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

He should do very well, loss to the SL but good to see more of our top players going out there to mix it.

You forgot to state that there is just as much chance as that not happening. Considering the economic situation the attendances on Good Friday were pretty amazing too. As for sacrificing youth development I doubt that will happen because it's a cost effective way of obtaining playing personnel. Only bad management will lead to that and there is as much reason to not believe your assumption that teams will follow your suggestion as there is to believe it.

hows micheal worrincey getting on?

This may be a daft question but are people being sarcastic here?

i'm not

Good luck to Graham in the NRL. Will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs use him though – he has great hands for a prop and while some people on these forums feel he overplays the passing game, he has the best hands for a prop that I have seen since Lee Crooks (this is not an off-load game as Danny Sculthorpe and Lynch have better off loads but a passing game). The Bulldogs may feel he is a 60 minute workrate prop though which would be a shame

Definitely not.

I'm intregued at some peoples views on this subject, this is not me forcing an opinion i'm just interested where other are getting their opions from...

Not hacking it week in week out in the NRL? Why? He has one of the best records for remaining injury free and turning out week after week, what makes you think the he'll be any different down under? He the best prop (maybe player) in the Saints squad, a squad containing Josh Perry.

On what basis do people think he'll get home sick, has he showed this trait before?

Why does showing passion translate to 'spitting his dummy out'? And do big Tongans and Samoans have swords in the NRL because i saw a Big Kiwi in a pink shirt take the full force of Graham's dummy good friday.

Now this is my opinion...

He'll quickly become a highly reguarded export, his home fans will love him, the opposition fans will dispise him, he'll wind people up, he'll get targeted- but like he has always done he'll get back up. He'll develop massively, he'll be captain of England within 24 months.

I did read that one, why are people only giving him a year before he's back, what makes him different than other English guys that have gone down there and made a name for themselves, eg Morley, Ellis, Burgess?

They were/are better players.

And appear not to spit the dummy as much as he does.