When he was at Wakefield I thought he got a rough deal from our fans as he IMO did a decent job for us.

However if Saints are a serious centender I'm not sure about this one - still you never know he may thrive in the Saints set up.

If i was a Saints fan i'd be a little upset; losing Savelio who was a real up and coming talent and bringing in two uninspiring signings in Matty Smith and Tommy Lee is a bit of a noggin scratcher.

Quite. Smith and Lee are direct replacements for Savelio.

I'm not upset one bit losing him. We only want commited players. I'm more upset about Levy going to Melbourne. That's a stinker!

Regards

King james

He's always been in the 'alright and does a job, but not a star' category, if they've got him on a cheapish wage as Backup he'll go well for them.

Olly Davies and Matthew Haggarty have both signed for Halifax RLFC.

Are they any good?

Just out of curiosity, and being bloody minded, how many have been signed from local amateur clubs and the clubs development systems?
Or, as I suspect, the easy option is once again being taken.

Wakefield have signed Hirst from Dewsbury, he's also gay but sadly not black or a Hindu else he'd have ticked every box.

Seriously I think the days of taking players straight from Amateur clubs are long gone. Sadly I have to say it's because most of the clubs simply arn't run well enough anymore to produce the players and the players who are of limited interest seem to want a big contract immediately. I do though think he Championship remains grossly under exploited with a number of players who IMO are every bit as good as some of the Aussie/NZ and French players who do get a gig - ditto top Academy teams - but for some reason chances or second chances are not the norm over here - in contrast in the NRL players often disapear into the feeder clubs and bush football only to re-emerger better and stronger a few years later.

Could there be a case (or even a way) to make our amateur Clubs feeder Clubs to the pro & semi/pro leagues ?

I am thinking that the pro club's could provide additional financing to our amateur partners in return for those Clubs & players being affiliated members of their parent Clubs.

Leigh could/would have Miners & East *St Helens have reportedly taken players from these rececently*, Wigan would have St Pat's etc.

I don't know how this works in Oz or how it could work here, if at all, just throwing out an idea.

That's how it should be but Australian clubs and the NRL are run by high Cali teams individuals. They don't always get it right but when compared to there short sited self serving British equivalents they are brilliant.

Most of ours can't run a club or its governing body. Even our biggest clubs are poorly run by idiots of the highest order.

Gary hetherington is by far the most competent administrator - make of that what you will. It would take a lot of competent administrators and a fair bit of cash to run what you suggest. Our lot would cock it up and we'd abandon it within a year

Without going as far as being feeder clubs some of that is supposed to happen already. Embed the Pathway and Sky Try are concerted efforts by the RFL to get Pro Clubs more involved in schools in their area and to work in partnership with the junior set ups in their local amateur clubs. Also to provide a route from Junior amateur rugby to pro clubs academies/first teams and back again if the players don't make it. The idea being to keep them involved in the sport and potentially have further attempts at becoming pro players again in the future.
According to Leigh East and Miners there is little relationship between them and the Centurions and little activity with them (which surprised me as from the outside Leigh always appear to be well connected to their community). Warrington seem to be doing the best from the feedback I've heard from the community clubs. My club Salford have traditionally had a non-existent or even hostile relationship with local clubs but have recently really stepped up their game and the Foundation is doing some great work. Early days but encouraging.