Couldn't agree more , fabulous player that he is , he has along way to go to be compared to the Pearl .

What do fan's want?



On one hand they moan about there being too many overseas players in our game and on the other hand moan about our International team not being good enough as a result of the key position's at many club's being filled by overseas players.



Overseas players and when I say overseas players, I mean those born outside the UK, should be limited to a maximum of four players per club.

I agree they have gone some way to help keep him here, but as you say he could make even more elsewhere. What would you do and how much does our game need him and his like? I understand it’s a lot of money, but there comes a point when they must decide on the way to go with our sport. Do we try to keep players like him, and the greater profile they give to the sport, or do we let them go to Oz or the dark side and let them reap the benefit. We soon will go from the back pages, to the bog pages if they don’t do something.

In an ideal world that would be the case, however until we start getting more kids interested and playing the game, we just don't have the talent pool in this country. Ok, for Wigan, we'd be fine as our youth system is one of, if not the best in the country, but for some teams their survival is based on imported players.

There's real merit in the youth player idea. Places like London will struggle but they'e a different animal altogether. However clubs need to know best how to nurture these kids and get them ready for SL. We're finally trying to get things sorted in Hull and it makes a fine change. I don't know about over in wigan but we have had great amateur teams that have a good tradition of bringing young kids through their ranks but we haven't managed to do that in past years. Wigan always have a good crop of local talent and the RFL need to look at the clubs who are good at it and roll it out amongst other clubs. However this may be too sensible for the RFL to try!

Wigan don't have anywhere near the numbers of young talented players that the city of Hull have.

Trouble is for Hull they had a hopeless management who mustn't have seen the potential all these young lads provide. To bring the best out of them they need good coaches at junior level.

Now they have new managment and if they give that aspect of their business the attention it needs and deserves then they might bring through quality young players in vast numbers. With Lineham and Crooks they appear to have made a very good start.

Wigan's problem is at the opposite end. We have vast numbers of young players but are struggling to keep our experienced men.

I know for a fact that they are hoping to invest heavily i the youth as peter gentle and adam pearson are looking towards making their own stars. Things like that need rolling out across the country though.

Isn't the difference Wigan did it without a wealthy financial backer back in the 90's? Whelan never ran the club as a profit making business once he took over later and just chucked money at it as and when required. Surely that is the model Scade1 was advocating not a club getting into debt to fund such players?

We need to get the sport in a position to compete for players monetarily. So when the likes of Sam do leave we are able to entice top Aussies here.



Now that is very easy to say but very hard to do obviously.



There are three things I can think of that would at least be a start.



Removing any restrictions on what a player can earn independently from being a star player like Sam so they don't count on the salary cap. Image rights and so on. Our salary cap strikes me as almost a throwback to the days of the RFU to enforcing amateurism in that respect!



Sack Nigel Woods and get someone in who recognises the problem rather than someone who thinks altering the league structure will save the game.



Seek to match TV revenues the likes of RU get off BT. In other words proper marketing.



It all boils down to simply getting more money into the game and into players pockets and its about time those running it recognised that and realise in pro sport that is what dictates where the quality players go.



We won't end up paying silly wages like soccer but I certainly don't have a problem with the levels of remuneration in RL being much higher than they are.

Really?



I'd have him ahead of Hanley at his age.

Do you think anybody is going to pay for BT to watch RU? Really? Recall ITV digital and Championship football? BT is a sinking ship before its set sail, RU are welcome to it

Isn't he about the age now that Hanley was when we signed him?

I've said for a while that if tomkins stays till the end of next year it will be the same length of time Hanley was with us and IMO if he produces the kind of performances he has done over the last 3/4 years in that time I'd say he will have given me as much pleasure and excitement to watch him as it was to watch Hanley.