Bingo.
Wouldn't put this in the same confidence category as Iestyn Harris, Noble, McGuire/Wane, but there's something in it.

I agree it does seem a good fit - Catalan will be wanting a forward and have some cash available, there's other Antipodeans there, it's a great place to live for anybody wanting to experience the European lifestyle and travel (which is what a lot of Aus/NZ players say they want to come to SL for), and Catalan is a more attractive side to join in terms of performance than say Bradford (which matters if you want to keep your NZ international career alive).

the whole Fui Fui wouldn't get a visa over here is a myth

Why Mr Border Agency?

because he has never been convicted of anything

I agree, although i will admit that i aint an imigration expert. I cannont find any reference to convictions via web searches.

I cant see there being a problem, unless his bad boy image is enough to keep him out.

All we need to do is get him over here on holiday and buy him a nice pussy cat to look after. There is no way he will get deported if he has a duty of care over a indigenious feline?

quote="feka99"My son was playing against orrel yesterday and jason robinson was there watching his son play rugby and i went over and i was talking about rugby and he said at sale he was told that kylie lueluei from leeds wants to come to wigan andd leeds want feka so there doing a direct swap and this is a good source becase jason robinson is the director of rugby at sale.

Thanks..

Tell me what your thoughts are.'"

Most new coaches bring in a player with them.
If MM does bring one in from the NRL then after watching Saturday's game I'm happy just to leave it to him.
MM is an asst with Kearney at Melbourne and look what he got out of that Kiwi squad. Any of those Kiwi forwards would do for me!

It was mentioned at the last shareholders meeting that there was 4 props who Wigan was told to be warned off signing, 1 of them being Mason. The other 2 have got contracts over here in SL, 1 at Hull and the other at Wakey, the other 1 we all know who it is but couldn't sign him due to his visa problems.

I'd be devastated!

Kylie Leuluai could possibly be the most over-rated player in superleague and even though Feka is totally out of shape he's still a far better player. Leuluai is a tough player but his workrate isn't that high for a player that doesn't add great impact and he doesn't do very long spells either.

If we can get Feka to shape up he'll be like a new signing for us. He's a decent motivator away from being a sensational player.

Who was are guardian angel?



Don't see one bit of truth in that all all maybe if Robinson was still involved in league with either Leeds or Wigan then it might be more believable.

Wouldn't be a good deal anyway plus I'm quite looking forward to seeing a fitter better Feka take to the field.

Wayne Bennett told IL, good enough for me.

Defo.

Thats the sort of relationship we need Lenagan to be having along with the contacts Michael McGuire will have.

They should now ensure that between them we only sign up class or potentially class players from the NRL instead of players looking for pay days.

The young English lad from Melbournes reserves would be a good first signing(if only he were a prop)

Yep I wouldn't argue with Wayne Bennett's judgement, having said that he must take a reasonable interest in the SuperLeague to be able to advise on the players that play in it.

Correct, if the quote of wage demanded by the Wakey player that was signed that alot on here complained about then I think we should count ourselves lucky that we havent thrown daft money. And with the Hull player, I'll be very surprised if he plays more than half a season for them.

I wanted us to stay clear of Jason Ryles last year when alot of people wanted him to be signed up because he's been on a downward spiral for a number of years and the same can be said now of O'Meely and Willie Mason. They are quite clearly looking for a pay day over here before they retire and we can't be used as their meal tickets.

The sort of players we should be looking at are ready made star players who aren't over the hill but actually fancy the challenge of playing overseas(abit like Barrett) or up and coming players that maybe haven't quite cracked rep teams down under wheather they be Australian or Kiwi's.

Hopefully McGuire can pick out a couple of gems like somebody like Justin Morgan did when signing Galea and Newton. These 2 hadn't played rep games but are class acts and hungry for success.

We just need to be more careful and find out why they are coming over here.

IMO Roberts and Riddell were both poor signings, I really hope they perform but would we not of been better investing in a younger player instead of getting players like that on long deals, or we could of just got them on shorter deals.

I am confident now that with McGuire in the club our overseas signings will improve loads, and any player that we could potentially sign from the storm would be top quality and do the job for him because he knows them so well.

Any player coming from the academy should be the right ones as Wane knows them better than anyone.

I wouldn't say Barrett was completely looking for a challenge, he came for the money as well.

We need to find a few more Carmonts or Phelps.

In my opinion this is the last thing we need from our overseas recruits, they have done us good service and been good signings but they are no nor ever will be top class, we need to produce players at the level of those 2 quality players and compliment them with real top quality imports.

Of course but the guy was competative enough and hungry enough to still want to suceed and win things in his spell over here.

It's all a case of looking at their attitudes imo. If you look at Michael Croker who Hull wanted to sign he would have been a great player over here for sure imo because he's got a great attitude. He's got talent but the thing that sets him apart is his attitude to the game and whatever money you were paying him wouldn't effect how he played the game.

We need hungry players(and i don't mean like Feka or Riddell).

love the joke



Yeh I see what you mean now, even though he was on a large salary he still wanted to succeed.

It's no fluke that all the most succesfull imports are the ones who looked most hungry.

Barrett
Lam
Craig Smith
Carmont
Fletcher

From other teams

Lyon
Webb
Gidley
Hodgeson

We need players who are really hungry for success as that is what we want afterall, that is what we should be aiming for.

Riddell and Roberts even though they may be good players and turn out ok, they just don't look like they want it enough. Even when Phelps first came he could not find his position but he looked like he wanted to play. Now he has found his position and he has been one of the best players this year.

I think you are 100% correct on the attitude thing.

.

I get what you’re saying in regards to producing players of that calibre ourselves and then recruiting the absolute best to compliment them. I know you may have been positing it from an England development perspective as well but putting that aside I’d be happy if we recruited more players like Carmont and Phelps.

If you look at the top FB’s in SL –Wellens, Briscoe, Webb and Greenshields only Webb realistically could be categorised as world class. I know others won’t agree but Phelps is certainly pushing the likes of Briscoe and Wellens close and I’d hazard a guess his wages are nothing in comparison to theirs. So which is the better option?

Carmont imo is in the top three centres in SL but at half the price as the other two. There is no way in the world that Carmont is paid the same as Gidley or Senior but is he half the player? He’s probably paid less than Yeaman, Walker, Webster & Talau also. He’s not only a great player but he’s great value for money which in my book makes him the kind of player we should be aiming at.

I would love us in theory to go out and sign players like Trent, Webb, Mason, Inglis or Hayne but their salaries always match their reps. It would be much, much more successful imo to go out and sign an unknown with potential like Henry Paul, Withers, Carmont etc and get a quality SL player on moderate wages rather than a player who is better but on three times as much.

Greenshields is better than Webb IMO. I agree with what you say though, but I think we need one top player in the team from aus, look what it did when we had Barrett.

Honestly I don’t think we necessairly need one top player from either Aus or NZ to be successful. SL is poor enough that players like Greenshields and Carmont will suffice as they alow you have a balanced squad.

You do need top British playrs tho Graham, Peacock, Long, Cunnigham, Scully, Wellens, Morley have all proved that

Cheers, Senior Rogues informed me last night.

On the subject of Wayne Bennett, I once had the pleasure of meeting him at a charity event in australia that my employers were invited to. I had a long chat with the guy and I have to say he is an absolute gent. Anyway, we got onto the subject of english rugby league..as you do! He said that Leeds and St helens had it spot on with their recruitment. According to him, he would have a core of players who have played together for years but with less ability than a team of mercenaries with lots of ability because the togetherness of a team who have played together for years is a huge part of teams games, especially contact sports. He reckons players can take years to bed in and fully connect with team mates. He then pointed out that his Broncos team of 2006 that won the grand final, all but 1 of the starting 13 had come through the Brisbane Youth ranks and that he could have replaced a lot of them with better players, but chose not to.

This was in 2006, after saints had won the GF. He said he could only see Leeds being serious challengers in the short term and guess what, he was bang on. Of course, I asked him would he ever consider managing St Helens and he said that if his personal circumstances were different he would love to have had a crack in england. He then apologised and said wigan would be his first choice because they are a sleeping giant, who have been seriously mis managed in recent times. I didnt like him then



Seems to me he has a huge respect for the english game and Wigan in particular.