Show a picture of Coltman Street to give that post some balance

Big contribution from Cooke to keep us up in 2007.
Had it been us and not Salford who had been relegated i dread to think where we would be now.
It was just 08,09,10 that was the problem.

Maybe I was a tad unfair with the comparison. Brough is lovely this time of year.

Far be it from me to question the depth of HDM's journalistic research, but this is simply untrue, isn't it? "[uMason was linked with a move to Toulon before joining Justin Morgan's men [/uand that interest remained throughout his short stay at Craven Park." First news of the link was well after he started at Rovers, surely? www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html

Far be it from me to question the depth of HDM's journalistic research, but this is simply untrue, isn't it? "[uMason was linked with a move to Toulon before joining Justin Morgan's men [/uand that interest remained throughout his short stay at Craven Park." First news of the link was well after he started at Rovers, surely? www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html

As is Sproatly and many more of the East Hull Villages.

"If you ask all the boys, I've always told them I've wanted to have a crack at rugby, and I've always been the type to jump in at the deep end, and I'm ready to try the best I can to make an instant switch."

This sounds awfully familiar.

Good riddance, never wanted him. Hope the board have singed their fingers enough to be carefull next time.
We are a world famous club but any more of this and we become a world famous joke.

Rovers have to rightfully take stick for this episode.
They couldnt have predicted the passport hold up which was the root cause of the problem but will have learned lessons from it.
Mason has been proven to be dishonourable but with the pay day he has been offered by Toulon his head was always going to be turned.
You live and learn.
Perhaps Youth over Marquee will be the blue print they adopt as a result of this falling apart around them.
Cannot blame Rovers for signing him, the media frenzy around him showed he was big news in Rugby League but time to move on.

Maybe but it was Rovers who made him hang around and then go to Tonga for a passport. Then when it didnt go through Rovers de-registered him.
I cant fault him for looking after number 1 to be honest I would have done the same. Possibly could have told Rovers about the approach.

Rovers board have been truly outstanding since Hudge took over as Chairman but I have to say I'm very disappointed in how the board have handled this saga and how they have treated Willie Mason for the following reasons:-

As I understand it, it was reported last year that Galea was due to get a Maltese passport and Mason was signed as a quota player who would play for Rovers under an Australian visa and be registered as a quota player. Had this happened, Mason would have been in the country before xmas doing pre-season with the rest of the squad.

It then transpires Galea won't come off the quota so they tell Mason he's going to have to get a Tongan passport himself. We then have a 30yr old player who has to go through the bureaucracy of sorting out his own passport when all he wants to do is come over and get on with things.

At this point I (under contract or not) I think it's perfectly understandable that he or his agent looks at other options given the fact he's unclear of how things would pan out at Rovers considering he's in his twilight years and all he wants to do is play rugby.

He eventually came over and showed effort and enthusiasm whether on the pitch or on the bench (even though he was tucked out wide when he should have been played in the middle until Dobson was in the team) only for Rovers to bin him off because he's looked at other options whilst the club had told him "sort yourself a passport out or you can't play".

The board may say that Mason was out of order in approaching Toulon, but I feel in this instance, they should have cut him some slack considering all the messing about Willie Mason has been subjected to.

And all this talk of Mason being a "money grabber" is total non-sense as far as I'm concerned; if someone offered me 5 times my salary then I'd jump ship without a second thought - and I expect most people reading this post would do the same.

I've always stated that the FC board got what they deserved over their treatment of Paul Cooke and I'm not the sort of person to change their tune now the boot is on the other foot.

I do applaud the board and JM for the tough stance they take with all players because it benefits the long term culture of the club but I feel they gone a step too far this time.

Willie Mason will earn the equivalent of £1.65M during his next 3 years @ Toulon and I wish him well.

Pretty fair assessment I think. No hard feelings towards him. Looking forward to seeing how he does over there.
I think straight into the Barbarians against England is a big ask.
Hopefully we'll put the new found room in the salary cap to some good (wise) use.

He was being paid wasn't he?
If we had not been paying him all along then I would have done the back door dealing he had but that isn't the case, Like it or not we had still been paying him as a HKR player he then chose to go elsewhere knowing full well he was still reciving (sp) monies for that contract.

A good post, and makes sense, but I can't believe Rovers didn't assist Mason in getting his passport after the hype around his signing. Surely they would have pulled out all the stops to assist him?

£395,000 x 3 = £1.65million? I know the standard of education isnt the best in hull, but seriously? Its not even ball park

Anyone else think the Allam million was to pay Mason off?

=#FF0000The moderators will moderate these boards as they see fit-RW

Didnt want him but agree with every word of that.

Feck!!!!!!! 6 months!!!!! he was expensive!!!!!!


Have a word with yourself.

Er no

Why would we pay him off wen he asked to be released from his contract

Bite 1


Bite 2



And that's the hat-trick!

Err no love. Considering I'm responsible for paying thousands of pounds of tax payers money on a daily basis, including some extremely complex calculations taking in excess of 3hrs, then I'm perfectly capable of managing a simple calculation of Willie Mason's Toulon deal:-

Currently, rounded up to the nearest penny, there is 66p to the Australian dollar so 2.5M Australian dollars X .66 = 1.65M English pounds.

Come back when you have something useful to contribute soft lass.

yes i do remember zook ema I watched him play loads of times which is why i chose the name. I am more than old enough to remember paul cooke and you would have every right to say what goes around comes around and your right.

as for rovers getting there own house in order I totally agree we as a club should share the blame. and in future I would like the club to fully focus on developing our own youth system and bring through local lads, so we may not rely on overseas players in the future. will that happen well I can only hope.

exactly ,

this guy got offered a massive amount of money to ply his trade elsewere,passport or no passport he would have taken the offer either way.
he was clearly here for the money.

Agree completely, just hope lessons have been learned from the whole situation