Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Sat Aug 30, 2014 10:42 am  

The trouble with overseas quotas is that they do the opposite of what they're supposed to.

They're supposed to cut down club's reliance on import players and get them to focus on home grown. The problem is, home grown players then are able to command premium wages, even the less able ones as the club has to have a certain amount of them in order to meet the rules.

This means those clubs are forced to have smaller squads of less able players which in turn has several knock on effects.

The club is less competitive, losing more games than previous which means fans are less likely to turn up and sponsorship then becomes harder to get. Both of which means the club is on a weaker financial base and has even more of an uphill struggle to compete.

Less competitive clubs mean the overall standard of the competition is diluted so that even the top stars are playing in a weak league and not being tested to the fullest extent of their abilities. Because of this, the international team suffers, which again has a knock on affect on finances for the whole sport.

The best thing the sport could do is scrap quotas but introduce other methods to encourage the development of home grown talent. And this doesn't have to be restricted to just Super League either.

Centrally funded grants for clubs in lower leagues who produce players that then go on to play in that club's first team or go on into SL to help them continue being able to scout and produce players.

Minimum release clauses on all player contracts for teams in Championship and down so they don't just have their best talent raided from them.

Salary cap exemptions for players who've come through the club's ranks with increments depending on that player's appearances at international level.

TBH, I'm amazed that the whole "Get rid of the overseas players and England will have the best team" argument still has any traction. Quotas have been cut back and it's still not had any noticeable positive effect on the international team. I know people will say if you scrap the quota then you'll just have clubs full of overseas players and while that might have been true 10 or 15 years ago, the strength of the Aussie dollar compared to the UK pound or even the Euro means that we've seen a decrease in better level Aussies coming to the UK unless there's some scandal following them which forced them out of an NRL club. So, I don't think you'll see a raft of overseas players blocking British juniors from making it into first teams across the sport because if they're good enough then they'll force their way in.

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Sat Aug 30, 2014 10:51 am  

Well there already are salary cap exemptions for home grown players, so the incentive for a strong academy is already there.
I agree about the compensation to lower league clubs when their academy talents move on to bigger and better things. They have a similar system in place in football I believe, where clubs often receive a % of transfer fees if players they produced move clubs or are called up to a national team etc. I'm sure something similar could work in our game.

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:24 am  

We should, as a sport, be trying to reduce our reliance on overseas players (or non fed players).

The scrapping of the senior academy along with the number of non fed players has to have a massive impact on the number of home grown SL players which, in turn reduces our competitiveness with the Aussies and Kiwis.

For people to say that we have enough players, in spite of the high numbers of imports, is just ridiculous.

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Sat Aug 30, 2014 3:04 pm  

wrencat1873 wrote:

We should, as a sport, be trying to reduce our reliance on overseas players (or non fed players).

The scrapping of the senior academy along with the number of non fed players has to have a massive impact on the number of home grown SL players which, in turn reduces our competitiveness with the Aussies and Kiwis.

For people to say that we have enough players, in spite of the high numbers of imports, is just ridiculous.

We don't have enough players. When SL was expanded to 14 teams the RFL, in their wisdom, dropped the allowed number of quota players at the same time. More teams with few available players means clubs paying over the odds for average player just because he's English.

We should be striving to have a league were we don't NEED imports, but having them available means we can have a more competitive environment on the field as well as forcing young up and coming players to push themselves to the next level of their development. IMO the current system does not promote development but rather encourages stagnation.

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Sat Aug 30, 2014 8:21 pm  

The current system allows you to have 7 overseas players plus exemptions. That is not stagnating the league. It's just allowing teams to have average aussies. I'd rather they took a punt on average British or French players.

There is no need for a club to have more than 5 overseas players in their squad in my opinion. The more we allow overseas players the more clubs can ignore youth development.

It should, and is, in conjunction with salary cap incentives for clubs.

I'd happily increase the incentives for clubs producing quality players but there has to be a limit.
The situation at Hull KR a few years ago, for instance, was ridiculous.

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:26 am  

It seems the Championship clubs will be allowed 5 next season. That is up from 1. Although it seems only London are intending using the full quota. Not sure about Bradford and with the number of players re-signed by Leigh it looks like they won't have more than 1 or 2.

[Bullseye]

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:10 pm  

Bulls have 4 non fed players signed up for 2015 so far.

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Mon Sep 01, 2014 2:34 pm  

#rflnewera

[Bullseye]

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:13 pm  

We seem to do alright at producing SL players at the Bulls. We're less good at keeping them.

Re: Overseas Players 2015 : Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:08 pm  

DemonUK wrote:

It seems the Championship clubs will be allowed 5 next season. That is up from 1.

How does that work for Sheffield, then?
Laulu-Togaga'e, Yere, Tagaloa, Taulapapa

Puzzled, just asking.