Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:13 pm  

sgtwilko wrote:

I'm not concerned just baffled at a strange lack of ambition from some of our better English players who obviously must have a shed load of desire and drive to get to where they have got. I can see it's great for you saints fans. it seems like heart has ruled head or bank balance has ruled head or a little from column A and a little from column B. I'm sure been a legend in your home town/city must be nice but for those lucky enough to be good enough to get a good deal in Oz i don't understand why you wouldn't want to play in the big league and settle for second best which is sl. You are a long time retired from RL. I just dont get why our best don't go test themselves against the best in the best comp? That's no sledge on saints which is obviously a great club.

Some people are adaptable to moving away, some people aren't.

Robes has a young family, and from what I gather is very dedicated to his family in St Helens. Some people aren't able to leave that behind. Which is fair enough.

Maybe Robes also sees that he could do something to improve the state of British RL by being here, pushing young players like Lunt, Moore, McShane and McIllorum to challenge him on a weekly basis.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:16 pm  

rammsteinbloke wrote:

Or he could stay at Saints for the next 4 years, become a legend, and then move to the NRL when he's in his prime and prove himself to be possibly the best hooker in the world?

Personally, I think this is massive news for the club.

As has Been proved with Morley, Ellis and Burgess once the guys get to Oz there is still a fair bit of further development to be done, core skills and methords that a worryingly lacking in the uk coaching system. I don't think at 29 Roby would reep the benefit he would by a move now.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:29 pm  

SFW wrote:

:lol:

Absolutely fantastic news, he's one of the best players in the world and it was imperative that we kept him, especially with Graham seemingly off next year.

Roby was the stand-out player for England in the four nations so what does he have to prove?

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:37 pm  

WidnesExile wrote:

Roby was the stand-out player for England in the four nations so what does he have to prove?

I would suggest that Roby would benifit more than the likes of Burgess, Graham and Ellis from a move to an NRL club. His games has some tremendous qualities, but his ability to control a game from dummy half is perhaps not as strong as a hooker of his standing should have.
This may improve dramatically under Royce (an ex hooker), but NRL coaching and susequent playing could move him into a real class of his own.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:37 pm  

Ski wrote:

Some people are adaptable to moving away, some people aren't.

Robes has a young family, and from what I gather is very dedicated to his family in St Helens. Some people aren't able to leave that behind. Which is fair enough.

Maybe Robes also sees that he could do something to improve the state of British RL by being here, pushing young players like Lunt, Moore, McShane and McIllorum to challenge him on a weekly basis.

My point of view is we will never develop as a comp to the level of the nrl or be good enough to beat the kiwis or Aussies until will have our 17 to 30 best players playing in the nrl. Our own league will improve and the bar will be raised with training, skills, development. An understand of how we bring through our kids to be at that level to be stars down under. The more top quality players we produce from our kids in key areas like Cumbria, saints, Wigan, cas, Leeds, hull that are gonna be good enough for the nrl will take sl standards through the roof. Having those blokes who made it in the nrl come back into our game with the experience to pass on and bringing through the next stars. Having our top players go to the nrl won't dilute SL it will make clubs light years better at producing that caliber of player.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:46 pm  

sgtwilko wrote:

My point of view is we will never develop as a comp to the level of the nrl or be good enough to beat the kiwis or Aussies until will have our 17 to 30 best players playing in the nrl. Our own league will improve and the bar will be raised with training, skills, development. An understand of how we bring through our kids to be at that level to be stars down under. The more top quality players we produce from our kids in key areas like Cumbria, saints, Wigan, cas, Leeds, hull that are gonna be good enough for the nrl will take sl standards through the roof. Having those blokes who made it in the nrl come back into our game with the experience to pass on and bringing through the next stars. Having our top players go to the nrl won't dilute SL it will make clubs light years better at producing that caliber of player.

I'd argue we more need coaches to go down under than players for that to be acheived.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:48 pm  

Ski wrote:

Robes has a young family, and from what I gather is very dedicated to his family in St Helens. Some people aren't able to leave that behind. Which is fair enough.

My Missus spent two years working in Vancouver on secondment when she was younger. She loved the place and the society she was in, she also says I would of loved it there due to the fantastic outdoors.

However, whilst she was there, her father was taken into hospital with an eye problem, which left him temperaly (sp) blind and worrying the doctors whether his sight would return (it did, thank heavens).

Now, rightly or wrongly, Anglea's mum only told her about the incident when her dad was out of hospital with his sight regained, with the theory that there was nothing Angela could do from t'ther side of the world, so it was best not to tell her unless something definate happened.
That incident means that Ang will never live so far away from her family that she can't jump in the car and get to them.

That said, she enjoys living an hour's drive away from them, just so they're not bothering her all the time.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:54 pm  

Ski wrote:

I'd argue we more need coaches to go down under than players for that to be acheived.

I would agree we need our best young coaches going too.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 4:34 pm  

sgtwilko wrote:

My point of view is we will never develop as a comp to the level of the nrl or be good enough to beat the kiwis or Aussies until will have our 17 to 30 best players playing in the nrl. Our own league will improve and the bar will be raised with training, skills, development. An understand of how we bring through our kids to be at that level to be stars down under. The more top quality players we produce from our kids in key areas like Cumbria, saints, Wigan, cas, Leeds, hull that are gonna be good enough for the nrl will take sl standards through the roof. Having those blokes who made it in the nrl come back into our game with the experience to pass on and bringing through the next stars. Having our top players go to the nrl won't dilute SL it will make clubs light years better at producing that caliber of player.

Take the best 17-30 players out of Super League and it will absolutely nosedive. We don't have the quality to sustain a loss like that. I also don't see any reason why having our best players in the NRL will have any affect on the quality of young players coming through over here, other than to deprive them of regular experience of playing against/with the country's best players.

Roby's game sense would improve in the NRL (having said that, I think it will improve over here now that he's got the main gig at 9), and this might have a moderately beneficial affect on the England side, but ultimately players like Roby aren't the problem. If England had a side full of players of the calibre of Roby, Graham, Ellis and Burgess then we'd be competing on a level with NZ and Aus. The fact is that NRL clubs have come hunting for these players because they are already good enough. The problem is the number of players in our international setup that NRL clubs wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Apart from Penrith, perhaps.

I agree with Ski on this one - send the coaches over, not the players.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Mon Nov 29, 2010 4:40 pm  

Great news,as for going to the NRL to improve,well In my opinion off what I have seen of Ellis he has gone backwards.