Star signings that strutted their stuff in the 80s? Well, Meninga, Grothe, Kenny, Sterling etc from Australia, Schofield, Hanley, Offiah etc from GB, plus oodles of union 'stars' from the mid-80s onwards.



IIRC average crowds back then were well below today's levels. If you were to trawl back through the old Rothmans yearbooks I have no doubt you'll find some minor effects when a new player first appeared, but as I said, the effect was generally very short-lived.

The discussion is (or was) about Kyle Eastmond. Which games has he changed? Were they important ones?



I take on board your point about the Lewis Jones effect but I'm not sure it would be as pronounced today under similar circumstances. Koukash's Salford revolution might provide some indication of what might be achievable crowd-wise through the acquisition of a few "star" names.

So for a whole decade not too many real game changers. I cannot think of "oodles of Union stars from the mid-80's onwards" than have been signed for English RL. This source was beginning to dry up for real class by the mid-80's.







It is nothing to do with average crowds. The point is do real classy stars with game changing abilities have a positive effect of attendances. I maintain that they do. In most cases these sort of stars are signed by the best supported clubs which is why they remain the best supported clubs. If these same clubs were to change policy and not sign top stars then it is highly likely that their attendances would drop eg Wakefied Trinity, Widnes & Salford.



Of course it is great if you can produce your own world class stars but even at Leeds where we have enjoyed a unique period of success with a hard core of home produced stars we still needed to make signings like Webb and Lauitiiti and without them would probably not have achieved the same success or the same attendances. eg IMO we would not have won one of our championships without having Buderus in the playoffs.



You must also consider that positive effect I mention can not always be judged by extra average crowds but sometimes is would have prevented lower average crowds.



Would you have prefered Leeds had not signed Webb, Ali, Hanley, Grothe and Schofield etc? and do you believe that they were a waste of money?

Warrington? Since they have come into money they have been able to sign some pretty decent names. Their attendances must be better than they were 10 years ago

I think you should ask the Saints fans regarding Eastmond game winning performances but I gues plenty. He has that very rare ability to make things happen out of nothing.







The players I talk of are rare. But SBW has the ability to make the same impact as LBJ and if we were to sign him then I am sure he would increase the gates at all the gorunds he would play on providing he kept his form. I am sure the NZ attendances in this World Cup have been assisted by SBW being back in League.

Perhaps, or then again perhaps it's down to the move from Wilderspool into their shiny new home?



If you want to analysie Warrington as an example you can take the shiny new home out of the equation by examing what effect Alan Langer had on their crowds.

Big names have to produce trophies to get any lasting benefit crowds wise IMO. The Leeds public were gullible enough to swallow the hype in the late 80s when they made big signings and won nowt but attendances were on average lower than there’s been in recent more successful years with less star studded teams.



I remember Bradford getting a short lived attendance boost when signing Terry Holmes but that didn’t work out too well in the long term. Similarly Widnes got a short term boost when they signed Jonathan Davies but nearly went bust within a few years and had to sell him to their bitterest rivals.



Nowadays folk are even more fickle so signing a big name isn’t going to have a major lasting effect on attendances unless it’s combined with great marketing and a winning team lifting silverware. It’s not the era of Lewis Jones anymore, the world has moved on.

Phew! Had me worried there Bullseye. When I saw your name I thought you'd remembered more horror signings with which to torment us





But I agree with your point; after all, a crowd of over 30k was drawn to the Welsh borders to view a dead donkey back in the 50s. I doubt we'd pull that many now were we to sign its modern day equivalent, Lee Mossop.

David Young, John Gallagher, Mark Brooke Cowden, Sateki Tuipolutu etc

Only John Gallagher could be classed as a World Class star out of this lot and even then not sure he had unique game changing abilities. His injury put an end to that so we never found out!

Frano Botica was not a star name when he signed from Union.

He changed (won) a lot of games.

Juan - you seriously don't remember Jonathan Davies, Devereux, Bateman, Terry Holmes, Alan Tait, Craig Innes, John Gallagher, Scott Gibbs, Scott Quinnell et al? You don't remember them being high profile union players - far higher profile than Eastmond has yet in the general sporting consciousness? You don't remember these players joining RL from the mid-80s to mid-90s? Wow.



Jonathan Davies was WRU's golden boy at the time he signed for Widnes. Basically Sam Tomkins in reverse, except more people would have heard of Davies than know Tomkins due to the relative profiles of the sport. Did he bring thousands of extra fans to games wherrever he went? I don't remember that being the case.