Good luck to him. He owes RL nothing. Anyone who says they wouldn't leave a job for a much better paid one is a lying hypocrite. How can he be getting all this abuse? If the powers that be upped their game they could stop this sort of thing from happening. If you want to wave fingers then do it aimed towards the men that run our leagues.

This 100%

Agree, BUT we as a game don't have the money and that's the point we all have to keep coming back to.

True though this may be, it doesn't mean people shouldn't be very upset that yet another star player has deserted our game.

The looking for other gigs business mid-contract is also getting a bit difficult to swallow. That rather suggests that quite a few of these players and their agents have less integrity than we'd like.

Pat Richards pointedly didn't leave Wigan until his contract was over.

True regarding Pat Richards but were similar offers on the table for him? I doubt it.

I suspect the money being offered to Burgess was significantly more than what he could get in RL.

It would actually be refreshing for player's to just come out with the truth - ambition and fresh challenges aside its all about earning as much money as possible in a short career.

I am somewhat confused as well. The NRL is cash-rich and player sponsorship does not count on their salary cap.

So if they have a poster boy there is nothing to stop them from coming to a sponsorship deal to keep him in the game.

I can only conclude they don't want to bother. Maybe if Burgess or the likes of SBW got such a deal it would put other clubs noses out of joint.

I don't know but I find it disappointing when you can actually compete money-wise like the NRL can, you don't bother.

I wonder if they are as bad when it comes to the bigger picture of marketing the game as we believe our lot are!

Why Burgess wants to try RU I am not sure.

I don't disagree, but I can't accept that players trying to duck out of contracts mid-term are not deserving of some criticism. It isn't exactly a mark of trustworthiness.

Covered pretty much by this post on the VT. This is not a new trend but it is now a constant one with no conceivable chance of being reversed.

That makes grim reading, but I don't think there's anything there I'd honestly disagree with.

I dont really see the SC as the ultimate evil, holding back RL's growth.
Too low though? Yes, for sure.
But, given our own clubs history, how many of our fast-rising youngsters would have got the chance to shine in SL if we could just buy-in anyone we wanted?
And i would include Sam in that.
I'm more excited about our future now, than for many a year!
Yawnion will continue to poach our star talent because they cant produce such high intensity athletes of their own.
Burgess is a loss to RL....... But we can & will develop more of the same in our game.
Something RU simply cant do!

And they will all leave. There is no future in this approach.

We have always brought plenty of players through the junior ranks anyway. What was great to see was players like that complimented with star players as and when they became available.

There is nothing sensible in sport about not signing an Offiah if you can in order to keep playing a locally produced player if the latter is not as good.

Our self imposed financial limit means we can't sign the Offiah's any more. You really [idon't[/i want to watch talent like that in the game?

In any case no team has ever been able to staff itself with mega stars all bought in and Wigan didn't. Players like Hampson, Edwards, Clarke and Betts came through the ranks.

The bigger issue is when you end up with a team of overseas players who aren't that good keeping out local players and this did happen at other clubs.

I suppose what I am trying to say is there is always room for class players in any side whereas panic buying mediocre Aussies to try and avoid relegation is a much bigger issue and it one the game [ihas[/i faced in the recent past. I think we will see it again particularly if the overseas quota is relaxed as I believe is the plan.

I think the logic behind doing that is a recognition there just aren't enough players up to the required standard to operate what is in effect a 24 team pro competition. We knew that already and part of the solution appears to be to allow more mediocre overseas players in (because we won't be signing top class players).

When you add into the mix the fact another proposal is to limit the number of academies (I think it is to 10) we are even stifling our own production line as a sport.

In the short term Wigan will be fine but when Hampshire follows Sam and there isn't a player as good coming through, then what?

Hope he fails and comes back with his tail between his legs - while were on it what has Joel Tomkins actually done in Union? Heard literally nothing of him since.

This x 2. I hope some of the NRL big boys hurt him as much as possible and he rots in the reserves so when he does go to Union he has little impact and puts other RL players off from making the move, if Burgess can't make it what chance have the rest they will ask.

Agreed.

I have never understood those responding to the talent-drain worry by casually stating "Not a problem, we can always produce more".

It really is the emptiest of boasts.

I mean, how difficult can it be to understand that each new generation of talent will get cherry-picked unless we try to stop it? As Phibes said, this is no longer an occasional thing, it's becoming accepted as the inevitable next stage in a young RL star's career.

The Burgess saga really ought to have lit the blue touch-paper. Even the Aussies, who are famous for their bravado in these situations, have been shaken by that - as it's proved to them that the NRL is not, in itself, enough of a draw. But when I hear Brits saying it, I'm staggered.

At this rate, unless we do something, the UK is going to be left with a league full of journeymen, poor overseas buys, and exciting kids who, the moment they mature, will go somewhere else.

How anyone can be excited by that future bewilders me.

what a waste