Rumoured to be in talks with Cronulla according to League Express. Isn't he under contract for some time yet?

Quote ="Bullseye"Rumoured to be in talks with Cronulla according to League Express. Isn't he under contract for some time yet?'" Under contract until the end of 2016 season viewtopic.php?f=17&t=540697&tsmp=1365674328 A large transfer fee would be required from any prospective club for his release

Quote ="Bullseye"Rumoured to be in talks with Cronulla according to League Express. Isn't he under contract for some time yet?'" Under contract until the end of 2016 season viewtopic.php?f=17&t=540697&tsmp=1365674328 A large transfer fee would be required from any prospective club for his release

I'd be pretty gutted to see KW leave but it would open up a spot for Minns or Keinhorst.

Like the ones Leeds received to release the under contract Eastwood and Buderus?

Unfortunately those two names mentioned don`t come anywhere near as good as Watkins.
I`m sure we will hear GH say that he wont let Watkins go until he can find a suitable replacement and he may have to go to Australia on a months holiday to find that person!

Is a player and another club allowed to talk without the permission of his present club?and I am saying that with tongue in cheek.

They better give us a ton of money for him if he does go

It doesn't matter whether we'd get a "ton of money" for him or not if that money can't be spent on securing a replacement. It's not like the club need the money to stop going to the wall and it's not like there are any replacements of Watkins's quality or potential available to a Super League club anyway. Any cash received would be dead money.

And as for "freeing up a spot for Keinhorst", that's ridiculous. If whoever we're "freeing up a spot for" had the potential of Watkins (not that they do) then we'll have the same situation over again in 18 months, "freeing up a spot" for the next junior.

Very depressing for Super League if true.

Can't really blame players for going but it's not a great outlook for SL.

Have to agree - where are we going to find a prospect/player as good as Watkins? ...and if we do we'd have to pay a ton of money to get one.

A sad day indeed if we were to lose young Watkins.

With the NRL salary cap going up to $7m by 2017 I can't see SL clubs managing to hang onto the best players unless the SL cap rises and players can be tempted to stay with similar salaries.

The trouble with that is that only 2 or 3 clubs could probably afford such a rise. However the league isn't that even as it is so would it make any difference?

If you allow clubs to spend enough to drive themselves into bankruptcy, they will.

Scrapping or significantly increasing the cap will just result in more of them doing it, more quickly.

Good point Bullseye.
I suppose one way to put the Australian clubs off is to demand mega bucks for players still under contract even if it means we can not recruit someone as good.
Whilst not ideal it does mean we receive 300- 400 k for a player.
No doubt Ryan Hall or Zac Hardaker will be on the shopping list along with the likes of Clarke, Bateman, Tomkins etc.
SL need to do something fast to prevent this happening.

That sounds sensible enough but has there really been a drop in the numbers of clubs getting into financial difficulties since the cap came in? I'm not sure of the difference it's made to be honest. On the field has it evened up the competition? Well pre SL there were usually 2 or 3 clubs fighting it out for trophies with one usually clearing up. The situation hasn't changed all that much since then.

Demanding mega bucks for star players is fair enough but some will just sign shorter contracts or ask for release clauses. You may hang onto a player who is desperate to leave, is that a good thing?

Not if you reduce number of teams, and merge resources on some clubs by merging the clubs. Then you can increase the cap with a stronger competition.

True hanging onto players who want to leave is a bad thing.
But we should be doing something to deter players from walking away and basically making their contracts not worth the paper they are printed on.
Whilst at a club that player should be giving his all for the team otherwise dock his wages.
If Watkins is contracted to Leeds until 2016 then we have to insist we get a sizeable cash return on our investment.
Not ideal but in the absence of anything else it is the least we can hope for.
On the other hand it might be all speculation.

If the game keeps cutting its cloth accordingly, there is a pretty good chance we will eventually run out of cloth to cut.

There seems to be an outlook within the game that spending less money means more profit, yet the situation is a lot more complicated than that

Salford are a pretty good example of that. How much would Salford need to spend on marketing to get the impact, the visibility, the positive momentum, the interest, they would get from signing SBW?

In order to keep players in the SL we need to be making it the place the want to be rather than the place the have to be.

Trouble is the game as a whole is short of the sort of money to compete with the NRL.

Would fans turn up to watch merged teams? If they wouldn't then they'd be even less viable than the current teams.

The problem is, for the large part they aren’t turning up to watch the none-merged teams either.

Let's just all hope Watkins, Hall, Vickery, Hardaker and Ward want to play their rugby in this country rather than on the opposite side of the world as that's about the only chance of it happening long-term.

I doubt that a merged Bradford/Halifax team would pull in crowds any greater than what we currently have at both clubs. In fact it'd probably pull in fewer as many disillusioned supporters would stay away. Would a combined Cas/Fev/Wakey team playing out of the new Wakey stadium really pull in a better gate than those three clubs currently do put together? There's a lot of tribalism amongst the fans of those clubs that won't just go away.



Not sure what you're saying here? Are you asking how much £ they'd have to spend on marketing to attract enough income to re-coup the outlay on signing SBW?

And you're still reliant on Chairmen and Chief Execs being competent and sensible enough not to spend more than they can afford. Which was my original point.

Give them more to spend, all they'll spend it - probably by paying players more than they are worth.

No it isn't ridiculous at all IF Watkins goes then that leaves a space at RC in the 1st team does it not?
So as it's a straight forward situation should he leave the next in line at this moment in time is either Keinhorst or Minns both have potntial in their own right and having Watkins picked in front of them or even Ablett doesn't mean they aren't ever gonna be good enough.
Watkins as we all agree is a special talent but the other 2 lads could become good players in their own right.
If i personally had my own way then i'd have larger £££££ off the cap for homegrown lads i.e say 65/75k the if they make their international bow then up to 100k.
Yes that would mean more money spent on wages for the top clubs but that's the best way at this moment in time of keeping them here imo.

Bullseye re-Mergers.
I honestly don't think we'd have to go that far but ground-shares could prove to be more prudent to a few clubs.
Also the way the Championship is going at the top end then maybe a 2 tiered SL of 10 Clubs each with top and bottom swopping places then 2nd and 2nd bottom playing off in a home and away winner takes all.

All signs point to Super league now basically acting as a feeder league.