does anyone not see the silver lining here if this does go through, for years people have been banging on about cutting down on over seas players, imposing foreign quotas, encouraging junior development etc.


All it possibly comes down to is taking the money away from em.

I can. Might get me off my soapbox if it happens.

Not sure of exact figures but I would imagine the value of the pound against the Aus$ has dropped something like 30% since King and Monaghan signed. This will be hitting them hard in the pocket also and making Super League not quite the cash-cow it was a couple of years back to Aussie imports.

There will still be Aussies coming over but it won't be the big fish as much, you would get the likes of Gidley, Lyon, Berrigan etc staying in the NRL if the option of bigger money in SL wasn't there. It will be more like it was in the early SL days with the Aussie signings being fringe players like Withers, Brooker, Jamie Mathiou.

There will always be Aussies willing to come to Super League, with the bigger names staying it will tie up NRL clubs' salary caps so the ones squeezed out will have nowhere else to go but England. They will accept more reasonable deals as they don't have the big reputations.

Actually going off Warrington's experience the bigger names on bigger money have been a mixed bunch, we've had a better return from fringe players like Nutley, Nat Wood, Burns.

All we need to do then is get Saints and Leeds players to talk to each other and we have a winning team.........

Some people seemed to think Nat Wood could walk on water. Not me personally, but I don't seem to remember Alfie Langer being too bad an import playing at 7.

On another thread people are saying they wouldn't want a player of Danny Brough's ability anywhere near the Wire number 7 shirt, but he's one of the best British scrum halves around. Who exactly is this all conquering young English half-back who will lead our team to glory?

Nothing wrong with imports, its all about signing the right ones. At the moment Matt Orford could do a great job for a couple of years for us. Remember he was the one actually playing at scrum-half for Manly, while Monaghan was in the hooking role. Last season he led them to a record breaking Grand Final victory, while also winning Dally M player of the year.

In a couple of seasons we could see how the likes of Myler, Tomkins or McNally have developed and sign one of them. Alternatively O'Brien, Leatherbarrow, or someone else from within our own youth system might have shown incredible promise and be ready for the first team. I'm sure they could benefit from a couple of years working with a world class number 7 like Orford.

People saying no more imports, who would you want as Monaghan's replacement if he leaves?

i'd quite like the monaghan we signed from manly not the one that arrived at warrington.

either way if they don't wanna be at the club get rid and sign somebody who does

Yeah lets get rid of all the overseas players and replace them with home grown kids. I'd much sooner see us play loads of inexperienced lighweights and get beat 80-0 every week. I mean who wouldn't

I think a lot of overseas players have come here in the past and not settled due to the fact that our behind the scenes operation was 2nd rate and totally unprofessional but now Smith is on board and players now know that nothing less than 100% commitment is required, anyone not offering 100% will be off loaded quick time Gleeson being the 1st casualty it may take a year or 2 to make us into a top quality consistent team but I think Tony Smith can make us into the next dominant force in Super League !WATCH THIS SPACE

But that is part of developing for the future. There are still experienced players at the club for them to integrate with and look to for support.

According to you should we keep importing players and then remain as a club that is just making up the numbers? Don't the examples of Leeds and Sintellins tell you anything?

Warrington bring through juniors just like Saints and Leeds, and Saints and Leeds import overseas players just like us. There are always players coming through our academy getting their chance in the first team, just like Saints and Leeds sign their fair share of overseas players, or players from other clubs.

The difference is the quality of players: Saints and Leeds bring through juniors like Graham, Roby and Smith; we bring through Pickersgill, Riley and Cooper. Saints and Leeds import Lyon, Gidley, Webb; we import Sullivan, King and Monaghan. I'm not saying all those players listed for us are bad just that they aren't in the calibre of the Saints and Leeds ones.

Now we have John Bastian heading up our junior recruitment and Tony Smith heading up our senior recruitment it puts us on the level that Saints and Leeds are.

Some people say if you have a philosophy of using your own players that will be more successful than importing from outside but that only works if the players you have in your junior ranks are top quality. We could put together an entirely Warrington Academy produced team of players who have gone onto play in Super League: Alstead; Riley, Maden, Sibbit, Penny; Hulse, Durbin; Wood, Gleeson, Pickersgill; Harrison, Mitchell; Highton. That would have more home grown players than Saints or Leeds but it wouldn't finish ahead of them.

The most consistent team in the NRL over the past 3-4 years has been Melbourne who have been in 3 consecutive Grand Finals, they don't have any home grown juniors in their team. Their team is entirely signed from either other NRL clubs or lower competitions like the Queensland Cup or the NZ provincial league. Compare that to Parramatta who produce more juniors than anybody else, but have nowhere near the success.

it's all about striking the balance,teams that win anything in rugby league have good imports,experienced players and promising youngsters.we have had them all but unfortunately not at the same time.
people who say that we shouldn't sign aussies want their heads feeling because i know that i have been priviliged to see the likes of boyd,langer and johns wear the primrose and blue,yes ,we have had some duff buys from australia but on the whole imports bring a bit of excitement and talent which all adds to the mix.

I'm pretty certain that the likes of Inglis, Chambers and Folau as recent examples are all products of Melbourne junior section. The fact that Melbourne "juniors" play in the Queensland Cup doesn't alter the fact they are playing for a Melbourne feeder club.

Exactly, none of them are actually from Victoria but they have still come through the Melbourne junior system.