www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1dvt3.html good move imo hell do well though this year ellis has been quiet and burgess dogged by injury widdop just keeps getting better

www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... 1dvt3.html good move imo hell do well though this year ellis has been quiet and burgess dogged by injury widdop just keeps getting better

Good signing for the Bulldogs. Going to add even more grunt to an already strong pack. Big loss for Saints and Super League though.

Any word of any English backs looking to have a go in the NRL?

nope

but if widdop keeps it up it wont be long

had another fantastic game in a losing side making a number of good line breaks which almost lead to tries

4 games 108 tackles, 390 meters made and 47 hit ups....I'd hardly call that Quiet...he's was injured for rounds 2,3 and 4 was rushed back and is now injured again and isn't expected back until round 10.

Good luck to him. First of many more who will travel over. Hope it will make England more competitive too from more experience of Aussies and style of play.

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Good luck to him. Hopefully he comes back bigger and better in 3 years!

Although I would gutted at losing him, Tom Briscoe should have a go at the NRL in the near future.

Good luck to the lad. He's a top player and he'll only get better in the NRL.

Unfortunately, with Union and the money-drenched NRL attacking SL on two fronts I given up all hope of seeing us return to the glory days of the 60s and earlier. We've become a second tier professional sport - like Dutch football (I might be pushing it here). Entertaining - yes. Able - no.

Graham will be a huge sucess in the NRL I have no doubt, loss to Saints and SL, but at least he is still a league player.

Everytop player should have a go at the NRL and living in Austrailia if given the chance, I'm even sure players who didn't suceed like Mathers and tansey, learnt alot and had a good time in the NRL.

I see Flanagan has only played once in 2011. Injured or just not selected?

Just not selected in Flanagans case

Can see Flanagan coming back next year, be a good signing for most SL clubs.

From what ive seen of Flanagan he hasnt looked all that impressive.
James Graham will be massive down under. good luck to him, if we get him back in 3 years that would be huge bonus but i suspect he will stay for longer

Flanagan to Widnes next year is the hot tip.

I don't think he'll last that long in sunshine!

i'll give it a season before he's back @ st helens

go on then roughyed, I'll bite - why's that then?

Seeing as we've not won an Ashes series in my lifetime and yet I've enjoyed following the sport since I were a lad it's not as bad as you suggest it is.

Good player but if he spits his dummy out like he did at Headingly last season he wont last 2 minutes.

Why not? Do NRL players who spit their dummy out spontaneously combust?

I agree with roughyedspud though, he's no Ben Cross and he got shown up by Danny Lima last Friday. These NRL props are just on another level to Graham.

Good luck to the lad & it gives a chance for another Saints youngster, they do seem to have a few good ones. The other plus is that with the money now to be earned in Australia it may keep a few in League who would have maybey gone over to the other code.

He will go down a storm in the NRL.

Fantastic player who has been an outstanding servant to Saints.

We're currently in a very delicate position. The NRL is picking off our best talent. RU is aggressively hunting our best junior talent (after having their fingers burned spending huge chunks of cash on League players at the end of their career like Farrell). And they are set to step up their poaching with the recent announcement by their development body that substantially increased funds are to be made available. It wasn't so bad when SL had plenty of money swilling about. But now the purse strings are being drawn much tighter. Not least because gate receipts are under threat in the current (and seemingly unending) economic climate where the lowest incomes have flat-lined whilst inflation creeps ever higher. League fans hail from some of the most deprived regions in Britain and many simply cannot afford to attend any more. It's hard enough for League to ward off the vultures when people have money in their pocket.

There's a very real chance that attendance figures will fall over the next few years (given the astronomical sum of debt this nation has run up). If so junior development will be one of the first areas to suffer. Right now we are keeping our heads above water because of the attention some clubs have paid to the juniors (Saints are a good example with Lomax slotting in to replace Eastmond seamlessly). But if funding begins to come under pressure we could quite easily see a return to the bad old days of the early 80s.

I agree.

I'm amazed an NRL club signed him. He will end up upsetting the wrong person (who will probably be a big Tongan or Samoan) when he has a tantrum. And aside from his dummy spits at the end of the day he is not really as good as people think.

I don't blame him for giving it a go in the NRL though. One thing is certain.

He will learn a lot.

don't get me wrong i like the lad and i hope he does well....but i just don't think he'll be able to hack it week in week out down there and he'll probably get homesick..


i do hope he proves me wrong though