Big loss for Stains
Do we need to act quickly, to secure the "rumoured" signing of Shillington, before Stains swoop.
FGB will certainly take some replacing

SSN have just announced the graham has signed for Canterbury Bulldogs for 3 years.

Good Luck to the big whinging git.

Or in other words, "Oi Kyle you little sack of s---, this is what you should have done"

There is a plus point for us Brits in this, and last week's announced return to the NRL.
We wont have to put up with the 2 worst nicknames in the history of SL

Jammer (shudders)
and
Madge (throws up last night's tea)

Never good to see Super League losing its star players, but I guess it's positive to see from a GB/England perspective, as he'll be playing at the highest level consistently.

at least that has some thought to it.

Not just putting a y on the end of their name... Woody, Briersy, Matty Blythey
or an a Mozza, monas

But back on song, We all saw this coming and is no real shock. More interesting will be news on Tony P

Pretty much agree with that, Roddy, but, it's never really worked for Gareth Ellis, who's good international games can be counted on the figers of Zippy from Rainbow's hand, and still have a couple of fingers left.

If he comes back to SL he'll return a much better player. Sad for Saints but good for England.
Who's next I wonder?

Good for Graham.

Had he stayed at Saints much longer he'd have been finished before long. He's been the cornerstone of their pack for way too long, and for me, at times has done way too much work.

Be interesting to see how Canterbury use him, both in minutes and style, will that pass at the line etc be developed or put away.

I've never understood this "good for Great Britain" bit.

Adrian Morley played in the NRL, how many Test series did GB win because of it?
Gareth Ellis and Sam Burgess are in the NRL, it didn't help us last year?

Going back further, Hanley, Davies, Offiah and all those greats had their spells in the NRL. Did we win any Test series against them then?

The NRL isn't taking average English players and turning them into players of Australian standard. The NRL is hand picking the handful of English players who were already at a level able to compete with the Aussies at international anyway. Graham was already a good player. The reason we lose is in the typical Aussie 17 in a Test match there will be about 8 world class players, about 6 very good international players, and about 3 who would be good SL players but could be replaced by a fair number of English players. In the typical English 17 there will be about 2 world class players, about 3 very good international players and the rest are of a mixed standard including players who would not be starters in the NRL.

Now if the NRL took someone like Paul Sykes and he came back as Greg Inglis that might make a difference.

It's good for GB because we get to see our players playing at the highest level, maximising their potential/ability. It may not filter through to results at GB level, but I'd still rather see our playing becoming the best player they can be in Aus.

It's a bit similar to football, I think all England fans would like to see as many players playing in the Champions League as possible. We'll probably never win a thing, but it's still good to see players becoming the best they can be. With enough players reaching their ceiling, it might, just might, result in GB competing with the southern hemisphere.

Well maybe now McGuire is going to Souths he will have a good knowledge of British players so he might take Westwood and Bridge down there? Hopefully he's been taking notice of them, I think they deserve their shot?

Gotta hand it to James Graham for being the first saints player in recent times not to be saying hes going to the NRL just to get an improved contract..

Unlike Sean "I might go play in austrailia" Long
And Keiron "I like a good Barbie" Cunningham

I for one hope he does really well

Good luck to him, he's more than earned the right to have a crack at the NRL.

RL can be a short career and he'd have probably regretted it all his life if he didn't give it a go, he's shown far more class than Eastmond has done in how he's gone about things.

I'm not sure what the Warrington position should be as regards Graham?

Are we supposed to hope that he does well and say oh look another genuine class British forward making it in the NRL?

Or should we be hoping he gets his booty handed to him on a plate by the Aussie forwards, showing him up as an overrated ginger dummy spitter, and proving that he was never in Morley's class.

I need to consult the Warrington position before forming my opinion.