Ben Barba

[Harry Stottle]

Just been sent this from NZ

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

@Saint Toppy will be horrified by this signing 

[RL Tragic]

I am not defending what he had done , but there are 3 blameless kids who need supporting . I think he’s been felt conveniences he should now be allowed to provide for his family . 

[Rupert Prince]

This ought to be worrying for the likes of Hull KR or whoever other than Leigh might expect to be relegated.  Assuming his 'skill set' (his rugby ones that is) have remained then he would be enormously beneficial to Leigh, or whoever.

But are Leigh wise?  And ignoring that, will relegation really be an issue after this season?

[Harry Stottle]

13 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

1.But are Leigh wise?  And ignoring that,

2. will relegation really be an issue after this season?

Hmmmmm, good questions Princey.

1. As you say, if he plays as he has proved in the past, he will be a wonderful asset, is that a risk worth taking considering his previous, as a Leigh fan I think so.

2. I imagine we will only know the answer to that as the year progresses, so I revert back to my answer to Q 1. 

 

[LeeF]

How does he qualify for a Visa?

[Rupert Prince]

15 minutes ago, LeeF said:

How does he qualify for a Visa?

Do we have an arrangement with Australia?

[sweaty craiq]

A good chunk of SL ‘21 imports have baggage

[Rupert Prince]

25 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Hmmmmm, good questions Princey.

1. As you say, if he plays as he has proved in the past, he will be a wonderful asset, is that a risk worth taking considering his previous, as a Leigh fan I think so.

2. I imagine we will only know the answer to that as the year progresses, so I revert back to my answer to Q 1. 

Assuming the story is true I would not criticise Leigh, they can be hard nosed about it, as Saints were previously. It's only business, as Don Corleone said.  And I'm guessing that Barba will say he is contrite - and as RL Tragic says, he has to make a living.

If  I were Leigh though I would be spending as little as possible of the £1 million bounty from SL, although my second guess is that Barba's wages will not be that high.

[LeeF]

11 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Do we have an arrangement with Australia?

A certain percentage of NRL games or Internationals or a British passport 

[Ramon Rojo]

We should allow Mr Barba the opportunity to learn from his mistakes and be a better person.

It is unfair to lock him out of the sport he excels at and simply throw away the key.

Give the bloke an opportunity to turn things around.

If the story of him going to Leigh is correct that will be a massive boost to the disadvantaged club. It could certainly even up that unlevel playing field

[Hela Wigmen]

27 minutes ago, LeeF said:

How does he qualify for a Visa?

He doesn’t according to the rules that are in place because he’s not played in 50% or more of the games he was fit or able to play in, because he wasn’t able to play due to the NRL banning him. Plus Super League said they’d follow suit. 
 

[Wire quin]

He's good in a good team, sadly thats not what he's joining.

Leigh could do with a FB that can defend. 

[Harry Stottle]

21 minutes ago, Wire quin said:

He's good in a good team, sadly thats not what he's joining.

Leigh could do with a FB that can defend. 

No point him going to Warrington then Quinny.

Just saying

[Angelic Cynic]

Have Super League permitted the signing?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/05/catalans-chairman-super-league-meeting-israel-folau

[sweaty craiq]

10 minutes ago, Wire quin said:

He's good in a good team, sadly thats not what he's joining.

Leigh could do with a FB that can defend. 

Think we will be going for the ''chuck it about and score more than them approach'' in 2021

[Harry Stottle]

34 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Assuming the story is true I would not criticise Leigh, they can be hard nosed about it, as Saints were previously. It's only business, as Don Corleone said.  And I'm guessing that Barba will say he is contrite - and as RL Tragic says, he has to make a living.

If  I were Leigh though I would be spending as little as possible of the £1 million bounty from SL, although my second guess is that Barba's wages will not be that high.

It's actually 650K from SL,  they were already in line to recieve 350K from the central  funding.

I assume you say spend as little as possible because they will be relegated at the end of the season,  but isn't that the point on spending on someone like Mr Barba to increase the chance of avoiding the drop. 

Yes his salary I expect will not be that high if he has no barganing power like another club getting into a bidding war for his services.

[sweaty craiq]

33 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Assuming the story is true I would not criticise Leigh, they can be hard nosed about it, as Saints were previously. It's only business, as Don Corleone said.  And I'm guessing that Barba will say he is contrite - and as RL Tragic says, he has to make a living.

If  I were Leigh though I would be spending as little as possible of the £1 million bounty from SL, although my second guess is that Barba's wages will not be that high.

I agree Barba will not get anything like what he got, but since being placed in SL and gaining £700k extra funding plus increased gates/corporate - how much has been spent? As a guess Tierney - £30-40k but he replaced Shaw who wanted PT at £15/20k, Keenan Brand on a season loan from Wire £25k. It says we are not just signing anybody but have plenty spare to sign the 3/4 quality we need - the issue as we all knew would be availability and the attraction of moving to the relegation favourites. Degsy is back from Safari today and rumour has it will be releasing some news.

 

[Tommygilf]

He was undeniable quality with St Helens. He clearly has some significant issues (and is not alone in that regard by most measures applicable to him). Questions will be asked around if he is still anywhere near good enough given his time out of the sport. Unless he's coming in on a bargain level contract (which is quite possible), you do have to wonder whether Leigh would be better investing elsewhere.

He also epitomises the problem Leigh currently face. Do they roll the dice and spend to try stay up, or do they hold their ground and accept the inevitable with the lower funding?

Best to worst case scenarios:

Best - current squad beats Wakefield and/or KR over a season 

Second best - current squad with major investment beats the drop.

Second worst - current squad gets relegated

Worst - current squad plus major investment still get relegated. 

Given that the 2020 squad (and coach) hadn't really had time to prove itself either way, its a difficult one. I don't see DB being the type to play it safe financially and risk the projected on field performance.

[sweaty craiq]

2 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

He was undeniable quality with St Helens. He clearly has some significant issues (and is not alone in that regard by most measures applicable to him). Questions will be asked around if he is still anywhere near good enough given his time out of the sport. Unless he's coming in on a bargain level contract (which is quite possible), you do have to wonder whether Leigh would be better investing elsewhere.

He also epitomises the problem Leigh currently face. Do they roll the dice and spend to try stay up, or do they hold their ground and accept the inevitable with the lower funding?

Best to worst case scenarios:

Best - current squad beats Wakefield and/or KR over a season 

Second best - current squad with major investment beats the drop.

Second worst - current squad gets relegated

Worst - current squad plus major investment still get relegated. 

Given that the 2020 squad (and coach) hadn't really had time to prove itself either way, its a difficult one. I don't see DB being the type to play it safe financially and risk the projected on field performance.

Derek has the cash to go for it but who is there to go for? If he finds the 3 high quality then we could end up mid table, injuries permitting and playing things 'professionally' by targeting games and accepting pastings in others. 

[Tommygilf]

7 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Derek has the cash to go for it but who is there to go for? If he finds the 3 high quality then we could end up mid table, injuries permitting and playing things 'professionally' by targeting games and accepting pastings in others. 

All clubs are finding recruitment from Oz and New Zealand difficult as I understand it, with Covid restrictions having a major impact on the attractiveness of any deal - for example one of the regular selling points was "yes you're far from home but you have all of Europe on your doorstep to go travelling in", which obviously now isn't possible.

Like I said if Barba is coming in cheap then its less of a problem. But if he's going to be on a fairly sizeable wage it does really demonstrate the recruitment struggles Leigh have atm. The cap means anyone can only spend so much and the nature of the system is that not everyone's dollars are equal. Do you think you'll recruit a marquee?

[Harry Stottle]

20 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Given that the 2020 squad (and coach) hadn't really had time to prove itself either way, its a difficult one. I don't see DB being the type to play it safe financially and risk the projected on field performance.

Mr Beaumont is playing it safe though Tommy, if you watched the 2 hour interview with Simmonds and Wagga, a question was put to him - on social media - will you honour the contracts of player's if you get relegated?

He answered "that is a very easy one, nobody is on any contract extending this current season"

[Tommygilf]

8 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Mr Beaumont is playing it safe though Tommy, if you watched the 2 hour interview with Simmonds and Wagga, a question was put to him - on social media - will you honour the contracts of player's if you get relegated?

He answered "that is a very easy one, nobody is on any contract extending this current season"

That's playing it safe in the financial realm then, but far less so on the on-field. Most clubs would have some sort of relegation clause (either for cancellations, reductions or renegotiations of contracts). Having straight up zero of your players tied down for the following season strikes me as unwise. As London found, that led to half their squad being picked off before the season had finished regardless of whether they stayed up or not.

[Harry Stottle]

7 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

But if he's going to be on a fairly sizeable wage it does really demonstrate the recruitment struggles Leigh have atm.

Yes this is no different to any other season what a Championship clubs suffers when they get promoted, they only find out the last game of the season that their campaign has been successful, by then most player's are contracted to other clubs.

Will this year prove to be different though? and not wanting to seem like the vulture circling high above the carrion, but if for reasons beyond anyone's control the Championship does not play because of Covid restrictions there will be some very good player's doing nothing - SL doesn't have 100% of them all - any SL club with recruitment or injury problems will most likely take advantage of the situation, BUT I do hope it does not come to that, the vaccine's work and we can all get back to some normality.

[Harry Stottle]

Just now, Tommygilf said:

That's playing it safe in the financial realm then, but far less so on the on-field. Most clubs would have some sort of relegation clause (either for cancellations, reductions or renegotiations of contracts). Having straight up zero of your players tied down for the following season strikes me as unwise. As London found, that led to half their squad being picked off before the season had finished regardless of whether they stayed up or not.

Yes you are correct on the contract clauses, but you are overlooking the fact that all tge players on Leigh's books with the exception of Lewis Tierney were signed prior to Leigh getting the nod to play in SL in '21, they were signed on Championship contracts.

Did you watch the interview with Mr Beaumont? It was very entertaining in it he gives his reasons why he offered 12 months and his reasoning behind it in discussion with the player's he signed.