Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Nov 08, 2016 7:20 am  

adi wrote:

With Ben Barba being sacked for cocaine use, would anyone take a punt on him? He'd certainly be box office.

Take a punt on him to sit in the stands....positive test for cocaine use usually carries a ban from the game........can't see the RFL sanctioning him to play in super league....not even for Catalans..!!!!

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Nov 08, 2016 8:26 am  

The thing I don't understand with Barba is the length of the bans he's got. He tested positive for Cocaine in 2015 and was back playing in no time and the talk now is that he'll get a 12 week ban for testing positive for a second time. Why is it so lenient over there when Hock got slapped with a two year ban here?

As for signing him, we clearly would be mad to touch him.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Nov 08, 2016 11:25 am  

adi wrote:

With Ben Barba being sacked for cocaine use, would anyone take a punt on him? He'd certainly be box office.

The ban seems overly lenient, but would he even get a visa?
Barge-pole touch him not with I would.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Nov 08, 2016 11:52 am  

Taking ethical standpoints on players is, I believe, dangerous - better to just play by the rules. If the player is available, if he can get a work permit and if he wants to come, I'd have him.

It's all academic anyway, as I doubt very much whether he'd want to come. On the positive side it means he won't be able to play in the WCC - which must increase our chances.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Nov 08, 2016 1:56 pm  

I'd be up for offering him a contract if it was a second chance, but from the looks of it he has had quite a few second chances already with regard to off field incidents. If he had a big year, he would be straight back to the NRL claiming home sickness, if not, he could be a major disruption to our team and a significant waste of cap money. Let someone else take the risk

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Nov 08, 2016 7:38 pm  

Aboveusonlypie wrote:

Taking ethical standpoints on players is, I believe, dangerous - better to just play by the rules. If the player is available, if he can get a work permit and if he wants to come, I'd have him.

It's all academic anyway, as I doubt very much whether he'd want to come. On the positive side it means he won't be able to play in the WCC - which must increase our chances.

Not such good news for those who were looking forward to seeing him play in the flesh, though.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:42 am  

id offload sam in a heartbeat for him

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:08 am  

Pieman wrote:

id offload sam in a heartbeat for him

Stay well clear we've had enough problems with drugs in the club.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:27 am  

I feel sorry for Sam at the moment.
Everyone seems to be on his back, when in reality, he's been unlucky with injuries in the last 12-15 months.
I feel like we owe him enough to at least wait until he recovers from his injuries before we talk about offloading him for a 2 time drug cheat.
Even when he played this season although not as good as his play in 2013 and earlier, he was still much better than people are making out, especially for someone recovering from an ACL injury.
If you actually look at his stats and work out his stats per game averages, they are scarily similar to Jamie Shaul in terms of Tries, Assists, Tackles, Missed tackles and errors. The only thing he is behind on is metres as he hasn't been returning kicks if the winger is available. Shaul in career best form, and Tomkins in career worst form, I'd wait it out until he's injury free.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Nov 09, 2016 7:10 pm  

Kick return is a massive part of fullback play though. When Sam was playing our kick return was woeful. The time he was taking to collect the ball then get the ball to a winger meant that we were starting all our sets on the back foot after a dominant tackle 20 yards where we probably should have been. It was killing us and allowing teams to dominate sets.