Would make sense with Widdop leaving, I presumed Ratchford would've played stand off with Dufty taking the fullback spot but guess they aren't short of cash.

As far as Napa is concerned, he is still a Catalan contracted player

I don’t know about Napa and I’m 50/50 tbh. His discipline is the only drawback but he has than never take a back step attitude.

Napa and Mago would give us some real grunt and size along with the engines of Whitbread and Bowden.

Won’t be long before we find out I’m sure!

It’s those PNG forwards we need to be looking at , be half the price of that penalty machine and they run through brick walls

That’d true but it’s swings and roundabouts. PNG players seem to find life in the U.K. difficult and I think many of them know that now. So getting them over here is not that straight forward.

Not to say I wouldn’t try but I think it’s a bit of a myth that they are all over here looking for a deal.

Napper is a better player than any of them, let’s be honest. He’s also almost here, certainly in SL.

True though he can be a liability at times, both on and off the park. But same could apply to the PNG players. He’s certainly more of a known quantity.

Hard decisions.

Seriously. You usually lump the whole of the South Sea Islands together and say the they all settle because they know each other. Even though their heritage nations are further apart than us to Berlin and many are coming over after living in Australia anyway.
Now PNG are set apart as not being able to settle.
Absolutely no fact to base that on apart from the lack of understanding of their individual circumstances.

Are you for real, the only drama queen on this forum is you!

I'm not lumping anybody together.

Even for someone as perpetually outraged as you, you must see the huge difference between life in a small hot sunny town outside Port Moresby or a stint in Queensland and a dark winter in Wakefield, 12,000 miles from home possibly with no family or mates to help you through. This is just the practicalities of life, it's not a creed.

Have you ever got off your high horse and thought that some might not want that life, nothing to do with whatever woke nonsense you've got your knickers in a twist over. We are assuming they want a SL contract, but perhaps for the reasons given they don't, so it won't be as easy as waving cash at them.

I spent three weeks in Port Moresby in the late 2012 and unless its changed beyond all recognition, I can assure you that it's about as different a lifestyle as you can find. Under police orders I was not allowed outside the city limits at the time without an escort, but from what I saw it was even less like the UK. The UK is the worlds sixth richest nation depending on who you read, PNG is one of its poorest. If you don't think that makes a difference then frankly I give up.

Out of interest I was there by the way to install an integrated Apple Mac based studio system at the countries biggest printer - it should only have been 2 weeks but continual power outages meant I had to stay longer. I quite liked the place and the people, but I could clearly see what a poverty stricken under developed nation it was. If that's racist or derogatory or whatever then I must be the kindest one who ever lived. For me it's just how it was.

People like you are all the flipping same, you assume you have virtue on your side, when you know nothing, it's all theory and you don't care who you throw under the bus.

For a 21 year old for example, straight from PNG, the UK would be a massive culture shock, and maybe just maybe they wouldn't want to bother with it - it's not like football, they are not going to end up earning millions. It might make them rich when they return to PNG, but it won't insulate them when they are here.

Of course it's up to them and I wouldn't stop them, that's why I'm going to watch them on Monday. However I live in the real world not dogmatic one you exist in and the point I was making is that it's not as easy as just signing them. Unless they have spent a considerable amount of time in Australia many will need extra help adjusting. They will need an honest agent, a sound financial advisor, a house provided, they may even need driving lessons, who knows. Here is a fact that will blow your liberal mind, many people in PNG don't speak English SHOCK HORROR, they speak a kind of pigeon English, illiteracy is rife by the way, another massive problem I encountered whilst there. I know you don't seem to like reality, but that won't make it go away. The club will need to take that all that on board, as much for the player as the club, have you ever thought of any of that, no you haven't.

CLEARLY NOT IN EVERY CASE, but again let's try to be honest, most PNG players like most English players will not be urbane University graduates, though the PNG fullback is. They are just young working class lads starting out.

Finally South sea islander pride themselves on their close family and cultural bonds and the support network they have created in the North of England, they show it all the time and I find it incredibly impressive - so why is it OK for them to say that but not for a fat, balding old white guy to repeat it in admiration

Give the high and mighty stuff a rest, you moderate a RL forum, not peoples beliefs and personal experiences.

PS: As noted on this forum previously, I actually lived in PNG with my parents for a few month in 1975, just before it gained independence from Australia. Though I accept that was truly a long time ago so that experience I won't count.

All that, and I'm the drama Queen. Wow.

You contradict yourself so many times in that it's hard to know where to start.

.

Adrian Lam
Reece Martin
Stanley Gene
Lachlan Lam

All seem OK with it.

My point being, I don't see why PNG players would be any different to any other overseas player.
Plenty of Aussies have been homesick, plenty of Samoan's Fijians or Tongans have not been and vica versa.
It's just individual circumstances. Based on their expectations, the club they go to, their other opportunities.

There's only half a dozen players in the PNG squad these days that don't already play for a British or Australian team and all six play for PNG Hunters in the Queensland cup. A lot will probably be looking to crack the NRL first anyway. Fun fact about the Hunters, their assisitant coach is a certain Paul Aiton.

And his sister is in the PNG Ladies team

Do you think the rant applies only to PNG or could it apply to other people?
And do you not think some PNG players are ok moving away from home?

That's the only point I made before the rant. I'm just contesting that we should treat that group any different.

I think to a degree it applied to anyone from any country or culture whether they’re from the Pacific Islands, PNG or British players going to Aus.
Uprooting and relocating to another country, thousands of miles from where you’ve called home is a daunting prospect.
The two big variables IMO are just how different your new home is from your old one and is there an existing support network who can help you adjust and settle.

On those two fronts I do think players from PNG are coming from a culture that’s generally poorer and less civilised also there are less PNG players here and they’re more scattered geographically than say Pacific Island players are. That makes it a bit more difficult for them to transition from their life back home to a new life here as compared with Pacific Islanders who are here in greater in numbers.

That is a fair point but as said by someone else, most have already made that first break away to Oz.
We were never going to be looking at someone straight from a back street in Port Moresby. They wouldn't get a visa.

But as you said, anyone travelling away from home for work is likely to find it tough. Its a question of support network and how well the club supports them.
I've interview people where the job had a lot of international travel. Some loved it. Some didn't. It was more important to talk about the travel in the interview than it was the job to make sure you got the right candidate.

I'm sure Mash and the team will do the same.