Good business in the transfer market

There’s very little money in it but the transfer market has been as busy as a busy man in a busy shop; 45 Super League players have moved to another top flight club thus far and there is still time for this number to increase further.

Next year, some clubs are gunna look pretty unrecognisable from last season - Bradford and Salford in particular, but for completely different reasons. The Bulls will be looking to rebuild after a few years of steady decline that has seen one of SL most successful sides slip into lower league obscurity. Salford, on the other hand, are building for the future and after a number of years wallowing in the lower reaches, now have a new stadium on the way and will be looking to attract a better calibre of player to rise up the table.

Bradford’s team re-structuring has seen them release nine players and replace them with ten, including Patrick Ah Van from New Zealand, Oliver Elima from Catalans and, perhaps surprisingly, Shad Royston from Championship side Halifax. Salford have been extremely busy Devils with the capture of Canterbury Bulldogs’ Luke Patten, Huddersfield’s Stephen Wild and Wigan’s Iafeta Palea’aesina, amongst others. Veteran hooker Malcolm Alker has gone into coaching with the club, and Willie Talou has retired; Phillip Leuluai, Jeremy Smith and Ste Tyrer have all gone their separate ways.

Bradford and Salford have done a bit of business between themselves, n’all. Ian Sibbit has left the Reds for Odsal and Chris Nero has gone the other way.

Castleford Tigers have had to contend with losing influential Joe Westerman and star centre Michael Shenton, as well as retiring forward Mitchell Sargent and James Evans, but have signed pretty well, securing the services of Warrington full back Richie Mathers, Danny Orr from Harlequins, Martin Aspinwall from Huddersfield and exciting Crusaders player Nick Youngquest.

 Wooden spoonists and arguably the biggest disappointment of 2009, Catalans Dragons, have themselves seen plenty of transfer activity with the acquisition of ten players, whilst releasing eleven. The most notable of captures are Ian Henderson from NZ Warriors, Damien Blanch of Wakefield and Steve Menzies, who may well be in his final season as a pro. The Dragons have lost some very good players, however. Steve Bell has retired, Dimitri Pelo has defected to Rugby Union, Dallas Johnson and Chris Walker return to Australia, as does Dane Carlow.

Financially-trouble Welsh outfit the Crusaders have not fared too well and it is as of yet unclear if they will be clear to compete in 2011. They have signed Paul Johnson and Stuart Reardon prior to entering administration, but with 7 players leaving, they are very thin on the ground and time is running out to get a squad together good enough to challenge for the playoffs.

London-based Harlequins, now under new coach Rob Powell, have completed the signing of Roosters backrower Nick Kouparitsas, and Chris Bailey from Manly. On the other hand, Luke Williamson has retired, Will Sharp has joined Hull and Louis McCarty-Scarsbrook signs for St Helens. The Quins, unless they invest heavily in quality, are likely to rely on loan signs and local players, but Powell will need time to impress on the board his ideas.

Huddersfield Giants have released the aforementioned Martin Aspinwall and Steven Wild, Simon Finnigan has joined Widnes and Brett Hodgson has gone to Warrington. The West Yorkshire side have made just one real quality signing in Luke O’Donnell, who has State-of-Origin pedigree.

The Barcodes, at this time, will look similar to the side they had last season, new signings pending. they’ve signed Will Sharp from the Quins, and Joe Westerman from Cas’. Peter Cusick has retired, Mark Calderwood has been released and Craig Hall joins Hull KR.

On the east side of the city, we at Hull KR have, along with Craig Hall, signed half back Blake Green to partner Michael Dobson, and Willie Mason, possibly our biggest signing of the last 30 years, if based on profile alone. The out-going Chev Walker will now ply his trade with Bradford, Charles I’Anson has gone to Widnes, veteran Frankie Mariano to Wakefield and Mike Ratu has been released; these five made less than 20 first team appearances between them last season.

Leeds Rhinos have made some noticeable changes to their 2011 squad with the addition of Ben Cross from Newcastle Knights and Weller Hauraki from Crusaders. Ben Jones-Bishop returns from a loan spell at Harlequins and Zak Hardaker, a young try-scoring winger, has been snapped up from Championship table-toppers Featherstone, but will return to Post Office Road as part of a loan deal.

The Rhinos will be without some regular players next year; Scott Donald has retired and returned home to Australia, Matt Diskin has joined rivals Bradford, and Greg Eastwood has re-joined Canterbury after only a year in the British game. Luke Ambler has joined Harlequins on loan.

St Helens have signed very well in readiness for 2011. Josh Perry, and outstanding capture from Manly, joins Michael Shenton and Louis McCarty-Scarsbrook at the Stobert Stadium this year (sounds a bit weird saying that). The Red V have had a bit of a clearout; five young players have been released, Matt Gidley and Kieron Cunningham have retired, Matty Smith has gone to Salford, Maurie Fa’asavalu joins Harlequins RU and Bryn Hargreaves leaves for Bradford. It will be interesting to see what affect the retirement of Kieron Cunningham has.

Wakefield Wildcats appear to be struggling somewhat. They’ve signed players with varied top flight experience in Jeremy Smith, Kevin Penny and Tommy Lee but the likes of Frankie Mariano, from Hull KR and Jessie Joe Parker (Featherstone) have next to no experience playing against the game’s elite. Jason Demetriou has been released, Tevita Leo-Latu and Sean Gleeson join the Salford revolution, P Cooke joins Crown RL (now closed down!) and Damien Blanch has gone in search of sun and frogs legs with Catalans.

Double Challenge Cup winners Warrington Wolves have signed just the one player in Brett Hodgson so far, and have released Richie Mathers and Vinnie Anderson. There has been very little transfer activity coming either in or out of the Halliwell Jones thus far, but I imagine at least one more player will be added to Tony Smith’s squad before the start of the season.

Defending champions Wigan Warriors have signed a Melbourne Storm trio of Brett Finch, Ryan Hoffman  and Jeff Lima to bolster what is already, on paper, the best squad in Super League. This has not been without the release of some very good players in Mark Riddell, who returns to Australia for family reasons, with Iafeta Palea’aesina and Phil Bailey joining Salford. Cameron Phelps has been released.

On the basis of the above, my prediction for new season is below:

1. Wigan

2. St Helens

3. Leeds

4. Warrington

5. Hull KR

6. Huddersfield          

7. Hull FC

8. Bradford

9. Salford

10. Castleford

11. Catalans

12. Harlequins

13. Crusaders

14. Wakefield

If you have an thoughts, leave your comments below!

Crusaders Face Fresh Battle

You know what, I’m not even surprised. It is hard to have any sympathy for an experiment like this when I thought it’d fail all along. Don’t get me wrong, the Crusaders location, stadium and support are there to make them a valuable asset to the league but if you build something on quicksand then it’s gunna bloody sink!

This problem goes back at least 3 years and the decisions made back then are still having an adverse affect on the club today. Now, I consider the Wrexham Crusaders to be a completely different enterprise to that of the one formed in Bridgend but I just wonder whether anyone has actually learnt anything from the mistakes made already.

The Rugby Football League have gotta take their share of the blame for a start. They didn’t allow Celtic Crusaders, as they were then known, to grow into a club that could realistically hold their own in Super League. They basically banged a load of Aussies together, which, don’t get me wrong, did pretty well in their first season and then in their second achieved promotion to Championship One. But then what? That is three years of Rugby League and without a Welsh lad in sight. That is no surprise for those with half a brain, you can hardly expect them to pluck decent young Welsh kids off a bloody tree.

Then they decide to admit them to Super League and give them three years with which to build a club and team capable of sustaining not only a decent squad on the pitch, but a successful business off it. Neither happened. By the end of 2009, the Crusaders were in big trouble and were eventually bought out and the franchise was moved to Wrexham in North Wales, only 30 odd miles from Widnes.

So that’s a new franchise, brand, location, stadium and ownership - practically a completely new club!

Now we’ve seen the Crus go into administration because the holding company who took them on has gone tits up. In a sport like Rugby League, the fast track option is simply never, ever going to work, more so now. You can’t throw money at a club like you can in football and expect it to work. The only time it actually did work was with Maurice Lindsey’s Wigan - but everyone else was part time and the Cherry and White’s were on a full time wage packet - and that was years ago.

This season has seen a new team, South Wales Scorpions, take centre stage in, funnily enough, South Wales. They are made up of predominately Welsh lads who have, in their first season, given a reasonable account of themselves. For the love of God, RFL, do not fast track this lot like you did with the Crusaders.

You only have to look at the Harlequins, who have had more name changes than East Hull Growler has had bowl movements at work, to see that there is still no guarantee that with time, patience and a long term plan, that it will work anyway. But I’ve got a good feeling about the Scorpions - and in the next 10 years, we maybe, just maybe, might see a Welsh club in SL who are both stable on and off the pitch, and with local lads who have had the added advantage of been allowed to grow at their own rate without someone pushing them in the back saying ‘get on with it, there’s no time.’

Expansion is an issue that still divides supporters of the greatest game. I’m a fan of the idea in general, just not the way Richard Lewis and Co. go about it. If the Crus are considered to be the flagship of expansion, then surely the likes of Sheffield (35 miles from Leeds) and Blackpool (35 miles from Wigan) can also be considered expansion areas too. Sheffield is as far south as this sport is likely to go and an area were we can realistically grow a successful franchise. Blackpool, or Cumbria, seriously need looking at. That area is crying out for it.

Widnes arguably were demoted from Super League in 2007 because of financial indiscretion, will the Crus lose their licence because of the same reason? Only time will tell, but if they do, the obituary writers better get their pens out.

Fireworks, but no sparks.

Hey up there, welcome to me new blog. I'm Red and I like to have a ramble about anything this great game of Rugby League throws up. I'll be using this blog to discuss issues away from Fortress CP and you can leave your messages in the comments box below if you feel like it.

Now then, having been kept up all night by bleedin' fireworks, I expected some sort of spark this morning when I awoke at 5am to watch that shower of tripe in red n' white (no, not Rovers - I mean England!) against the Kumuls of Papua New Guinea.

Stan's men were no match for our boys but when half your squad is made up of domestic players you're not going to stand much chance against the Super League elite, let alone the Aussies and Kiwis. They give everything for the jersey, them Papuans, but their defence is more penetrable than Giggsy on a night out round Witham!

Fair play to 'em though, 'cos I reckon we Makali Aizue'd more ball than they did, even if Tony Clubb did score four tries. He's a bit of a unit that lad but SL's leading missed tackler was arguably our best centre all tournament - and he only played 80 minutes.

Any road, what did you expect to happen? You can't walk onto the top dog's manor and try to steal his dinner - he'll bite your bloody leg off. And that is pretty much what happened to us; we went to Oz and New Zealand looking for points and came away with a good hiding. So it looks like our boys will be returning with their tails between their legs, and arms in slings, and ankles in support straps...

The 4Nations is a crackin' concept because it encourages international competition from emerging countries and the reward for winning these titles is a match against the world's elite - but God help Wales next year!

I urge every rugger-following fellow out there to stick with it, stick with McBanana (he is a 'Ull lad, afterall) and think on, we're only just starting to get to grips with the new domestic quota rules and the locating of top young players to potentially fill England shirts isn't going to happen over night. The likes of Widdop, Harrison, Clubb, Briscoe, Eastmond and the Tomkin brothers have only come through in the last 18 months so there is plenty of promise there and, I imagine, a lot more to come.

One player who has probably had his day is Paul Cooke. James Rule has come out and told everyone that East Hull's prodigal son can flip off. So I do wonder what happened with Wakefield; maybe John Kear bit off more than he could chew a second time around or the Wildcats are in a bit of financial trouble and couldn't pay his wages. God knows, but I hope Sir. Rodders cheque cleared.

Right then, I'm off to pick a fight with a large Willie Mason cardboard cut out and prey that Charlton Athletic beat Barnet at Underhill for 43 big ones.

Ramble over.