Quote ="Biff Tannen"Cuthbertson - not a superstar in the NRL, while he was seen as solid he has surprised a lot of people this year and he wasn't talked up before he came here by rival fans.
Kelley - not really a top player there lets be honest (i know you have a man crush on him
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Aiton- was at Wakey before Leeds, seen as an average NRL player at the time he came over here.This year his only top year and he is now over 30.
Walsh - seen as a steady away player in NRL as far as halves go, don't know in's and out's but obviously Saints paid top dollar.
Sio - Parramatta, been garbage in NRL for a while but they saw fit to release him? hmmmm.Not really anywhere else to go in NRL from there is there.
Ta'ai- Soon as he has a stand out year, back to the NRL.
None of those players above imo can really be seen as stars or even top players at the time of leaving Australia.None of them left with NRL with clubs banging the door down begging them to stay.Mainly squad fillers.So yes, like i say, this level of player will still come and do well in SL, nothing wrong with that mind.It's certainly no dooms day scenario.'"
Beg to differ on some of those players. The fact that Parramatta as a team were poor has nothing to do with the quality of individuals. For example in 2014 the Parramatta back three were Jarryd Hayne, Semi Radradra and Kenneth Sio. Jarryd Hayne was in that year the Dally M winner (with Johnathan Thurston), and Semi Radradra was Dally M winger. Kenneth Sio scored a bucket load of tries in that year, and was overshadowed only by Radradra in the team scoring. No doubt Parramatta could not compete with Hull KR's offer when carrying the other two's salaries (Hayne only announced his departure in October 2014). I watched Sio in that year and could see that he was class. He has proved it in SL.
Albert Kelly had a great reputation in the NRL as an attacking half back. He was only released by Gold Coast because they were worried about him being injury prone (which he is).
Luke Walsh was a very good scrum half at Penrith. He was released because Penrith could get Peter Wallace from Brisbane (who in turn replaced him with the outstanding Benjamin Hunt), possibly because of salary cap reasons with an expensive roster already in hand.
You ignore the fact that some quality players are let go by NRL clubs not because the players are not very good but because of salary cap reasons, such as the fact that over time NRL clubs have to increase some players' salaries (e.g. because of representative achievements) and then find that they cannot keep all their very top players when competing with big counter offers (Sydney Roosters releasing James Maloney to Cronulla and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to NZ Warriors are good examples). That is also why some mid career stars get released from the NRL to Super League.
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