...and pretty skint if most of their fans are to be believed on their forum

That may well be the major reason why they have followed such a recruitment path.

I'd agree with you there, if you've ever talked to any of the quins fans in their bar after their losses a lot of them would gladly swap their highly acclaimed new homegrown recruitment policy for a few star names form oz to change their fortunes, as any superleague level fan of any team would.

Basically I agree. To mitigate their mistake, and with fed-trained exemptions ultimately available to any Tom, Dick and Kiwi, they should have at very least cut non-fed to 4.
What is happening at some clubs isn't the issue when judging the RFL. The telling stat will be total number of non-England qualified players across the League. Mind, with the Willie Manu situation, even that isn't straight forward.



It would be of massive benefit to the already strong clubs who could afford to sacrifice a point and would weaken those clubs struggling to keep up; If it weren't discriminatory to the point of illegality - imagine if Michelin knocked stars off because one of the chefs was French.

That would be outrageous. Especially with Michelin being French.

Does all this mean that in a few years we could have a full England team of Tongs, PNGs and Kiwis?

TBH Mrs B it was always going to be imposible to uphold.
The idea of a quota is all well and good until that person qualifies for an EU passport the very second that happens they have every right to work in any EU member state.
The only way you can try and reduce the numbers is to outlaw none EU members playing in the ESL.

Oh Mrs B I want to look after you, please don't ever leave the Rovers forum.

The preacher was talkin', a sermon he gave,
He said every Hull fan was vile and depraved,
You cannot depend on them to be your guide
Only Rovers can keep you satisfied.

Repent you black & white sinners so you can be forgiven, said the Lord. (The book of Millward, Chapter 10-5, verse thou shalltneverwinat wembley,oh sammy sammy, sammy house Lloyd)

And so it came to pass.

There is an alternative view to all this quota / non quota debate.

Does it really matter?, the international game is a poor at best and a complete joke at worst, I'd like to see the stats on teams in the WC qualifying as to how many of the teams actually have players who are actually from that country playing for them. The Aussies are not averse to playing kiwis and SSI's and claiming them as theirs.

We talk about nurturing homegrown talent so we can be competetive at international level when in reality does anyone really care. Would you rather see England beat the aussies in a cup not many people really care about or see your side win the league and cup double? Would you rather see a competetive WC or a quality SL?

Theer is a notion that the quota would 'weed' out the average aussies and let youth come through but the problem with this is some of the most sought after highest paid aussies can turn out the worst players, over the hill and on a pension scheme (FWIW I think Mason would fall into this) Yet some gems have been uncovered who have come with a far smaller reputation.

I agree youth should be prioritised by clubs, its great to see a Hull lad come through and play on the biggest stage (for either club), but by limitting quota you in effect make homegrown / fed trained (or whatever it is) a more valuable commodity and even average FT trained players value goes up and they become overpaid for there worth.

If the international scene is being talked up as this is the way to expand our game then maybe there is a point, but we are light years behind the big sports in terms of draw and profile and I'm afraid even if we won the WC it wouldn't raise the profile of the game.

Controversial as this may be I think we should look at what would increase the enjoyment for the spectator week in week out and that is to have the best players playing week in week out in the ESL. If that means having a quota then so be it, if not the scrap it. If we want to develop our youth then mprove the NL's, use feeder clubs get these lads playing competetive games in a competetive nature on a weekly basis and if they're good enough they'll come through.