Originally from Australia, I live in East London at present. And if there is one thing you realise when you live in London, it is that football dominates the newspapers.
In general, the back six pages of the newspapers are filled with football news.
I mean, I wouldn’t even know the London Broncos existed unless I knew about them before I got here. And it’s not even football season. The Broncos are part of (to my knowledge) the only professional sporting competition currently underway in England.
We are currently in the off season of the EPL, England are out of the Euros, Wimbledon started yesterday and the Olympics is in less than a month. You would think that the papers would have something else to focus on right?
Wrong! I still read four pages of football in the London Evening Standard today.
What could they possible have to talk about? Player transfers and coach movements.
It doesn’t matter what time of the year or what is happening in the world, football always has something to talk about.
Every year around this time, before the 30 June deadline, there is a frantic rush of player movements in the NRL. There is speculation and media interest and I, for one, read every article.
So why can’t we have designated transfer windows? And why can’t we organise player contracts at the end of the season?
Did anyone like the fact that before the start of the season James Maloney signed with another club? I certainly wasn’t impressed.
Two week, mid-season transfer windows would be ideal. The first could be between rounds 8 and 10 and the second between rounds 18 and 20.
Then, once the grand final is over, players would be able to negotiate and sign contracts until the new season commenced.
I am also a fan of a player transfer fee but that is a topic for another article.
What do you think, Roarers? Am I flogging a dead horse or will the ARLC finally wake up and implement something similar?
The Barry
Roar Guru
The Maloney signing was 'big news' for a week and has barely been discussed since. It's much better to have it done and dusted and the contract signed than months of rumour and speculation. Look at Brett Stewarts situation. Manly were very de-stabilised at the start of the season with so many big names coming off contract and negotiating. As they've been sorted, regardless of re-signing or moving on the effect has been a more stabilised and better performing Manly team. I like the mid-season transfers. We've seen Krisnan Inu go from someone who couldn't get a run to a try-scoring, goal kicking, crash tackling excitement machine. Mitchell was playing the odd game off the bench for the Rooters now he's going to be a key part of the Cowboys push to the semis.
B.A Sports
Guest
We've seen about seven or eight players change clubs mid season this year, isn't that what you are talking about when you say a "transfer window" or are you talking about off season transfers? Because players can just as easily change clubs in the off season as they can mid season, easier in fact. You'll never have the same trading of players like you do in the EPL and American sports because NRL clubs don't own the players like Euro soccer clubs and American Pro Sports franchises. We, in Australia, also work in much smaller dollar figures and with a smaller player base to choose from. So clubs can't take as many risks with player aquisitions
MemberforDobell/PLANKO
Guest
Dont tell me you want the NBN Oikee... I thought you were on the conservative side ?
oikee
Guest
Papers will be obsolute soon. I stopped buying them about a year ago, even the sunday paper i only get monthly, i have already read the news online. I now just buy my league weekly. Why would i want a paper with 6-8 pages of a sport i am not interested in, all my league news is from online mostly. The world has come to me and i am about to up it to 4 gigabites of hard-drive and 500 ram along with the new broadband.