: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:13 pm  

oxford-pie-eater wrote:

Thing is, even if the big money was on offer for these Union lads to give RL a go, surely there's got to be a suspcion that most will be coming for exactly that reason, and not - as they did in the past - for the challenge of playing the game.

they only ever came for the cash.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:44 pm  

saints35 bulls0 wrote:

Brian Noble actually names Brian O'Driscoll as one of the targets - along with Jonny Wilkinson.

Seems the type of player we would go for,

Past his best
Wants a bag full of cash
Injury prone

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:47 pm  

kirkamania6 wrote:

Seems the type of player we would go for,

Past his best
Wants a bag full of cash
Injury prone

Dont even joke about it mate

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:48 pm  

Bolton_Warrior wrote:

Dont even joke about it mate

It's either laugh or cry and I know which one I'd prefer

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:53 pm  

Well if were going for RU players i'll take the irish fullback Kearney please

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:01 pm  

kirkamania6 wrote:

Seems the type of player we would go for,

Past his best
Wants a bag full of cash
Injury prone

The player he was after was Andy Powell of Wales in the off season. Powell was coming off contract at the end of the union season. Powell is more than likely the best handling forward in union. Also hes big and agile for his size.

Hes a better player than any loose forward or second row we have. Wilkinson was a rumor started on here. As for O'Driscoll hes one heck of a player and would better any SL side.

Noble's suggetion re union players is not as daft as people think. It would give the game a massive publicity boost as well as letting union know it can also be raided.

Someone mentioned that if we took 50k off then union would take 200k off. Union in England is not as financially viable as people might think. Half of the clubs are now struggling financially and most of the other clubs need owners with deep pockets. Dont be fooled by the International side getting massive gates part of that is used to finance the premiership in union. Also the RFU had said it will now stop signning league players as its costing too much. I can see a time where a European league is formed with some of the English clubs going into it. Similar to what hapened in Wales when clubs were forced to merge.

Union in Wales is run by the WRU and its they who make up part of the players contract to keep them in Wales.

Our problem is that to keep clubs like Castelford, Wakefield etc alive we must play the game by their spending rules.

Nobles problem is that hes not using our own talent never mind unions. Put Ainscough on the wing and let Pat go to full back. Apart from Webb hes the best SL full back. If were not gonig to put the ball out wide then why waste Richards out wide. As for Tomkins well Nobles future i think hangs on his decision to play him or not. Either way if this decision goes wrong then Noble might be in a precarious position.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:07 pm  

Come on Nobby, get real. Next you will saying you will have to pick players from the Reserves because the first team are not up to it.

rl : Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:29 am  

Wigan's top five try scorers of all time were all former Union men.
Billy Boston, Martin Offiah, Brian Norgren, Trevor Lake & Johny Ring.
We haven't got wingmen in RL remotely close to their ability.
Boston never played for Wales and Offiah never played for England. Two of the best wingers to play Rugby League.
We should go for Union players and no need for those in 6 nations who are on TV and have high salaries.
There are plenty around in the GP clubs who would be very good at RL and affordable.
The RFL/SL clubs have never come to terms with Union professionalism and it's about time they did.
When I started watching Wigan we had Boston, Saints had Vollenhoven & Leeds had Lewis Jones.
Now we've got Roberts, Saints have Gardner & Leeds have McGuire. FFS!
Noble is right!

Re: rl : Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:32 am  

Father Ted wrote:

Wigan's top five try scorers of all time were all former Union men.
Billy Boston, Martin Offiah, Brian Norgren, Trevor Lake & Johny Ring.
We haven't got wingmen in RL remotely close to their ability.
Boston never played for Wales and Offiah never played for England. Two of the best wingers to play Rugby League.
We should go for Union players and no need for those in 6 nations who are on TV and have high salaries.
There are plenty around in the GP clubs who would be very good at RL and affordable.
The RFL/SL clubs have never come to terms with Union professionalism and it's about time they did.
When I started watching Wigan we had Boston, Saints had Vollenhoven & Leeds had Lewis Jones.
Now we've got Roberts, Saints have Gardner & Leeds have McGuire. FFS!
Noble is right!

Whatever happened to your Winger that left WIGAN and went to SALE - someone called ROBINSON - Did he make it in UNION

Re: rl : Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:40 am  

Father Ted wrote:

Wigan's top five try scorers of all time were all former Union men.
Billy Boston, Martin Offiah, Brian Norgren, Trevor Lake & Johny Ring.
We haven't got wingmen in RL remotely close to their ability.
Boston never played for Wales and Offiah never played for England. Two of the best wingers to play Rugby League.
We should go for Union players and no need for those in 6 nations who are on TV and have high salaries.
There are plenty around in the GP clubs who would be very good at RL and affordable.
The RFL/SL clubs have never come to terms with Union professionalism and it's about time they did.
When I started watching Wigan we had Boston, Saints had Vollenhoven & Leeds had Lewis Jones.
Now we've got Roberts, Saints have Gardner & Leeds have McGuire. FFS!
Noble is right!

I agree with you, but I take other posts on board too. It would rankle with our home-grown League lads if clubs were granted financial dispensation to spend a lot of money on Union boys. Only if such a move was brought in alongside a dispensation to pay extra money to players signed from our own Academies would this come close to being viable. As well as encouraging our clubs to develop their own talent, at the same time they'd be encouraged to raid Union for other British talent. I'd love such a situation to come around, but unfortunately it would mean the salary cap was half way to being ditched, which wouldn't suit the vast majority of our poverty stricken SL.

Maybe a more realistic project would be to set up a system whereby our clubs are granted dispensation to pay extra money to existing SL players who are being targetted by Union. We used to do something similar, and it enabled us to keep hold of Radlinski, Cunningham and, for a time at least, Farrell. It would certainly have enabled us to keep hold of Chris Ashton. And before anyone tries to claim that this is now a thing of the past, I'd respectfully remind you that young Thornley is already being courted by Sale.