You assume there is correlation between the 'team who bends the quota rules the most' and the 'team who wins the most', there isn't.

2006 GF St Helens (6) vs Hull (4)
2007 GF St Helens (6) vs Leeds (5)
2008 GF St Helens (5) vs Leeds (3)
2009 GF St Helens (5) vs Leeds (3)
2010 GF St Helens (5) vs Wigan (5)

That Hull team had 8 players that came through our academy... The way to success is clear, it's not filling your team with overseas players... ask Rovers.

Not true though is it, as i recall last years cup winners Wigan & Wire were not packed full of quota players.

Didn't you try that before

Being off quota because he has an EU passport I don't have a particular problem with. That's just EU employment legislation. What baffles and disappoints me is if he's got off the Non Fed list due to having briefly played here before the rules came in. That exemption was designed to not unfairly discriminate against players who had signed long contracts in good faith and then faced being unemployed because of the new rule. Heremaia hardly falls into that category having left the UK game and played abroad for years.

I mainly blame the RFL for allowing the rules to be regularly bent by other clubs. I guess you can hardly blame FC for wanting the same advantages that others have gained or else they would not be playing on a level field. Still disappointing though.

We are talking about quota players not salary cap though. And as far as i am aware Warrington have not been found guilty of any cap shenanigans.

Not really, because I didn't go that far. All I'm saying is that if there is a potential advantage available to us, we should use it. We would be daft not to.

The problem is quota players tend to command bigger salaries thus weakening your overall squad as a result.

When it's clear the only way to GF success is blooding your own youngsters?

I don't really have an issue with it, would like to see more younger players coming through but providing we stay within the rules then i don't mind.

Thats it I've had enough with all this quota shmota!

I'm refusing to go any more until the situation is resolved*






[size=85* unless we sign somebody really good with our spot like Benji Marshall, or someone with lots of NRL experience, or maybe just played one or two games in the NRL but looks promising[/size

You [idid[/i.




*
[size=85* Prepares to stop laughing, if you sign someone good.[/size



He isn't exempt - he's been given a dispensation. That is to say not within the rules as they are normally applied. The same is true for Lovegrove at Hull KR.

the RFL are a bit of a joke, I suspect it's because they know that the quota, non fed and also Salary Cap wouldn't stand up to a legal challenge if someone decided to chance their arm.

So, why shouldn't we use the rules to our advantage, IF we can sign one (or two) truly class O/S players and then reduce our O/S contingent the season after by letting people move on then I am all for it, if we just keep Lauaki and Phelps then I don't see the point. If Obst can come off quota we might even be able to move him on to another club?

The system is not exactly watertight, so as long as we can be creative without breaking the rules I don't have an issue with it. If he has an Italian wife then hats off to him.

Wish I did.

I bet you don't, Italian women sre stunning up until about the age of 35, we were discussing the very subject in Sorrento the other week!

In some respects I feel the same but we don't have the quality of players coming through. If this is a short term strategy to make us competitive with a medium term aim to bring through a crop of top quality youngsters then I can live with it

Finally, some sense on the issue. Just surprised where it came from.

It clearly isn't the ONLY way. Balancing a decent coach with quality players, playing as a team (regardless of where they're from), with a decent game plan is the way to GF success

Always worries me when you or the zebra agree with me









My post should have had the caveat that this spot should only be used for a top class overseas player, not some injury prone journeyman

Interesting point this one. Wigan won the grand final last year with 5 overseas players but could potentially win it this year with 8, if you count Amos Roberts. I agree totally that it is short term thinking, although I don't see any young Sam Tomkins waiting in the wings for us.

indeed, not Phelps, Lauaki or Chase.

phelps is rovers bound

if we hadn't signed a specialist (injury prone, elderly) fullback then I'd have been more than happy to keep Phelps, but we just can't afford the luxury of a quota spot on a "utility" player.

Which oversea's player are Rovers releasing?

Now French women.....

The report in the HDM suggests he has come off non-fed rather than quota. While anything that the RFL approves is clearly not breaking the rules, this is not, as I understand it, in line with their previous definitions. Of course there is the discretionary case-by-case exemptions get out to cover these, to which we are no strangers - and for which we got ever so much grief.

Hull Kingston Australians and all that. I was thinking Hull F[size=50oreign[/size C[size=50ontingent[/size, might work well.



Clinton not taking his option would be the most likely way we could make space for Phelps. Seems a bit of an odd way to 'spend' a quota spot to me, but if we aren't looking to bring in anyone from the NRL... all things considered I'd have Phelps ahead of Tony, on a par with Halley/Blaymire, but behind Lee Smith.