This is where Rugby League and the RFL are a joke. Players on European Passports etc despite being born in Australia/NZ is getting ridiculous and often why local talent are never given a chance. I doubt Gareth Widdop if he had not moved to Australia would be anywhere near Fax or any other Pro team. English players at all clubs are never given a real fair chance. Clubs will always look to sign a Aussie over a Brit if they can find a way.
The RFL do nothing really to improve the chances of clubs bringing through academy players. They allow SL Clubs to grab players from the Championship and offer no compensation. They allow SL clubs to have 5 Quota players. Really is a joke and why England struggle on the big stage as the strength in depth and quality is missing
The RLIF (Rugby League International Federation) is just as bad as for example Scotland beat Italy 104-0 last week-featuring a team with 3 Scottish born players in! Italy also had 8 or 9 none Italian born players in and have no proper domestic league. Players can chance country like they change there underwear. The game is run by idiots from top to bottom both Professionally and at amateur level.

He did score 3 trys however does say which postion he played.

under the rules how many can we have, as i thought was only 2.
being black and royston.

under the rules you are allowed one and that is black,

royston and branagan have different passports allowing them to play branagan maltease and im not sure what passport royston has

Could it be residency now?

3 years with us . . . 1 year with Batley . . . 1 with Donny . . . mind you that doesn't make sense, European?

Nah Andy was very poor at tackling in the games that he played for us, a good NL2 player for me, sorry wish it was different.

so how can we have nash? whats he come under?

That maybe the case, If tackling is his only problem, he can learn proper tackling technique fairly easily. For his limited game time he has scored 11 trys, which is 10 more than roberts who we play in centre, 6 more than Goddard,8 more than Smith so the lad knows where the tryline is. . But maybe if he spoke with a aussie twang people may look at things differently.

So when it comes to homegrown players during the next round of franchise, how many do we need to have to gain a point?

If a player at this level still needs lessons in proper tackling technique then something is wrong and maybe we shouldn't be signing such players?

Not a dig at Andy or anyone but a general comment.

I always thought he looked strong in defence. Runs the ball really well and has great footwork. Only part of his game needs looking at was that he didn't pass the ball enough. Wouldn't mind him going on loan. but we should look at keeping him at the club.

would be a quality signing!

earlier this year there was a thread reading 'whos else would you want?'
i rem nash was mentioned alot in there, along with yere from sheff.

nash would strengthen our squad, and would be cracking bit off bussines!

Dylan played centre for Thunder and as has been said is a big strong player, if a bit hot headed. If he is on his way he will be a good signing for you.

He has a British passport so there are no worries over quotas.

Might even come down and watch him and Branno next year.

I'll be the one in the Thunder shirt

you will be more than welcome to the shay , hope your club pulls through

Was it you at the shay this season, I seem to remember there being one supporter who came along and cheered them on that time.

this would be a very good signing IMO he looked there stand out player every time i saw them on tv.

would be a great signing for us. hope we can get him.

I was one of the few, never missed a Thunder game at The Shay.....

Good day out, stop off in Wetherby for a few then down to Fax, concede 70 odd points, drink a few pints then home...

Good little bunch the Gateshead fans hope to see you again next season

Karl Pryce has an impressive try scoring record wouldn't want to sign him though. Nash would be a superb signing dont care what accent hes got.

Rumours on the Widnes board say pryce might be going to them. How many games has pryce played these last few years? cant be many, quality player when fit but always seems to be injured.

Quality is not a word I'd use to describe him big, soft, overrated are more apt

Nanyn is a lot bigger.

His squad no was 4 but he played right centre against us and scored his hat trick in the 1st half

Nash also linked with Leigh, but i suppose it depends which league we will be in !

I understand your argument, and yes its a problem, and i am all for adding quality players to the squad, but we are in the championship and therefore alot of players will not be complete players who play in our league. We could go through our team and pick fault with quite a few players, they cant do this or that, and many people on here this season have done that. I think it would be a mistake to let him go, loaning him out would be the better option, as he needs more game time. However i understand the financial situation and maybe it wouldnt make sense to do that. The lad has potential, and given the right opportunities could become a good player.
I think its vitally important that we start to add homegrown players to our squad in preparation for the next round of franchise, but not to the detriment of the team of course. I know we havent been running a reserve side, and that hopefully will be resolved in 2010, however we are lagging behind the clubs in our league that we will be competing against, we need to tick as many boxes as possible and not rely on the ground etc... to be in contention next time.

I am not passing judgement on individual players here, but I don't prescribe to the notion that just because someone is local means we should sign them.
Truth is, local players, at the moment, are not good enough...otherwise they would be playing for fax. James haley is an exception to the rule. There is a programme in place, led by mm, to address the dearth of young talent, and i'm sure it will produce a plethora of talent.
But until then, I want the best players possible at fax; sentiment shouldn't come into it.