no they wouldnt, they wouldnt get close. Id go as far as to say if they were released by Hull Kingston Australia they wouldnt get a gig at any other club in SL.

No, i dont, i do however think that your club believes that employing NRL rejects instead of young british players with potential will lead them to short-term success. As I said you cant legislate for poor decision making.

it also doesnt mean he wont die on his ar5e and be packed off.

If you are taking a risk it should be with young british players, not players not good enough for SL

other than being older, with less experience yes.

and we only have the judgement of our coach and his ability to spot talent to go on at this time.

They are the same age and played in the same Australian schoolboys team!

unless I'm mistaken,
Phelps (Aus)
Roberts (Aus)
Carmont (NZ)
Richards (Aus)
Leuleuai (NZ)
Riddell (Aus)
Hansen (NZ)
Bailey (Aus)
Paleeasina (NZ)

I'm sure no Wigan fans class there GF title as legitamate and are totally embarrased being crowned SL champions after "bending" the overseas quota rules to put together a winning team!

We're employing 'NRL rejects' in the place of senior British players, not young ones. Of necessity we have to include more young British players in our squad than other clubs because we don't have any club-trained players in their mid-late 20s or early 30s. The squeeze is in the middle of our squad.

Short-term success is a good thing. My assumption is that you think that signing Australians damages us in the long-term. It doesn't. The age of your signings here is the crucial thing, not their nationality. I think we look well positioned to adapt to the rules as the fed-qualified antipodeans leave the game.

If Smokey had his way SL would be weakend and diluted to the point where games regularly blew out by 50+ points, intensity was virtually non existant past 3 or 4 teams and England would continue to suffer from a lack of exposure for the top players to strong teams every week. But it would be good for RL!

and my final say for the evening!

Smokey thinks the reason England are pants is due to too many overseas players in SL and not enough English players playing first grade. Consider this:

Kiwis in the NRL = approx 100
Englishmen in SL = approx 260

How come the Kiwis are World Champions and we aren't?

And relying on the coaches ability to spot talent down under isnt a healthy way to determine success in our league.

Yes and you signed Dobson two years ago and when you signed him he had more first grade experience.


Hansen isnt an overseas player, he is a product of the British RL system.

why?

that isnt the case at all, the average age of Hull KA squad isnt particularly low, never mind lower than other clubs.

you dont have more young british players in your squad than Leeds, Saints, Hudds, Wigan, or Wire. In fact only one of your first team squad is under 20 years old.

it is, it is just not as good as long term stability, sustainability, improvement, and success. If your chasing of short-term success is to the detriment of your long term success then it is a bad thing

the age of them is irrellevent, its simply a number. Hull KR will be no better placed signing Blake Green because he is 24 than if he was 28.

really? seems strange then doesnt it that HullKA are a mid-table side with the most overseas players. So other clubs, in similar positions to Hull KA have fewer overseas players and SL isnt weakend or diluted because this is the case.

Huddersfield, Warrington, St Helens, Leeds, Castleford, Wigan, Bradford, Quins, Hull FC, will all go into next season with fewer than 10 overseas players. Thats 10 over the 12 comparable clubs who will be going into next season with fewer than 10, most fewer than 8. Hull KA dropping 2 players this year, 2 next, and 1 the next wouldnt impact on the quality of the league whatsoever.

Probably unlikely Smokey.

Now that is a good question.
The club needed to get up to SL speed rapidly in 2007. The 2006 NL squad provided a base - 16 of them played SL in 2007 iirc (excluding Welham and I'anson). 7 of them from overseas, admitedly, but it was a squad put together to do a job and it did it. Only Fisher remains from the overseas contingent. Cockayne, Murrell and Netherton are the other survivors. The overhaul saw us sign a lot of players. It was short-termism, but we had a pressing short-term goal. We needed SL experience and as favourites to go down weren't spoilt for choice. We signed Brits like Ward, Chester, Cooke and Hardman on loan, but overseas players of varying quality were crucial - Vella, O'Neill, Gene, Dyer, Bauer, Gannon, Lennon, Lovegrove, Tandy. A motley bunch, but they were willing and, as it turned out, able to do what we needed. As an aside, only 3 were new to British RL. 2008 was building for the future we had another clear out and bought in half a new team more or less. It was a mix of Brits and antipodeans (Briscoe, Fox, Walker; Webster, Galea, Newton, Crossman, Fitzhenry. Dobson replaced Webster Mk1 midway through the season). This turned out to be a piece of accidental genius. Newton and Galea, along with Vella were all superb signings and ultimately qualified for fed-trained status. After that splurge, recruitment for 2009 and 2010 was predictably low key with only Clinton arriving from overseas. Now the quota is starting to impact the market, driving up the value of experienced fed-trained players as they become a scarcer commodity. But lucky old Hull KR have a couple of quota spots spare, so have access to a buyers' market.
'Luck' would have been the short answer. www.hullrockers.co.uk:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_25057.jpeg