Overseas Players by club

Quote: vastman "There is nothing wrong with overseas signings if they fit one of two criteria.

One, they are better in a specific roll than any British player currently available. For us this is a fairly small list, Solomona and Brad Drew are the most obvious for us, probably the nearest we ever got to a marquee signing.

The second and far more common in our case are the overseas players who are better than anything we can produce ourselves or afford to purchase in the British game. There are so many of those I don’t know where to start but a classic example would be JD or McGilvery. Utter nobodies yet it’s hard to deny they turned out better than anything we had at the time, or at least anything we could keep hold of!

Things are different now for us in that at long last we seem to trust our own youth system. We still depend a lot on overseas but our U.K. stock is slowly becoming our own, huge positive.

I’m not going to comment much on our own overseas players other than to say they are vital to us.

What is worth noting and something that has massively decreased is our dependence on Australian players. Nearly all ours and a fair percentage of the rest in SL are of Somoan or Tongan extraction. Because neither of these nations has a pro domestic league these players are just as ‘overseas’ when in the NRL. Despite how it’s twisted by the international selection criteria the NRL is nearly as dependent on Kiwis, Somoans, Tongans, Fijians and Cook islanders as we are!

Truth is when those tiny nations fell under the Anglosphere we unearthed a goldmine of athleticism and bravery, our gain.

In an ever more international world this sort of thing is the norm, look at football, some Premiership clubs can and do use selections with no English players at all!

I do think we import at times for the sake of it, at a rough guess I’d say maybe 30% of overseas players in SL at any one time are no better than could be found domestically. It’s these 30% who are causing the issue, they are just talent blockers.

I don’t blame them, I do blame Coaches and Chairman without imagination who are easily seduced by a glossy video and an Aussie sounding accent. I also blame to a lesser degree agents and parents of young British players who have ridiculous ideas as to the worth of said players. These people push and push their unrealistic agenda so hard that they price their charges out of the market and thus the cheaper more proven import steps in.

Obviously the above is a generalisation and most parents and agents are realistic but there are still enough left to cause problems. I know it’s a short career but you still have to prove yourself before you get the big money!

It’s a hard thing to balance but slowly I do think the game is getting better. However until we make serous efforts to reinvigorate the junior game and enlarge the gene pool we are stuffed. My unscientific estimate is that to compete against the Aussies we need three times as many youngsters playing aas currently do.

In this PlayStation obsessed world where football is king that just won’t happen. So what we must do is look after what we have and expand as much as we can, especially into none RL areas and communities. It’s not to late.'"

Top post Vasty, slightly OT but how do you view the Catalan situation regarding overseas players? I noticed in one game last season they only had 3 French players in their starting 17. I don't think that was the plan when they were gifted a Super League spot.