Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:06 pm  

Offside Monkey wrote:

So should the RFL fund a couple of young promising coaches to go and do a placement at an NRL club each year?

It would be a far better idea than sending players over. Didn't Mike Rush do something along those lines early in his career?

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:42 pm  

Don Brennan wrote:

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.

.........................and Burgess when he played for England. Whilst his tackling and attitude were fine, his ball handing has gone backwards since SL - he was a one man knockonathon!
personally thought Robes, Benny and Jammer showed better than him and Ellis (or perhaps not as fit?)

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:49 pm  

sgtwilko wrote:

Hmm really, the figures I read go totally against that. I have just emailed barla and nzrl for their official figures of juniors playing the game. As soon as hear or if I hear back from them I post the info.

I'll look forward to seeing them figures then. From what i have seen over there and heard from various people involved with the game whilst i was visiting, there is a huge interest.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:08 am  

BackrowSaint wrote:

I'll look forward to seeing them figures then. From what i have seen over there and heard from various people involved with the game whilst i was visiting, there is a huge interest.

the figures are on wikipedia for the kiwis. 22,000 registered players with 3,550 been adults and 18,450 been juniors. but i didnt take them as gospel so i contacted the communications officer at NZRL who was more than swift in her reply to back those figures up. this coming year she said they are looking at 25,000 total adults and children so lets say around 20,000 kids in NZ. i havent heard from barla yet but i know there are around 4000 + juniors from age 6 to 18 playing in the cas and distrcit leagues alone. add saints, wigan, leeds, cumbria, hull, bradhuddersfax and the london effort we will be hitting 25,000 kids easy and thats a conservative estimate. as i said we have a deeper pool to develop.

as soon as i hear back from barla i will post their figures. if they dont reply to my email i will ring.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Wed Dec 01, 2010 3:50 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.

I am not sure how losing the best players we have in SL will benefit the British game. In fact, judging by the fact that Roby was one of the better players on the tour, the challenge remains to bring up players who are of a similar standard. That aint going to happen if we become a feeder league to the NRL. The game needs to retain star talents and improve the systems we have.

Its absurd on just about every level to be thinking about wanting the likes of Graham, Roby, Tomkins etc to 'test themselves' down under. The only reasons I can think of are that our inferiority complex regressed to such a level that we need to see one or two players 'rip it up' down under to satisfy our self worth.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Fri Dec 03, 2010 9:33 am  

Saint Simon wrote:

brilliant news, really thought he might go to the NRL

I know someone who is a very close family friend of roby and he said roby will never leave saints. He was asked by the aussie media would he go to NRL and he replied he wouldn't rule it out and the press jumped on it as if he was going.

Roby has everything to be put in the same bracket as KC.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Fri Dec 03, 2010 9:53 am  

Roby isn't anywhere near as good as KC.

On the NRL thing, it's not the coaching that is the problem, it's the playing stock. Your average NRL youngster looks like the Morris'. Big strapping lads who are the cream of the crop coming through. Over here your average SL youngster is a sparrow legged mong who isn't particularly fast, strong or clever. Just average.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Fri Dec 03, 2010 10:04 am  

Saddened! wrote:

Roby isn't anywhere near as good as KC.

On the NRL thing, it's not the coaching that is the problem, it's the playing stock. Your average NRL youngster looks like the Morris'. Big strapping lads who are the cream of the crop coming through. Over here your average SL youngster is a sparrow legged mong who isn't particularly fast, strong or clever. Just average.

Roby isn't as good as kc, thats why i put he has everything to be put in the same bracket as kc.

Roby would have been a massive hit in the NRL. Roby imo is one of the very few worldclass players we have in england.

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Tue Dec 07, 2010 12:49 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

It's the quality of players, the quality of coaching and more importantly the intensity of the games, even at Junior level.
The Junior Kiwis have just beaten the Aussies, let's see how we go on in the next two weeks v the Aussie U18's.

At the risk of appearing to be moaning (again) about our academy systems, they are not preparing our better young players for the first team, and those are the kids (and coaches) IMO that would benefit more from a year or two's scholarship out in Australia.

However to do that we would need the RFL, ALL the clubs, and the Aussie ARL to buy into it and help to fund it.

I wouldn't bet my house on it happening though.

The Council wouldn't be happy either

Re: Roby signed new deal to 2014 : Wed Dec 08, 2010 1:54 pm  

Great news for you guys and SL.

Quality player.