Maybe I think different to other fans but I could not wait for a player of Johns calibre to be playing in Super League just as I thought with Mason.

The thing with that is and although I agree Rovers asked the RFL if it was ok and they said yes. Obviously Mason could get in the country at this point but could not play so surely if they could Rovers were smart to both ask the question and do what they did.
If Sunday is anything to go by Rovers were 600 fans up on the corisponding fixture last year which was at the end of may(better weather) if that trend continues before Dobbo is back they will be roughly £60,000 better off on gate reciepts alone.
To be self sustaining as both the RFL and other clubs want us to be then surely it was the right thing to do?

edited

That was constructive, no wonder most debates turn into a slagging match!!!

I'm all for signing has beens if they perform like Willie did in his first game!

oh ffs chill



mason even said himself he considered retiring if he couldnt get over here asap

to the op origanal post, i think it is down to your clubs over use of southern hemisphere players that irk fans so much, the mason affair has just added more to it

maybe you should wait until he plays against a stronger team

(no offence cru fans)

as long as they stop making references to 'Big Willie style' i will let them off. only masons wife should hear that sh*t.

Just not in the spirit of the game is it. Like #6 says it is the fact you have a huge amount of "overseas" players. What amuses me about it all is a number of Rovers fans I know thought it was disgraceful that London had more "overseas" players than anyone else at one point in time, yet when the boot is on the other foot they are just playing to the rules.

Hypocrisy is a 2 way street



Lets face it the RL only gave the nod because of who it is (Mason) if it had been a lesser known player I am sure they would have given a different answer, but as Mason has definitely brought some press attention to the RFL they will see it as a worthwhile compromise.

That is of course just speculation but if you had signed some unknown Aussie and asked the RFl can we deregister Dobson till we get this bloke a dodgy Tongan passport and will you then allow us to reregister Dobson when it comes through? I think a polite no would have been expected.

There is a resentment because Hull KR, instead of putting money into their youth system, are doing their best to bend the rules of the game in order to get more Aussies over here.

Wasn't it Rovers that also exploited the loop-hole to get exemptions for Australians in order to keep Lovegrove?

Basically, we create quotas and they find ways to break them. And it isn't the first time. And they get away with it. That's why there's so much animosity. No matter what rules we put in to benefit the development of the game, they will no doubt be looking for a way to get around it. It's against the spirit of the game.

The two English lads let go by Hull are, I assume, Hodgson and Wheeldon?

Wheeldon played about 60 Superleague games for Hull and never really improved between him making his debut and him leaving for Rovers, we gave him his chance but he never took it. Hodgson wanted to move somewhere that would allow him first team rugby as he was always going to be playing second fiddle to Danny Houghton (another product of our academy). He was not replaced by an Aussie.

Whilst we are on the subject would you like to explain why Justin Morgan spent all last season banging on about Mariano, Spaven etc and how good your youth setup is only to let them go at the end of the season?

No surprise your biggest issue has something to do with the rival club...

Which two English lads were these? And which Aussies were these?

We got rid of two Aussies last year and replaced them with two Aussies.
The year before, we got rid of another two Aussies and replaced them with two.
The year before that, we got rid of two Aussies and signed two.

We've not replaced any youth. We've kept the same (relatively low) number of overseas players to compliment our youth development.

When we get rid of English players, it's because they haven't developed over a number of years (i.e. Wheeldon, Hall, Lee, G.Horne), because they couldn't get in the team (Hodgson) or disciplinary reasons (Tansey, Brough, Thackray). When you get rid of them, it's because you either have another Aussie to put in in their place, can't be bothered to develop them anymore after a year or two, or didn't want them in the first place and only signed them because you couldn't squeeze another Aussie in.

So you know Rovers fans who thought it was disgraceful about the amount of Aussies a SL team had when we were not even in SL.
How many fans do you know that thought it was a disgrace FC were allowed to put Gateshead to the sword to save their own ?
Or how many fans thought it was a disgrace you got to a CC Cup final with unregistered players which believe it or not the RFL gave you dissposition in the next round by just letting you play it.
The problem I have is when it's suits the fans of the teams it goes for it's ok but when It does not then were poop Aussie wannabees.
We are playing by rules your board are not smart enough to understand just as catalan did with Dobbo and wire with Johns.
Suppose it's like kids choosing sweets, even though they both have a choice one always what the others got.
PS you did also break the cap lol

Wellsy
you are wrong mate but as a FC Fan that's what you chose topick up on.
Being totally honest I could not care less what FC do as I don't support them so they don't concern me. What I find interesting is that none of the teams that see us as a threat see this as an issue yet teams who do are up in arms.
And to be honest Hall was always good enough but was just a scape goat at FC by both coach and fans alike!!

You clearly do care otherwise you wouldn't be on here venting your spleen about it. I agree with you on the last part though.

Quote ="chukabutt"So you know Rovers fans who thought it was disgraceful about the amount of Aussies a SL team had when we were not even in SL. How many fans do you know that thought it was a disgrace FC were allowed to put Gateshead to the sword to save their own booty? Or how many fans thought it was a disgrace you got to a CC Cup final with unregistered players which believe it or not the RFL gave you dissposition in the next round by just letting you play it. The problem I have is when it's suits the fans of the teams it goes for it's ok but when It does not then were poop Aussie wannabees. We are playing by rules your board are not smart enough to understand just as catalan did with Dobbo and wire with Johns. Suppose it's like kids choosing sweets, even though they both have a choice one always what the others got. PS you did also break the cap lol'" dobson played 12 times for catalan in 2006 once jones was fit, he joined wigan in the same season and played 16 times for them, completely different scenario to the mason/dobson issue en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Do ... gby_league) rfl had no option to keep us in the challenge cup as it was discovered two rounds later, many fc fans, myself included at the time wouldn't have had a problem if we were thrown out, but we wasn't fc did the same as wire bringing in another player like johns, (just not in the same league as johns) gateshead wouldv'e gone, fc would've gone, the rfl knew this we knew this, ROVERS board knew this and wanted us extinct, thanks to your directors at the time the only option was to move the gateshead operation down to hull, all players under contract had 1 seasons grace after that we had to fall in line with every other team, no special dispensation like hull kr go begging to the rfl every season hall, still a big question mark over him, right decision by fc to let him go, had enough chances

Quote ="chukabutt"So you know Rovers fans who thought it was disgraceful about the amount of Aussies a SL team had when we were not even in SL. How many fans do you know that thought it was a disgrace FC were allowed to put Gateshead to the sword to save their own booty? Or how many fans thought it was a disgrace you got to a CC Cup final with unregistered players which believe it or not the RFL gave you dissposition in the next round by just letting you play it. The problem I have is when it's suits the fans of the teams it goes for it's ok but when It does not then were poop Aussie wannabees. We are playing by rules your board are not smart enough to understand just as catalan did with Dobbo and wire with Johns. Suppose it's like kids choosing sweets, even though they both have a choice one always what the others got. PS you did also break the cap lol'" dobson played 12 times for catalan in 2006 once jones was fit, he joined wigan in the same season and played 16 times for them, completely different scenario to the mason/dobson issue en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Do ... gby_league) rfl had no option to keep us in the challenge cup as it was discovered two rounds later, many fc fans, myself included at the time wouldn't have had a problem if we were thrown out, but we wasn't fc did the same as wire bringing in another player like johns, (just not in the same league as johns) gateshead wouldv'e gone, fc would've gone, the rfl knew this we knew this, ROVERS board knew this and wanted us extinct, thanks to your directors at the time the only option was to move the gateshead operation down to hull, all players under contract had 1 seasons grace after that we had to fall in line with every other team, no special dispensation like hull kr go begging to the rfl every season hall, still a big question mark over him, right decision by fc to let him go, had enough chances

As others have pointed out it looks like Hull KR are trying every trick and wheeze in the book to squeeze as many overseas players on to their books as they can, the whole getting a Tongan passport in the first place was evidence of this. This comes at a time when British RL is trying to reduce reliance on overseas players because it weakens our game and there are questions over the economic sustainability of this, Aussie players are becoming relatively more expensive as tax loopholes are closed, the exchange rate shifts againts UK clubs and the NRL increases player payments. We also have plenty of HKR fans crowing about the club being a traditional club in the heartlands yet its recruitment looks more like an early life expansion side.

Is this thread supposed to be about KR or FC?

[uThe Bitterness [/u
The fallout from the Dobson/Mason saga only stemmed from the overall issue
"We (Hull KR) have too many overseas players on our books"
Whilst this is the case other clubs/fans will use this against us, and in some arguments rightly so.

In the likely event Vella and Galea retire at the end of the season – I’d hope they’re replaced with British or youth options.

Kind of ... but slightly different
Ben Galea was the one due to come 'off quota' by gaining a Maltese passport due to him having some holiday there* or family heritage. Either way he never got it - resulting with him staying 'on quota'.
If Rovers foresaw that problem or not, who knows. But the end result was Mason then seeking a Tongan passport and going through via the 'quota backdoor' instead of Galea.

Do keep up with our foreign policy



*may not be true

KR fans keep stating that they have only been in SL so many seasons and so it takes time to build up their youth system but Cas pre-relegation never really invested significantly in their youth system. We got promoted a year after Hull KR and have since brought through several players of SL quality. That was only after investing a lot of money and resources into our youth system. So how is it a club like Cas, with limited money and cannot afford to spend full SC, are able to overtake Hull KR in aspects such as this?

But it seems many don't seem to mind now. Hence this topic started by you.


If it wasn't for your club, this wouldn't have happened as we'd have been in NFP.


He wasn't unregistered, he was cup-tied.
We didn't field him to cheat. We didn't need to. We played two lower league teams who (no disrespect) would not have beaten us regardless of whether Thackray played or not. We didn't bend rules to play him to get an advantage. We were just stupid. And we were fined (rightfully).


This is where you are failing to understand. It's not OK if Hull do it. It's not OK when a team someone else supports does it. Nobody thinks it's OK.


Both totally different and incomparable situations.
You're allowed to deregister players in a season and replace them with others. You're not allowed to re-register them again in that same season. It's in the rules. Rovers found the loop hole that allowed for exemptions. Rovers then started applying for different passports for a number of their players to allow Mason over. And when that didn't work quick enough, Rovers then looked for another loop hole by de-registering Dobson and are now seeking exemption to get him back. They're seeking this. They're intentionally trying to get as many Aussies in as possible. Is this in the spirit of the game? Is this the point of the quota? To allow teams to work around it in as many ways as possible to get more than the quota in? No.


Yes, it appears everyone in SL wants to be like Rovers and find as many loopholes to get around the quota as possible. Oh wait, it's only Rovers that have been doing it over the years...

Yes, because our chief executive was an idiot and didn't realise that playing Andy Last for one game would mean his entire salary as a coach at the club would count on the cap. Again, we weren't intentionally trying to get around the rules like Rovers. We weren't doing it against the spirit of the game. We just didn't read the small print.

I'm not wrong. You said it yourself:
"Most of all what I don't get is why is it ok for Hull FC to get rid of two young English lads and sign to Aussies."


Bull.
Again...
"Most of all what I don't get is why is it ok for Hull FC to get rid of two young English lads and sign to Aussies."
"How many fans do you know that thought it was a disgrace FC were allowed to put Gateshead to the sword to save their own booty?"
"Or how many fans thought it was a disgrace you got to a CC Cup final with unregistered players which believe it or not the RFL gave you dissposition in the next round by just letting you play it."
"PS you did also break the cap lol"
"you are wrong mate but as a FC Fan that's what you chose topick up on"

You mentioned FC in your opening post, in a post about Hull KR, and said it was something that bothered you "most".

But you couldn't care less...


That sentence made no sense.
The none of the teams that see you as a threat see this as an issue.
The teams that do are up in arms?
How can they be both?


Having watched Hull week-in week-out, I can tell you that Hall was not good enough at Hull. He had years to fulfil his potential and failed on many occasions, often in spectacular fashion. He just never learned from his mistakes.

Oh goodie...another HKA/MASON thread


tb....has the merge button on your PC broken?

Forget your relegation(s) - it's irrelevant to Hull KR

In short - we just didn't have enough money or time for youth – [iseriously[/i
We more or less didn't have a youth setup prior to SL (certainly not of quality anyway)

Finances - Nearly going out of business - we just didn't have the cash available to invest for a long period

Competition - With Hull been what/where they were, we really couldn't compete. Whatever potential kids were about - they'd ultimately end up @ FC if they were of quality.

Time - When we got back on track and had the board/owner we have now (Hudgell and former CEO Lakin), we had one goal and one shot - promotion to Super League. All resources went on team and ground improvements in order to get promotion to SL. If we didn't get promoted 06 - I certainly don't think we'd be in SL now. We needed that 1st season prior to the licenses in order to a) prove that two Hull teams wasn't a bad thing/workable b) We could compete c) time to improve the stadium further. Without that period of 'grace' I doubt we'd have received as much support for a license (promoted or not the following season)

With the uncertainty of relegation from SL (first season) and ultimately then the licenses onwards, I’d hazard a guess that youth development probably didn't really get going until after this period. Plus no doubt, a lot of the best young'uns out there will still be coming through from the time of FC's dominance. In theory we should be seeing 'our' products come through from this/next season onwards. If not, we have no excuse - other than we need to try harder.

Up to this point we’ve picked up other clubs’ castoffs (if you like) and being heavily reliant on overseas players. But you must understand from getting promotion we really have been fighting to catch up on just about all fronts and in comparison to other ‘seasoned’ SL sides – some of who have had the luxury of having Sky monies and SL spin offs for the years we’ve been surviving on gates ranging from 1900-2500 > We haven’t done too bad.

Please bear with us.