Quote nicktom="nicktom"For me we need to seriously reduce the imports in our game in order to improve the quality of our home grown players. Under Nobby at Wigan, Sam Tomkins was in the 20,s and not going any further ( in fact nearly on his way out ) because he thought he was not big enough. Tim Smith got injured and he had to bring him in to the team, the rest they say is h....... '"
There are lots of urban myths regarding Nobby and Sam, a quick check of the teams listings up untill Smiths injury and Nobbys damascus moment shows that out of 21 games before smiths injury Sam started 9 and was sub in 6, so hardly rotting in the 20's
Sam was young and inexperienced, but an obvious talent, it needed protecting and nurturing, throwing him or any kid in at the deep end is a sure fire way of ruining a carreer.
Quote nicktom="nicktom"There are too may overseas players + coaches in our game, a lot of young players never get the correct amount of game time in their strongest position because of this, I know results, results, results ! only matter and winning trophies because its a business. The demise started when teams like Wigan, Saints, etc went looking down under in the 80,s and don,t get me wrong I loved watching Kenny, Meninnga, Miles etc, and this trend has continued ever since.'"
whats the problem with overseas coaches? Mcguire turned us round, the last english coach to win the grand fibal was Mcdermott, but that seemed to be a Dorahay moment by Leeds rather than anything else, other than that its mainly aussies and new zelanders that coach well.
Quote nicktom="nicktom"The trade off is, our own lads never get the right chances and hence we never produce the correct amount of talent we should do. There is enough playing talent round the north west alone in RL to produce enough players if they are coached correctly and more importantly given the correct chances. ( over-rated Kiwi stand off playing for England instead of ? ).'"
but does that talent have the attitude and dedication to become a full international player, as Monie always said out of a winning youth team you would be lucky if 4 went on to become fully established pros.
you refer to the NRL, they are not embarrased to have other nationalities play for them, Tony Carroll springs to mind, isnt Petro Civenaciva(sp) a south sea islander?
Quote nicktom="nicktom"Its the same in the Premier league, too many foreign players and not enough home grown lads. How many non-Aussies play in the NRL ? not many, how many non Spanish play in their football league, not many.'"
couldnt comment on football, but shall we ignore the New zealanders, tongans and other south sea islanders plus a handfull of brits who ply their trade in the NRL?
Quote nicktom="nicktom"If they had kept the overseas quota in and reduced it to 2 players years ago, there would be a lot more players like Tomkins knocking about in SL.
Imo this is the only way we can go forward in SL in order to improve our own league + chances of competing against the Aussies. I also think the player pool is not bigger enough yet to support 14 competative teams in SL'"
if we had reduced the quota where would these players have magically appeared from? the game is littered with kids who had a talent or natural size advantage and looked like world beaters at an early age, but either get disillusioned with the game or stop developing, for every Sam Tomkins, there are a a dozen Darryl Laceys.
I normally avoid posting in this way, but the problem isnt too many overeseas players, its too many clubs in SL chasing too few players and spectators, there are too many blow out games with one sided score lines, before we can address the problems with the national side, we need to make the weekly rounds more competative, this can only be done with 10 teams!
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