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You build their contracts around a stint in Aus Mick. Far better they go early in their career and planned by a club and they then return to decent contracts. If you are English/British and very good you can often earn a much better contract in SL than in the NRL.

Look at Saints they will IMO lose Graham / Roby permanently just as they are approaching their bst years career wise. We face a similar issue down the track with Joel and Sam.

More return than remain. Ellery - Morley etc.

The problem with sending players to Australia is that I think Wigan have a commitment to making sure that all their academy player gain some sort of qualification so they have something to fall back after their career in rugby.

Sending players to Australia could mean they cannot continue their education unless they continue their studies there.

IIRC, The Toyota Cup which is the competition they would play in in the NRL has the same requirement re education. They might get a better education Down Under

cpwigan wrote:You build their contracts around a stint in Aus Mick.

Contracts are not worth the paper they are written on if a player is determined to leave. For example what if one of the 18 year olds meets the love of his life over there and want to remain in Oz? That is just one example. I am sure they could think up may excuses to request a release from any contract and Wigan would be powerless to prevent it.

Far better they go early in their career and planned by a club and they then return to decent contracts. If you are English/British and very good you can often earn a much better contract in SL than in the NRL.

The NRL salary cap is now higher than ours and players can keep money earned from endorsements and it does not count on the cap (up to a limit I think). We may well start to see a player drain that way regardless as not only is the lifestyle what it is but the money is at least the equal of here now.

Dave[/youtube]

A loan/exchange scheme for juniors between Wigan & an NRL club would be a more attractive,(And less loss prone) option.

BTW - The NRL salary cap is more twisted & full of pit falls than the SL version.Also 'endorsements' for players are only exempt if there is no connection to their club.

The conveyor belt of talented youngsters is set to continue with Greg Burke,Danny Bridge,Matty Crow,Chris Taylor,Connor Farrell to name but a few looking promising for the future.

No doubt these and others will feature more in the u20's next season. Will be interesting to see how they do.

DaveO wrote:

cpwigan wrote:You build their contracts around a stint in Aus Mick.

Contracts are not worth the paper they are written on if a player is determined to leave. For example what if one of the 18 year olds meets the love of his life over there and want to remain in Oz? That is just one example. I am sure they could think up may excuses to request a release from any contract and Wigan would be powerless to prevent it.

Far better they go early in their career and planned by a club and they then return to decent contracts. If you are English/British and very good you can often earn a much better contract in SL than in the NRL.

The NRL salary cap is now higher than ours and players can keep money earned from endorsements and it does not count on the cap (up to a limit I think). We may well start to see a player drain that way regardless as not only is the lifestyle what it is but the money is at least the equal of here now.

Dave[/youtube]

Indeed players can leave a club before their contract is complete BUT importantly the club concerned is eligible for some 'financial' compensation.

In terms of player development you have to look at the bigger picture and replace self interest for a more far sighted whole British RL point of view.

First and foremost, a player especially a young one going to Aus will develop into a better player than he ever could in the UK. So we are developing far better British RL players, a far better international team / competition and something vital for marketing the sport. Interestingly, one of the major reason, players find Union attractive is the International Game.

Second, one player, two players may remain in Aus. So be it. We get 4 much better youngsters come what may. We lose quality youngsters to Union anyway. Farrell, Thornley etc etc. Perhaps the lure of a stint in Aus is an added pull to playing for Wigan, to remaining in the sport of RL. I can tell you that Sale RU offered a deal to 1 of the 6 players promoted. Surely keeping good young talent in League wherever they play is better than losing them to Union.

The currency value of the Aus $ is now much better from an Aus perspective AND their salary cap is bigger. However, a top quality British player is still able to attract a better deal here than in Aus. Ellis and Burgess are plying their trade on reduced terms from those they had here. Flannagan likewise.

The key difference is that a British player of a certain quality can command a far better contract in SL than he can in the NRL. In SL he is highly sought after. In the NRL he is a small fish in a very big pond full of far more players of the same quality. There will even be true world class players earning even more and rightly taking the top money. The Slater's, the Inglis's, the Marshall's and so forth. The supply of quality is greater pushing down the demand and hence the negotiating power of all but the very best players. A quality British player will always get a better deal here. That is why Graham and Roby have built up a nice amount in their accounts before deciding the time is right to look. Similarly, Sam and Joel IMO will build up their bank accounts and leave for Aus at 25/26ish.

The bigger picture is far better British RL players and International Teams we can be proud of. Personally I was watching the 4Ns efforts partricularly v Aus and if you think about it the same ineptitude that we saw in terms of England trying to cope with Aus and NZ was a mirror image of how Wigan regularly blew away Saints in the GF and most clubs throughout the season. The early domination is down to an inability of the opposition to cope with high intensity game of RL.

We can either do something pro active about it or adopt a glass half full mentality and sit drinking a pint with John Kear fearing a player drain and watching paint dry in preference to intense high quality RL.

Kittwazzer wrote:What are the chances of a Tomkins treble in 2011?

Here's to hoping for Whitehaven in the CC again!

pieater-alex wrote:Would it not be worth Wigan investing in taking our U18's/U20's players to Australia, linking up with a club, taking part in their equivilant pre-season and then having matches against some of the clubs while we're over there. That way our players train/play some of the best talents in Australia. Get to experience the best training methods in RL and somewhat more importantly long-term for Wigan RL our coaching staff should pick up a trick or two.

I like the idea of a pre season training in Australia, our pre season is in summer and clubs actually train on the beach and run up sand hills etc, this has to be so much better than pre season training in an English winter.

I think it would be a great investment, the players would get physically stronger and fitter in those conditions imo.

Winter pre season did'nt seem to do us any harm,last season.If you believe the players had'nt encountered anything like it before. The results spoke for themselves.