: Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:41 am  

All the players named here, to a greater or lesser extent, had the misfortune to be players who a faction of the fans "never liked", and so it didn't matter what they did - they were doomed to be forever second rate.

Players like Naylor and Harris were brought in for their particular strengths, and to do a particular job, and they did it exceedingly well - one look at their trophy cabinets shows this - yet were as reviled in certain quarters when they left as they had been when they arrived.

It's also normal - some years after the event - for the unreasonable critics to suddenly do an about face and claim they liked Player A all along and isn't he much better than player B that we now have, what a pity we let A leave.

Ben Harris had no pace, but wasn't bought for his pace. He was great at what he did and the proof includes leaving us to nail down a starting spot in the NRL. Naylor - what Terrytot said.

Evans was different. Evans was always a classy player who you could stake your life would always have a good, solid game, wherever he was asked to play, and also score his share of tries. It was only the shambolic, pathetic RFL that caused us to let him go. We certainly wanted to keep him, and would have.

Some people have strange ideas and don't understand the concept of horses for courses, or how a player is bought or made to fit into a plan. They don't all have to be Darren Lockyer. Indeed most people never consider the fact that a team of 17 Darren Lockyers would get beat by a few dozen every week!

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:47 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

what Terrytot said.

I like that, my next alias.

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:02 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Evans was different. Evans was always a classy player who you could stake your life would always have a good, solid game, wherever he was asked to play, and also score his share of tries. It was only the shambolic, pathetic RFL that caused us to let him go. We certainly wanted to keep him, and would have.

Oh dear. If Evans was as good as you make out he would have been a higher priority for retention by the club over such 'stars' like Tadulala, Jeffries, Nero, Solomona etc. Blame your own club not the RFL.

I agree the RFL should never have caved over Stanley Gene, but IMO the original ruling is a necessary step to encourage less reliance on overseas players.

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:19 am  

Trimalchio wrote:

Oh dear. If Evans was as good as you make out he would have been a higher priority for retention by the club over such 'stars' like Tadulala, Jeffries, Nero, Solomona etc. Blame your own club not the RFL.

the only one of those who was out of contract last year was Tadulala. So Evans wasn't being compared against any of the others.
The RFL ruling wasn't wrong but the changes were made far too late to expect Evans to hang around once he'd got a contract/job/income at Cas.

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:35 am  

tigertot wrote:

I like that, my next alias.

You already have one ??

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:16 am  

Steam Pig wrote:

You already have one ??

I'm Terry Monster & harigeorgeson.

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:30 am  

Trimalchio wrote:

Oh dear. If Evans was as good as you make out he would have been a higher priority for retention by the club over such 'stars' like Tadulala, Jeffries, Nero, Solomona etc. Blame your own club not the RFL.

Nonsense. Unless you advocate unfair dismissals?

Trimalchio wrote:

I agree the RFL should never have caved over Stanley Gene, but IMO the original ruling is a necessary step to encourage less reliance on overseas players.

The RFL once having made a ruling needed to stick with it for a season. It is both grossly unfair and indeed ridiculous for some clubs to lose players on the basis of a ruling, then shortly afterwards the position changes for other clubs.

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:25 am  

What happened re: Evans? I know we couldn't keep him because of quotas etc. What did the RFL do? Or not do?

: Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:47 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Nonsense. Unless you advocate unfair dismissals?

Another poster has suggested Tadulala was out of contract last year and IIRC Morrison signed an extension too. Not to mention the signing of 35 year old Steve Menzies for one year. It appears the club had plenty of choices regarding overseas players - Evans just wasn't high on the list. Also, if Evans was so good, he should have been made more of a priority for re-signing or been originally given a longer deal.

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

The RFL once having made a ruling needed to stick with it for a season. It is both grossly unfair and indeed ridiculous for some clubs to lose players on the basis of a ruling, then shortly afterwards the position changes for other clubs.

I agree here.