LR23

It hasn’t got details on where he played as a schoolboy but this article references Widdop and the non fed trained rules: https://www.totalrl.com/overseas-quota-a-beginners-guide/

I’m positive Hastings doesn’t have a British passport (Widdop might but that would only take him off the ‘overseas quota’ and not the ‘non fed trained quota’) and that playing for GB doesn’t exempt you from the non fed trained quota. There were rumours that Wire were going to apply for an exemption for Widdop but I asked Matt Shaw about this a couple of months ago and he said no official approach had been made to the RFL so thats all it was - a rumour. One of your players is applying for a PNG passport to get off the overseas quota at the moment. The criteria are pretty strict - playing for a country isn’t enough.

It still applies as he doesn’t have citizenship or a passport but regardless he’s still non federation trained. Same goes for Widdop who was born here but learned the game in Aus and (Salford player) Connor-Jones who has a British passport but grew up in Aus. We have 7 non fed trained players and all of them are new and/or first choice.

No quota spots left at Salford, thats a non starter. It’s NRL or Wigan.

I wouldn’t read too much into the Twitter profile - he stopped using his account midway through the GB tour due to criticism he was getting.

I might not agree with all of that but appreciate the proper response to my questions! All that aside, I would definitely be signing up if Amazon did make a bid and would make use of their other services if they came with the deal so they’d be onto a winner with me.

I prefaced a genuine question with ‘I don’t want to sound downbeat’ to avoid the thing you accused me of. We are a sensitive lot. I never questioned how good our game is or said anything about the respect from other sports. And we are a ‘niche’ sport in terms of where the sport is played and how many people watch. My point was simply: what do we have to offer Amazon who have very different needs/aims than Sky? It’s not a knock on Super League more that I don’t see how it fits in with their business plan. Thats not being negative, it’s offering an opinion based on the information available - if you don’t like that I suggest discussion boards are not for you.

Why cut off the rest of my post(s)? Is it because it didn’t fit your agenda maybe? Could you not find an actual negative troll to make your point? Is this a discussion board or a fan boy page? Try responding to my other points - I think we can get a decent deal but with a broadcaster and only if we offer exclusivity. I don’t think we have the negotiating capital to offer packages to different platforms and don’t see what we offer digital platforms. I’m open to being convinced otherwise but I’m entitled to an opinion.

Better than Sky Go which you can't stream to anything. The picture was surprisingly decent as well. You can download the App to some smart TVs as well.

Yes - for the Wigan semi final game I set it up for my dad and chromecast it to his TV.

I think people are overestimating our negotiating position slightly - I can't see how we can realistically negotiate showing games across multiple providers. At the moment Super League is a brand and it is strongly associated with Sky Sports - the exclusivity is a decent selling point for them which is a positive for us. If we attempt to split the package up across different providers we lose that. I just don't think we have the selling power to make it work.

That would be throwing Salford, and others without a full academy, right under the bus. Why not have a year to transition into it and then introduce those stricter rules? We've signed up three young lads already but with our small squad and budget I imagined we would be heavily reliant on giving chances to local amateur players. It is typical that they haven't ironed this out until the last minute.

With Amazon and the likes, they are built around 'on demand' and bitesize entertainment so the need for content filler isn't the same as for the likes of BT and SKY who have dedicated sports channels to fill. I'm sure Amazon would ultimately prefer someone to watch a live game, then watch an episode of Mr Robot before ordering something on Amazon Prime. Not sure where Super League fits into that. I hope I'm wrong though.

If he isn't 'finished' and can get himself back into shape then that would be a very good shout. They could do with some experience and marshalling in the middle for this transition year. They'd obviously prefer a bigger name but needs must.

Don't want to sound downbeat but why would they bother? They need a flagship sport to pin their mast to not a niche minority sport. They took on tennis first because it is global, moderately popular and cheap enough to use it as a test of their capabilities. Now they are targeting the big boys.