My preferred system (assuming the 3X8 system is approved) would be a top 4 playoff -

Week 1

1v2 for Grand Final Qualifier
3v4 Elimination Playoff

Loser of 1v2 plays winner of 3v4 - Grand Final Qualifier

Grand Final

I was told Monday there was a strong chance he could be staying. His terms had been agreed with NZW but the transfer fee had not.

ive trawled through the last 6 pages and managed to find about 5 posts about Sam Tomkins...some people get sidetracked too easily

Over the moon if that's true, one more year would massively help us out, not only with our chances of winning trophies next year, but also the development of Tierney and Hampshire. Maybe in 2015 we could see

1 Tierney
6 Hampshire
7 Smith
15 Williams/Logan/S.Powell

Do you think tha...............Oh look shiny things..!!

All we need is one more year IMO. We have Tierney, Burgess, Hampshire and Williams busting a gut to get in the first team but all 4 just need another 12-18 months worth of first team chances, without being first choices before being ready to step in.

I can't see Tomkins not going now but I'd be delighted if there was anything in it. We had that three year agreement with him and we need him to stick to it. At the end if next year he'd go with everyone's blessing and we'd still be looking at a good fee for him.

Lenagan has read all the negative comments on here, cacked it and pulled the plug on the deal

Lenegan has seen how his team goes without Sam and knows if he's not here next year the chances of silverware are minus zero.
NZW are in this deal with big money wages and big money transfer fee. Now Sam hasn't played in the league for weeks maybe they are getting worried, very worried about spending vast sums of money on a player who can't play!
I just think there's a lot more going on here than we at first realised!

Or maybe Lenagan has been doing all he can all along to stop the move all along...

I agree FT, i also think there is much more to this than meets the eye, and not as simple as many people might assume.

#onemoreyearsam

Would the sky deal necessarily be lower? They could still show the same number of games even with a shorter play off system (since they don't show anywhere near every game at the moment) and if anything a shorter playoff system and a more meaningful league competition might make their RL programming more popular.

#tenmoreyearssam

Wire yesterday announced 11 players have extended their contracts. 2 of those were M Moneghan (sp?) and Atkins. On their board some were convinced MM was retiring and Atkins was off to Rah Rah. Just shows how much us fans actually know.

Wire and Leeds are keeping nice settled squads and tieing players to long term deals regardless of interest from elsewhere.

It really is rather depressing tbh! They can do it but we can't or don't want to.

Maybe the special marquay play rule is coming in to the salary cap. 1 Player the club can pay anything to to keep them and it doesnt count on the cap. Then we would have no reason not to keep him

To be fair there are reasons they can ward off the NRL from their top players though:
Briers - age 35
Westwood - age 32
Brett Hodgson - age 35
Joel Monaghan - age 31 and Dog incident
Michael Monaghan - age 33
Micky Higham - age 32
Trent Waterhouse - age 32
So the only guys the NRL are likely to be looking at there are Atkins, Myler, Ratchford and Hill, I wouldn't have thought anyone else there would be good enough. It'll be interesting to see how Wire go about replacing most of their starting 13 in a year or two with no chance of bringing over top players from the NRL as they used to. Do they have players like Hampshire, Tierney, Burgess, Williams, Crosb, Burke etc ready to step up or are they just going to blindly hope good players become available? I wouldn't swap our position with theirs

It's the same with Leeds, great team, but how many of the individuals would you see as targets?... It's totally different with our crop of youngsters, and our high profile. No matter what Leeds and others may think we are still the biggest name in English RL, and our players will have a higher profile.

Doing all he can to stop the move??? Given that Sam has 3 yrs of his contract left even I could stop the move!

Well, i'm sure that as you have been over the contract with a fine tooth comb, you have all the answers.

Deary me, that's straw clutching at its finest! We were told the terms of the deal via a big song and dance press release! 5 yr contract, no discussions with other parties until after 3 years. What bit have I got wrong or are you suggesting that the details as released to us paying fans were false?

Unlike you apparently I was happy to take IL at his word. Did you think it was all bogus from day 1 or has this just occurred to you?

You are putting forward a false premise.

No one, including you, has any reason to believe there is anything to the contract other than what was announced at the time (five year deal with a three year gagging clause).

Just occurred to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made a post at the time that i thought the time of sam's leaving had already been decided, whatever we were being told.

Do you seriously believe that anybody signs a contract they cannot get out of? A simple yes or no will suffice.

I realise that simple answers are easier for you to process but would you like to return to the original point? Irrespective of how easy or not it is to get out of a contract ( to give you my answer, I would imagine it is very easy for one party to hold the other to a legally binding document), are you seriously trying to imply that there is more to the contract than was published? If so, wouldn't you feel at the worst misled by the club or individuals therein? A simple yes or no would suffice, but even better would be an admission that your premise as posted was preposterous.

No, i would not feel misled, as i would not expect to be given all the details. I'm a fan and therefore i do not expect to be party to all business re contracts...

Do you feel you are somehow special and should be? Was a simple yes/no too difficult for you?

odd how certain posters feel that have to imply that people are somehow mentally deficient if they don't agree with them...Bit sad really..