now your changing the argument. There was no mention of coming back and being the star players of the NRL or even better than when they left, only would they come back and get in a starting 17. You say there is only 10 in SL, I can name 11 just in the last two years that have gone back into starting sides.

eg. Orford, Berrigan, Fitzhenry, Tronc, Tandy, Eastwood, Mogg, Hicks, Whatuira, Walker, Riddell, just to name the latest few.



ps Mason was so poor last year he made the CityvCountry team?

there is a thread on LU pretty much the same as this one so its good to see my fellow NRL fans are getting so excited about the game again



its been a long time in between drinks since the last peak of 94 and we are nearly there again



i give the credit to david gallop, hes had one of the toughest jobs in sport and hes trodden through minefields to get to where we are today

11 players over 24 months.....er, OK...that blows the 10 in a season argument out of the water doesn't it.





...but still only got 1 offer of 1 year from 1 club.......ripping it up eh :thumb

:



Hey....it's my opinion that NRL players that go north aren't going to get a gig in most cases when they come back.......and it's my opinion that Mason was nothing other than average in '09 and '10.....just opinions.....not statements of accuracy, rocket surgery or brain science

im not saying this just to to stir you but:



1, mason was very good last year

2. probably 70% - 80% of nrl imports in sl would get a spot back in the nrl, but at much lower wages.

....







Was he f&*k......he was an OK player in a very Average side...he was nowhere near the player he was in 08.......I honestly hope the change of scenery does him good....but let's face it....he is past his prime.





Carlsberg. (ask a UK poster what I mean)



I am not in the mood for a bun fght...as I said, it's just an opinion, but I will add that the MAJORITY of NRL players who go to superleague don't get NRL gigs on their return...that's not an opinion...it's a fact.

wrong



jb is spot on with what he said

err no mention of 10 in a year (changing the argument for the third time I see!

) It was said there was ONLY 10 in SL that would get starting spots back in the NRL i have just proven that in very recent times there has already been more than 10! This proves that there are many ex NRL players in SL who would walk back into the NRL, its not opinion, its a FACT!



Look if you think making a rep side, all be it CityvCountry doesn;t put him in the top half of forwards in the NRL then fair enough, The selectors would disagree with you I am sure. Yes he is way off his 2007 form but that doesn;t make him a bad player, and yes he would still be in the NRL next year if HKR hadn;t offered him more money than any NRL club was willing to do. Therefore he is good enough to be a starting player in the NRL, he just wants to earn more money by playing in SL.



Geez just admit your wrong on both counts ffs!

It was also said that a great many of the 90 would fit right in.......you showed us 11 over 2 years......hardly 90 is it? Fact would be about 50% or more to be many....do 50% of NRL imports return to NRL starting line ups? Didn't think so.





He was offered 1 year by the cowboys and nobody else was interested............hardly a ringing endorsement....but hey, we can agree to differ on his ability now





I am not wrong on the mason issue......my opinion may differ from yours but that doesn't make me wrong. On the NRL-ESL-NRL point...unless you can name the many players...and by many I mean over 50% who walk back into the NRL after time in ESL, I don't believe am wrong there either.....

For gods sake, you don't build a team with all those players, you add a few here or there.



My god you are scrapping the bottom trying to prove a point.



Give up.



There are plenty of players over in the UK and France that will come back when and if we get new teams.

FACT: in the last two years approx 40% of ex NRL players who signed to SL in the previous 3 years have returned to the NRL. Now if you want to describe that as "many" is up to you, it does show that your comment that NRL players who move to SL are not good enough to go back and play NRL is a myth. You think only 10 players out of the entire contingent of overseas players in SL could get a game in the NRL, that is also a myth as is shown by players that have done it and continue to do it year after year. Lets see come 2013 how many return shall we.



re Mason, you seem to be on your own on that one!

My point is that the standard would take a dip if the competition saw a large influx of the players currently running around SL. A high % of these players are barely good enough for SL let alone the NRL. Most are here because SL coaches are too lazy to develop talented young players preferring to play very average NRL players who have been developed by better coaches in Aus.



The whole point of the franchise system in SL was to increase the quantities of GB qualified players by removing the threat of relegation - sadly we now have as many if not more non GB qualified players than we have ever had.



Wigan had a whole backline of overseas players when Noble was there, they still had 5/6 under McGuire!!!

Roberts, Richards, Tommy, Carmont, Phelps, Bailey

The franchising system has only been in use for a handful of years. You won't start seeing benefits for a while yet.