Personally think Briscoe could quiet easily get an NRL contract and he was discarded by Wigan and Hull.

I dont, not for anywhere near the money he is on now.

Who mentioned money, thought we were talking about talent or have we just added another variable into the equation to make your arguement stand up.

Honestly do you think Briscoe isn't good enough to get into an NRL squad..

I'm not sure.

However he has gone on to play plenty of SL and would be going over there as a mature International who might have won something had he not got ill before the Cup Final. Bringing kids over here who cannot make first grade in Aus is an insult to our players, our International Academies, our Scholarship set ups and our service area coaches.

Lovegrove would not of played NRL if he had played until he was 94, that is the difference nor will he ever go back and play NRL unless the standard over there drops.

Seem to remember other players getting big wraps when they were young and trying to earn new contracts but soon forgot about once they levelled out, I dont see any more to come from him and therefore is no better than other forwards around who happened to be British and born locally.

Speak to any Aussie fan on the VT, they laugh at some of the rubbish we pick up over here. Leigh were looking at 2 players from a club in Sydney who would find Hull Dockers a tough test!!!
Their accent does not make them better than the likes of Burnett, Wheeldon and Washbrook, the quicker the RFL ban them from playing here the better.

I'm of another frame of mind that isn't too bothered about the odd young aussie coming over here as long as they're worthy of a contract. Look at Dobson for instance, arguably one of the best SH's in the league currently and he couldn;t get an NRL start. Where as Monaghan for wire has all the accolades a player could want from oz and in my view isn't fit to lace dobbo's boots.

The ones that worry me are more the aging and the frail that will enevitably come over here purely on reputation and realistically only ever take there wage for 2 years (most of which either unfit or injured) and then clear off. I agree that a lot think an aussie accent automatically makes a player a great player and therefore cuts them far more slack than a british player of the same ilk.

Lovegrove is an odd one, as you say he may have never played top grade NRL had he stayed but he has arguably been our best prop when he's been fit, should we give a young lad his place (mills for instance). To be fair I'd have lovegrove in before the likes of Fozzard any day. I've seen far worse players come over here from oz with half decent reputations that are no way better than lovegrove is currently. Need I say more than Garrett Crossman.

Schoolboy international, wasn't he? I know that doesn't guarantee success in first grade, but he was obviously thought to have potential then.



As Lovegrove has a British passport that would be legally problematic. The three players you mention at the end, all play in SL so are not being denied an opportunity - you need to cite NL players to make that point. Aussies are not picked because of their accents - what would be the point of that? Their average players are often as good as our decent ones, that is the underlying problem.
Regarding the Aussies on the VT, they are mostly sneering one-eyed pom-bashers, so their opinions should be ignored more often than not, IMO.

You obviously don't know the reason he came to England

I havnt got a clue what salary Shaun Briscoe commands, but what i do know is that if Jordan Tansey can play full back to first team level in the NRL, so can Briscoe.

Tansey can't, hence the reason he's back in England.

My mistake. I thought i had read on here after Hull signed him that he had played first grade this year at full back. Still think Briscoe could though!