Nice quote:

"Hoffman revelled living in the league goldfish bowl that is Wigan - a town where the English Premier League side take second billing to the rugby league team."

I was disappointed he decided to stay just the one season as he was clearly a quality player. It was amazing how when he said he was leaving how he suddenly became a lesser player in some fans eyes. His season back in Oz shows what a load of tripe that was!

Seems to happen to on a regular basis when players leave and Finch seems to be the latest victim of the myopia.

On another note, could be a good bit of attraction business for us!

Quality forward, claims his resurgence to national team is because of us... Pretty good bit of bait for quality NRL players in the future, no?

I think its great if our ex-OZ players go back an say they enjoyed it here. People may forget Pat Richards made a concious decision to come to the UK to sample a different lifestyle. His sport gave him an opportunity to do so. He had other motivations beyond money. I think that is a great attitude in any person.

If we are to sell coming here to Aussie players then strange as it may seem we have to sell the lifestyle thing. This may seem odd given everyone thinks it's a no brainer Sydney is a miles better place to be than Wigan (and having been to Sydney I'd agree!) but I have several Aussie friends who visit the UK quite regularly and they love it. It's as different for them as it was for me when I went there. We have to identify players who fancy a year or two overseas if we want to recruit real quality. Hoff's comments won't do us any harm in that regard but the relatively low wages may still kill off any travel ambitions for most quality Aussie players.

Slightly OT but I am sure Buderus said something similar about his stint at Leeds. I think he also said something around the fact that the SL is not as high as intensity as the NRL on a weekly basis it actually prolonged his career and almost given him a rest whilst still playing full time.

no, buderus basically said the game was less high profile so he gave him time to relax away from game days (this was the intensity he was taking about, not the actual games) and he started to enjoy the game again. a typical 'aussie are best' reporter then spouted off about how super league was not as good and this helped prolong his career.