I'd get rid of long, offer horne a lot less money and then try and bring in a lesser known overseas half in his early to mid 20's

Isnt Calderwood on this contract at Quins?

Surely you count the full contract on the Cap, and then every game he misses you deduct that from the cap?

Wrong.

Radford can't claim any of it as his testimonial is linked to games played rather than length of service and Yeaman won't get any until his 11th season.

You wouldn't re sign Long and Horne due to injury but name Finch?

Sammut and Herbert are both poor.

Maybe you've missed my point. I'm saying there are half backs out there but you need to look hard for them. This point has been made numerous times about our club in the last year or so. Brian Noble managed to sign Sammut & Witt. Witt could have been a good signing for us and possibly Sammut to an extent. Matterson signed Chase and if Agar had pulled that off then I would have been very impressed

Horne & Long may be big names in RL but it's not worth much unless they are fit and playing together at the same time. I would be cheesed off if we went into 2012 with both their contracts renewed and Agar saying "Sorry follks there was nobody else out there"

But they've got to be a improvement.

Agar 'found' Picker but he couldn't get a visa, I do agree with you on some points but this season he got Obst in with little notice off Berrigan.

Wrong... Yeaman is definately eligible for the long service discount next season if not this season anyway!! and Horne will drop his wage to account for the remainder in that case.

I don't know how much they get paid but £50k each would mean we qualify for the maximum discount!!

It's ok for teams that don't spend full cap but we couldn't benefit at all from it..

It's a good way for a skint club to save money, but you'll never get an extra player out of it so it wouldn't help us!!

Correct Monkey. Almost every year halfbacks turn up from the NRL that no-one has heard of, and yet turn out to be great in the English game. The blinkered view that there are only about 4 to choose from is absolutely ridiculous. At best, if it is true that Hull can only find that few to choose from, we need to totally restructure our scouting network/ recruitment techniques. FFS, it was Whitehaven that brought Obst over, why can't we identify talent?

It's just a bit harder to get them into the country these days.. although that is due to change!!

As Sheldon mentioned, we tried that with a couple of young NRL halfbacks and couldn't get them through the visa process. Times have changed and with the new visa system it's practically impossible to get a low-profile Aussie or Kiwi over here.

The [ispeed[/i is about to change - maybe. The criteria for entry will stay the same AFAIK.

It may have changed recently but I'm sure it at least was £50k discount in total from all players with 10+ years of service. So even if you had 3 or 4 players that are long time servants its only £50k between them.

That's right, that's whay i said..

IF Yeamo and Horne were both on £50k contracts then they would each save 50% (25K) and thus achieving the maximum discount available!!

I'm not sure if that would explain how Saints signed Lance Hohaia, Wigan signed Brett Finch ... and other teams signing the likes of Sammut (low profile?), Holdsworth, Rangi Chase, Witt, Dureau.

Obviously I am only naming half backs but they are not the only overseas players still coming to SL

I'm not saying you are wrong Kosh, but other teams seem to manage it. We have a massive chunk of salary cap available next year (should we choose not to renew Long & Hornes contract) therefore we deserve a quality, perhaps proven play-maker. The club ought to have started the search a long long time before now so I would feel a bit disappointed if we turn up with the same crocked players


EDIT: Hohaia and Finch are obviously not low-profile - I used a bad example!