Just spoke to someone who was speaking to Moa today. He is loving his time at the club and wants to stay, but he said it is dependant on whether the club can get Manu of the quota.

So looks like the club are already making the right moves to get him a spot.

cusack played for us in 2008 so his contract must have come into force in Nov 2007. Irrelevant anyway as he' quota. With regard to manu, the only option I can see is if we extend his contract then maybe he can claim the exemption from next year. I wouldn't be too confident it would be agreed though

From what I read into it, any player who wasnt playing here between the ages of 18 and 21 is classed as a quota player, this is regardless of how long they have been here, what passports they hold and any EU rulings or the kolpack rule. These players are then split into non fed players and overseas, players can have non fed status due to some of the circumstances mentioned above, although any player who would have counted as a quota player on the old system is classed as an overseas player, which Cusack falls under so no way could he get any type of dispensation. The complications come in with the likes of Gene who have been given dispensation, I cant even be bothered to start to try understand this though.

The way I understand it though we still have our quota full, so unless we can get dispensaion for a player who hasnt yet, either I have completely misunderstood the rules, Rule has misunderstood or the RFL are making it up as they go along, none of which I would rule out.

it's quite simple really, any player who was under contract at a club before the quota rules changed can apply to come off the quota for as long as they stay at that club ( due to not being able to impose the new rules retrospectively), if they sign a new contract at the same club.
It is deemed that they are continuing their employment with that club so under these terms manu should be ok for an exemption as long as he doesn't move clubs. its to do with employment law rather than the rugby league making things up, something they never fully took into account when they imposed the quota system

Wrong.

Well - that's cleared all that up then. What can we ask Mr Rule next?

I wouldn't go that far. He is good, just not good enough to justify a quota spot IMO. If he was British there'd be no issue with him.

He is quite good and has the potential to get better. The thing is he is the type of player that we in Britain don't produce, when was the last time we had that type of impact player? We just don't produce them and they do help the balance of a squad.

Agree with all of that

The month in which he signed?

I know you say it doesn't matter when he signed, but if he signed in November 2007, surely he doesn't need to wait until November 2008 for that contract to come into force?

Personally my biggest doubt about it is that he hadn't played a competitive game prior to February 2008.