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19 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

What you mean is the coach didn't think he was good enough in 2019. 

Remember, said coach hadn't even heard of Tommy Makinson, (International Player of the Year and Golden Boot winner) at that time either. 

 No there are better wingers than Grace, he's not even the best winger at Saints. If he was that great NRL clubs would have shown interest by now, they haven't. Stick him in a team like Salford and he would be thought of no higher than players like Joe Burgess.

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5 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

He had an offer from Welsh RU which Saints matched but then Racing came in with a huge offer which blew everyone elses out the water. Sad to lose one of your youngsters but there's just no way any league club can match what a French Union club can offer with no SC.

I slightly digress, but is there a salary cap in French union or can the clubs pay the players what they like?

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Just now, The Future is League said:

I slightly digress, but is there a salary cap in French union or can the clubs pay the players what they like?

Cap or not, they pay players what they like. C' est la France.

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6 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

I slightly digress, but is there a salary cap in French union or can the clubs pay the players what they like?

You could Google it but from memory it's a lot more than English RU and vastly more than SL. 

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As this is going even more down hill and well into the Who Cares Zone so Keith put  in the the cross code place and lets have done!

 

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Damien said:

 No there are better wingers than Grace, he's not even the best winger at Saints. If he was that great NRL clubs would have shown interest by now, they haven't. Stick him in a team like Salford and he would be thought of no higher than players like Joe Burgess.

Not really, Makinson is the best winger in SL and one of Englands true World class players. Even Bennett said what a player he was but the NRL never really offered big money for him- the NRL is not everything - I'm sure Saints are paying Makinson a very good wage. He's worth every penny but Grace is just a good SL winger nothing more.

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10 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:

That was more to do with Bennett seeing the "GB" tour as an England warm-up. 

Grace is a better winger than Blake Austin. 

That is just your opinion, Coote got picked and he plays for Scotland so it lacks basis for me. No one would argue otherwise about Austin. The thing is Austin wasn't picked for GB to play on the wing, injuries caused that, so saying Grace is better than Austin counts for nothing. It doesn't mean Grace was next in line either, Handley got called up instead of him. Its a little daft to even bring Austin into the equation.

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

That is just your opinion, Coote got picked and he plays for Scotland so it lacks basis for me. No one would argue otherwise about Austin. The thing is Austin wasn't picked for GB to play on the wing, injuries caused that, so saying Grace is better than Austin counts for nothing. It doesn't mean Grace was next in line either, Handley got called up instead of him. Its a little daft to even bring Austin into the equation.

You should have told Bennett that.

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Let’s not forget Saints have just given salary increases to Dodd,Welsby and Knowles three players they couldn’t afford to lose. I’m sure a few others as well but can’t think off the top of my head. Good player as he is Saints had other priorities to sign up first unfortunately there then wasn’t enough left in the kitty. 

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10 hours ago, The storm said:

Ive argued for a long time that the salary cao creates 12 very average teams

And that is most certainly the case

StH, Wigan and Cats are not average…

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9 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

England in June/July, in an annual game that WRL could actual sell and generate sponsors from. Just like I want England to play France in an annual game that France can sell and make money from. I dont care if it doesn´t involve NRL players or tragics on here don´t think they will enjoy it because they wouldn´t be the market trying to be reached.  

The trouble is that Wales doesn't have the players to make such a match competitive and can't get them until RL has a lot more money to offer players as a comparison of the salary caps in RL and RU demonstrates.  Let's face it, Wales would need a good number of top Welsh RU players to come over to become competitive and RL can't make that worth their while as things stand.

That explains why IMG sees engaging with the Aussies as key to their efforts, that's the only option the way things are now.  More money needs to come in before competitive northern hemisphere Internationals will be possible, and a lot more too.

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On 03/07/2022 at 16:57, RigbyLuger said:

If they wanted to, a club could make him a marquee player but maybe they don't see him worth that much.

He’s a good player but definitely not worth being a marquee signing. 

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IIRC, a top winger in the NRL (Brisbane Broncos) many years ago went to RU. He didn't want to go and said to Wayne Bennet he would stay if they upped his pay. Wayne's reply was wingers aren't a key position in RL and will never command top dollar. 

My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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14 hours ago, Damien said:

That is just your opinion, Coote got picked and he plays for Scotland so it lacks basis for me. .

It was also Wayne Bennett's opinion: 

Bennett, however, says the doubters can moan all they want but nothing will stop him from controversially planning towards England’s World Cup campaign in two years.

He said: “We are working on a plan to get our game right because next year against Australia is vital and then hopefully we can be a real contender at the World Cup.”

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17 hours ago, Damien said:

 No there are better wingers than Grace, he's not even the best winger at Saints. If he was that great NRL clubs would have shown interest by now, they haven't. Stick him in a team like Salford and he would be thought of no higher than players like Joe Burgess.

Who was squeezed under the Rooster's salary cap. 

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50 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:

It was also Wayne Bennett's opinion: 

Bennett, however, says the doubters can moan all they want but nothing will stop him from controversially planning towards England’s World Cup campaign in two years.

He said: “We are working on a plan to get our game right because next year against Australia is vital and then hopefully we can be a real contender at the World Cup.”

I'm not sure why you'd expect him to say much different when asked questions about the World Cup or England.

The fact is if Grace was good enough he'd have been picked, as Coote was deemed to be and as someone like Brian Carney was before him who GB even changed the badge for. He wasn't. As is 3 wingers got picked in the squad before him and Blake Austin as an emergency winger. Many were only pushing Grace to be a token Welshman in the squad, something he himself acknowledged and to his credit he himself said he didn't want to be picked on that basis.

We obviously disagree on how good Grace is and there is no point going round in circles. For me he has never been in the Hall and McGilvary bracket, nor Makinson these days. He certainly does not deserve marquee money.

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11 hours ago, Pie tries said:

StH, Wigan and Cats are not average…

Nor are Warrington..... (finish your own joke here)

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20 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Can’t blame him for chasing the cash and the lifestyle, but it still feels like a right kick with the World Cup coming up. 

This has been shown with other players too. It really illustrates how we need to raise the profile and appeal of the international game. I could never see the same situation happening in reverse and a RU player would certainly delay such a switch for a year until after their World Cup.

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3 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

But the point isnt for the game to be competitive to begin with, its for Wales to get a game on tv so they can get sponsors and commercial income to invest in the game. 

If the plan is to beg Australia after they showed they will walk the second its not in their interest, thats really no plan at all. 

Australia can have 3 end of year games vs Kiwi Tonga plus one in a tv market that suits them and nrl doesnt need any players to travel. 

So England are not needed and never will be. 

The trouble is that to get the match on TV and get sponsors and commercial income into the game, it needs to be able to draw an audience to watch it, for that Wales has to be competitive and for that there needs be enough money in the game to attract a lot more players as good as Regan Grace or better into the game and then make it worthwhile for them to stay instead of going to RU as Grace is doing.

Thus the poor plan of begging Australia is really all there is the way things are now.

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