Toronto’s squad

[Mr Frisky]

10 hours ago, aj1908 said:

They flourish in a better environment obviously.

Look.at.the respective salary caps to.show the difference in player quality 

How did the man of steel go in nrl

Well the current MOS hasn't played in the NRL for many years and when he did he was a young lad who was still developing - think it says more about the NRL that they couldn't help and develop him. Ben Barber - SL shower him love then went back and destroyed himself.

We had the likes of Greg Eastwood who has made a very good living in the NRL but was absolutely hopeless over her - couldn't handle SL at all - but horses for courses.

In the 90s and 2000s SL paid very good money and that showed with the amount of WCC wins by SL.

Agree about the salary cap but James Roby is world class and would be world class in the NRL. Makemson would score trys in the NRL just like he does in SL. 

[aj1908]

2 minutes ago, Mr Frisky said:

Well the current MOS hasn't played in the NRL for many years and when he did he was a young lad who was still developing - think it says more about the NRL that they couldn't help and develop him. Ben Barber - SL shower him love then went back and destroyed himself.

We had the likes of Greg Eastwood who has made a very good living in the NRL but was absolutely hopeless over her - couldn't handle SL at all - but horses for courses.

In the 90s and 2000s SL paid very good money and that showed with the amount of WCC wins by SL.

Agree about the salary cap but James Roby is world class and would be world class in the NRL. Makemson would score trys in the NRL just like he does in SL. 

Yes there's loads of English  players that would do well In the nrl.

[Kayakman]

5 hours ago, Dave T said:

The club. I thought that was obvious. 

Well was Rowley not a part of the club????...... so you should have used 'us'.

[Dave T]

3 hours ago, Kayakman said:

Well was Rowley not a part of the club????...... so you should have used 'us'.

Great. 

[Damien]

The bigger worry for me with regards to Toronto is more numbers than any doubts about SBW. Naming a squad of 23 with no reserves or academy to fall back on is threadbare to say the least. They certainly still need additions.

[Dave T]

16 minutes ago, Damien said:

The bigger worry for me with regards to Toronto is more numbers than any doubts about SBW. Naming a squad of 23 with no reserves or academy to fall back on is threadbare to say the least. They certainly still need additions.

I agree. People don't need to worry about SBW. Even if he isn't the world beater he used to be, he will still be very good and do a good job for them. Whether he is worth the money isn't really for others to worry about, he is still only using limited cap space and Argyl is paying so I'm not sure why fans get too worked up about players wages. 

But the squad size is probably an issue and they will need more players during the season. 

A quick look at last year's top 6 shows that teams used on average 28 to 30 players, although some only played a couple of games. 

[GUBRATS]

38 minutes ago, Dave T said:

 

But the squad size is probably an issue and they will need more players during the season. 

A quick look at last year's top 6 shows that teams used on average 28 to 30 players, although some only played a couple of games. 

But that's the top 6 Dave , who usually by definition have less injuries and are able to keep their best 20 on the pitch , Leigh used 38 players in 2005 due to injuries , an often ignored fact 

[Dave T]

58 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

But that's the top 6 Dave , who usually by definition have less injuries and are able to keep their best 20 on the pitch , Leigh used 38 players in 2005 due to injuries , an often ignored fact 

Yup. I stopped counting after every top 6 team proved that you need more than 23 players in your squad. I expect it got no better further down the table. 

23 is clearly not a big enough squad, and I expect they will make signings when they can. 

[Big Picture]

On 18/01/2020 at 12:21, nmew said:

But the Wolfpack don't have that system set up yet.  They'd need farm teams.  They'd need the league to adopt a draft.  That's potentially a long way away, or might never happen at all.

It won't ever happen within the RFL structure, it would be much too radical a change for that.  It can only happen if and when a whole new built for purpose RL equivalent of Super Rugby and Pro14 is set up independent of the existing structure in the way those competitions are above the domestic RU structures in the countries where they operate.

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

2 hours ago, Damien said:

The bigger worry for me with regards to Toronto is more numbers than any doubts about SBW. Naming a squad of 23 with no reserves or academy to fall back on is threadbare to say the least. They certainly still need additions.

I dont think at 34/35 your a superstar anymore.  Years of watching Salford sign legends of the past has shown me that.

He wont be a bad player but its too much to ask a man of that age to carry a team.

Union players have no chance of crossing over into Super League that should have been done in League One.

The squad looks like a Fantasy Football squad someone did quickly in a lunch hour.

Castleford game looks interesting as the team needs to get off to a strong start to not be relegated.

Is the game being shown on the CBC Sports does anyone know?  Which is significant because that means people internationally can now watch super league.

Because that is not region blocked outside of the TV deal places UK, Ireland, Australia.

 

[Tommygilf]

3 minutes ago, TheLegendOfTexEvans said:

He wont be a bad player but its too much to ask a man of that age to carry a team.

I don't think he will asked to be though in fairness, a significant amount of the squad were signed for last season on the basis of being in Super League - Wilkin and Leutele off the top of my head for example. I expect them to use SBW increasingly throughout the season and equally I think he has a point to prove and would expect him to do that.

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

7 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I don't think he will asked to be though in fairness, a significant amount of the squad were signed for last season on the basis of being in Super League - Wilkin and Leutele off the top of my head for example. I expect them to use SBW increasingly throughout the season and equally I think he has a point to prove and would expect him to do that.

It certainly makes the games interesting.  But a lot of journeymen in that squad for me.

Under the Super League schedule I think it will struggle come mid season.

 

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, TheLegendOfTexEvans said:

It certainly makes the games interesting.  But a lot of journeymen in that squad for me.

Under the Super League schedule I think it will struggle come mid season.

 

Yeah I'd agree with that, but they are well coached and I don't think they will go down.

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

8 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Yeah I'd agree with that, but they are well coached and I don't think they will go down.

At the end of the day it depends how bad the other teams are as well!

[Tre Cool]

I think we can trust the Wolfpack's judgment on this.  They've done just about everything right so far and I'm v excited to see how they go in SL on and off the pitch.

[Chris22]

On the subject of Toronto's squad, this is a very interesting read!

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/36536/11912898/toronto-wolfpack-wont-rush-sonny-bill-williams-back-into-action

McDermott talks being down to 18 fit players already, being up or over (!) the salary cap already, salary cap dispensation, SBW possibly missing round 1 and almost certainly missing a few weeks around round 4 or 5.

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

3 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

On the subject of Toronto's squad, this is a very interesting read!

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/36536/11912898/toronto-wolfpack-wont-rush-sonny-bill-williams-back-into-action

McDermott talks being down to 18 fit players already, being up or over (!) the salary cap already, salary cap dispensation, SBW possibly missing round 1 and almost certainly missing a few weeks around round 4 or 5.

If this was a club that was strapped for cash I wouldnt knock the squad.

London and Salford going above and beyond on limited means, but it does not make sense to blow your budget on one player.

Unless the player is separately funded and you dont actually have an increased playing budget.

 

[LeytherRob]

2 hours ago, Chris22 said:

On the subject of Toronto's squad, this is a very interesting read!

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/news/36536/11912898/toronto-wolfpack-wont-rush-sonny-bill-williams-back-into-action

McDermott talks being down to 18 fit players already, being up or over (!) the salary cap already, salary cap dispensation, SBW possibly missing round 1 and almost certainly missing a few weeks around round 4 or 5.

The loan of Worthington to Featherstone is starting to make sense if they think they may be over the cap. 

It does leave them in a perilous position in terms of depth though. Once the injuries start picking up they could be struggling for 17.

[TheReaper]

To all the worries about injuries - I don't know all the ins and outs of the SC but surely there's some sort of Injured Reserve / "6 game injured list" etc sort of function where long term injuroed don't count like in NFL/CFL?

[LeytherRob]

Just now, TheReaper said:

To all the worries about injuries - I don't know all the ins and outs of the SC but surely there's some sort of Injured Reserve / "6 game injured list" etc sort of function where long term injuroed don't count like in NFL/CFL?

Teams can apply for salary cap exemption for an injured player like Castleford did for Luke Gale but this is for when players suffer serious injuries that rule them out for the season. 

[Kayakman]

12 minutes ago, NOS4A2 said:

That is a very worrying read. 
Without being accused of being "anti-Toronto", the signing of SBW is looking more and more like an Argyle decision and not one of the coaching staff and the comments from Mac sound like he'd have preferred a few more bodies.
They knew the cap when they joined the comp and it would seem from his comments elsewhere about cap dispensations that RL players aren't that keen to move to Toronto unless the price is right, as was the case with London. If Farrell is on the Radar, then expect him to cost as much as SBW and that's a lot of cash for a "project'.

Is the Honeymoon officially over in Manchester/Toronto?

What honeymoon?  THERE NEVER WAS A HONEYMOON!!

Where have you been for the past 3 years?

[LeytherRob]

It's difficult to find stats on total players used by clubs over a season, but I did find this put out by the NRL in may which covered the first couple of months of the season.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/05/10/stat-attack-how-many-players-your-club-has-used-in-2019/

By May half of the league had used more players than TW currently have in their roster. It would be interesting to see what the lowest number a club has fielded in the SL era but I don't really have the patience to scour the net manually putting that together.

[Kayakman]

1 hour ago, NOS4A2 said:

In the real world, not "la la land", where the cap for L1 and the Championship was, "whatever the combined other teams spend, we will treble it and win".

Toronto asked to join.

The game allowed them.

The game agreed to their requests for Marquee signings etc....

They won loads of games with a team that should have remained unbeaten for 3 year (but didn't)

They have arrived at the top level, horribly unprepared.

Their coach now is making excuses for a professional player touted as a superstar, who apparently isn't currently up to the transition from battering ram with an off-load for the all blacks to battering ram with an off-load for Toronto and asking to allowed to spend more money because apparently Toronto isn't the "mutts nutz" of a destination we've been told.

I'd add that SBW, according to Mac, is being saved for the business end of the season. You'll no doubt spout it'll be a charge for the play-offs. I've supported an expansion team coached by Mac and I'd say my experience would point to that not being the "charge" they are involved in!

 

You've lost your senses!

Do you want TWP to employ Rugby League lads or have to go over and sign big Union stars to avoid cap issues and deny those hard League working lads an income.

Thats the stark choice to be made....leave all of your old prejudices and grudges behind, no one wants to hear them.

Are you for employing the local lads (for Toronto special dispensation) or not?  Do you stand with and support your own or not?

[Man of Kent]

Chase Stanley is stuck in Australia due to visa issues and is likely to miss the start of the season, LE reports.

 

[Kayakman]

2 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Chase Stanley is stuck in Australia due to visa issues and is likely to miss the start of the season, LE reports.

 

Another thin necked bureaucrat MAKING THEIR MARK!