Walshy has always been a skinny little guy who has been a target at NRL level, but I think his junior partner, Scott Dureau, has shown that the great playmaking skills learnt from the Knights junior system and regular sessions with Andrew Johns can work pretty well in the slightly less physical ESL.
Penrith were rubbish and got the wooden spoon before Walsh joined them, but poor old Walshy has never had a decent player roster to work with, and Walshy can just make the bullets, he needs someone else to fire them, being a little guy and all. Penrith are crazy to let him go. He is one of the few decent players they have. They tend to blame him for every bad game, but the problem isn't him, it's that the little guy can't carry all the other plodders in the side.
To cut a long story short, if you put a decent squad around him he will run them like a well oiled machine, as his long term understudy, Scott Dureau, does for Catalans.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22722134?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterRadio Merseyside interview with Luke Walsh.[/url

Thanks for that.

I think they have the interview on Merseyside's trytime tonight, don't know if there is any more to the interview than on the clip above...

Or for those of use outside the region, I think you can get the show online too.

Walsh to come this season? www.leaguefreak.com/the-door-ope ... ason-4570/ A big issue with this is the fact that we have no quota space left, someone would have to leave.

Walsh to come this season? www.leaguefreak.com/the-door-ope ... ason-4570/ A big issue with this is the fact that we have no quota space left, someone would have to leave.

Does leaving make any difference though? (Other than being fired for misconduct, I mean) Don't players count towards the quota simply if they have been paid by the club during that season?

When Dobson was injured, HKR deregistered him in order to play Willie Mason.

I think that loophole was dealt with after that incident, Saints Fan might be correct.

If a player is released it would seem illogical for the RFL to count them on the quota though

We could de register Perry to fit in Walsh. Providing we have enough spare cap space to cover a wage for Walsh, which I think we probably do.

It seems there were two loopholes in one here and only one has been closed!

Taken from the RFL Operational Rules:


So a player could be deregistered but not re-registered, in which case we would have to compensate them if we wanted to deregister them.

I'm not sure we'd have to compensate them over and above their salary provided they agreed.

I guess you reach a point where deregistration could be construed as constructive dismissal though, which would be ropey territory.

The rules are quite clear. We can de-register one of the overseas deadweights to accomodate Walshy, but they wouldn't be able to be re-registered. We could only do the above if we had cap room for both players, as because they had played for the club this season, any payments made to them will count.

I can't see why we wouldn't have cap room. We could pay Walshy minimum wage this season and give him the extra next year.

Don't they average over the length of the contract post "Spirit Of The Cap" shennanigans?

It's the deregistration that will be difficult. If my boss wanted rid of me and decided he would give me absolutely no work and tell me to sit at home, as great as that sounds I'm pretty sure I'd have a case for constructive dismissal.

If you paid up a players contract to get rid of them, would the payment count in the year it was made, or would it go over the period of the remainder of the contract you are paying off?

The payment counts in the year it is paid, you can't forward pay either, spirit of the cap.

But there would be no need to in the case of someone like Perry as he only has a year left. The big IF is does Walsh actually want to come early? And can Penrith afford to lose him at this stage in their season.


There are a lot of IF's for this to be possible.

IF Penrith get Soward,
IF Saints can de-register
IF Saints can get a visa
IF Saints have the cap
IF IF IF.

It would seem more likely come the playoffs we may get him early if Penrith are out of the running. Slightly less IF's there.

There's a deadline now though isn't there after the johns and Morley situations at wire and bulls respectively?

You are getting so bogged down in legislation and rights. People have accidents all the time.

We need this bloke NOW.

Lets get the bikers out at games we need him er now

Oh dear that's buckets

Whilst Luke Walsh would improve us we still have a powderpuff front row and a soft defence that doesn't look like improving any time soon.

I'm not convinced he would you know. If anything, we'd destroy his confidence and leave him in counselling and a state of personal crisis.

He would have last night.

I think we will go well with Walsh , a lot better than what we have been , we will be a organised side next year

I'm not so optimistic, we have a lot of crap in this squad and one player won't make this crap better.