And they reckon they are cutting imports….
In a week where young Bulldogs player Cameron Phelps headed to England, now Queensland and Australian back rower Michael Crocker has announced he will join Hull from next year on a three year deal.
Crocker has an amazing winning streak going at the Melbourne Storm but he has talked about having a short career for a long time now, even hinting he would have retired at the end of last season if thats when the Melbourne Storm had wanted.
Crocker said the chance to play in a lower quality competition while earning big money was a big lure, and good on him too.
He will join the likes of Matt Sing, Shaun Berrigan, Adam Dykes, Motu Tony, Willie Manu, Todd Byrne and Peter Cusack….all of whom are at Hull FC alone!
And this is a club who’s fans think they have a great junior development system in place!
Phelps meanwhile will join the likes of Trent Barrett, George Carmont, Pat Richards, Thomas Leuluai, Iafeta Paleaaesina and Phil Bailey at Wigan.
Do you see where this is going?
Two clubs, 17 players from overseas. Thats means you could make one team full of imported players just between these two clubs alone…..no wonder Britain hasn’t troubled Australia for 30 years!
Still, both players will be better for their clubs than any of the English players would be. They have a great work ethic, a drive to win, better training habits and more skill. All thing the British don’t value.
And in more great news for British player development, Brent Webb has signed a contract extension with the Leeds Rhinos.
This all comes in the week when the second worst coach in Professional Rugby League (Matthew Elliott being the worst) finally decided to stop the torture that was his pathetic coaching career.
Paul Cullen, the moron who had Andrew Johns come to his club and actually coached the sides tactics to try and eliminate the worlds greatest player, has finally stepped down as Warringtons head coach.
Despite having an open cheque book during his entire stint at the club, Cullen managed to win sweet f*ck all in a coaching term that was nothing short of a disaster.
No doubt he’ll get a job somewhere else. The very little British input in Super League these days is all about shuffling failures from one club to another, but I don’t envy the club that gets him. It would be like the grim reaper walking into the room.
