Paul is the most complete player i've personally seen. When you look some of the older footage and you see him booming a pass half way across the pitch right into the mans bread basket, i just don't see that level of passing in SL now. Imagine having NZ's two half backs play in SL now. It's not just the imports either, the British lot, the likes of Long, Sculthorpe, Mcguire, Farrell wouldn't be in SL now.

Regarding Barba, i love watching him play. I also think Holbrook has a lot to do with him playing so well. Imagine Barba playing under Cunningham

A lot of this will depend on what criteria is being used to judge. Going off last season Barba was unfit and poor so we are only talking about around a dozen games this year.

If we can call a player the greatest SL import off such a small sample of games then my vote goes to Andrew Johns.

There’s no doubting Barba’s ability, he’s right up there if not at the top with the best players in the league. As far as greatest imports go (and this is just my opinion) they should be playing at least a couple of full seasons before I’d consider awarding them that title.

That would be my list, although at a push I would be tempted to add in Shontayne Hape, I thought he was great for a good number of years at Bradford but rarely gets a mention for some reason.

IMO no player that jumped ship and swapped League for Union should get a mention. Disgraceful and unforgivable.