It's time rugby league offered a united front in pursuing players

Baz - I'm basically saying that a bit of hatred between clubs and its fans is healthy. If people don't want to see Sam Burgess come back to Souths "for the good of the code" then that is okay.

An an Easts fan I have no dramas if the NRL helped Souths get Burgess as it is great for the sport of RL. The only problem is that if they helped Souths than they should help every other club when it is trying to purchase a player from another sport. Why was the NRL so reluctant to help Parra and Easts with Folou and SBW?

Classic Baz :)

Steve I really enjoyed reading that piece and your arguments are well made. 1. Re league assistance to recruit high profile players, I think you would acknowledge that there is a line which shouldn't be crossed. It's one thing helping a start up club, or a club struggling over many years, but it would be quite another to help an already strong and powerful club. 2. I had never thought about the manner in which the Commission members should act vis-a-vis the Kangaroos, but your description of the NZ team sitting in the dressing rooms waiting for a representative from the competition they all play in popping their head in to say a quick hello gives a perspective that many of us may never have considered before. It becomes particularly important when you consider that over the next decade, it's not out of the question that one or two additional clubs from outside of Australia might join the NRL. On helping or not helping clubs, the single biggest source of inequity is today the amount of times a club gets on FTA, and on this front, the Raiders have a legitimate beef. Hopefully with the new deal allowing for half of all games to be on FTA, clubs like the Raiders can expect to be on FTA at least 10 times in any one season.

At the end of the day players will end up playing the game they want to play if they want to play rugby and someone is willing to take a punt on them they will walk. Same for nfl, afl etc.

A) The Salary Cap appears to be a rort. It's a non-existant guideline that creates a smokescreen for access to other funds such as Third Party agreements. There are a lot of ways to pay a player extra dollars without it showing up. We all know that. B) How can The Broncos, Roosters, Doggies and Rabbitohs be under the same salary cap as The Tigers, Knights, and Titans. Unless of-course those clubs have pathetic administration and incompetent Recruitment Officers. It's just too obvious that the top few teams are planets apart from the cellar dwellers. C) I think many fans believe that the NRL does not treat all clubs equally. Even the clubs partially owned by the NRL are light years from being successful. D) In my opinion it also appears that the NRL and ARL need certain " Extra High Profile Players " to stay in the game in Australia and will do anything, even twist the rules, to keep them here. E) The game is still about who you know rather than what you know. Many aspects of the game are so amateurish. The simple breaking of contracts, The fact that the NSWRL can over rule THE NRL, The inconsistency in punishments handed out at Judiciary, The video ref stuff-ups, The weak as water Salary Cap, The lack of decent development of the game at International level. Our game is an exciting sport to watch. We are looking forward to the 2016 Premiership, but wow we have along way to go to really make it a fair contest for all, and a truly professional code of footy like the NFL.

So the AFL is a joke? The A Leagle is a joke? Get real.

1. The ARLC and NRL actually schedluing the Kangaroos to play some games would do more than any media release of some announcement. 2. Interest in international league has never been stronger? wtf? This is the most of out of touch statement from the NRL media unit bunker yet. Is everyone in there under 20 years old?

Hi Steve, It is totally irrelevant if the NRL "assisted" Souths in landing Sam back at Redfern. The ONLY point that is relevant is how much will Sam's contract show up in the cap. He was said to be earning $1.5m incl. "mayonnaise" in the UK.. The way the rules stand now, Sam could go in the Cap as a 500k signing and the rest is made up in TPAs which underlines how ridiculous it is that only a handful of big clubs can actually take advantage of TPA's. On a positive note, Sam Burgess rates in the top 5 forwards to play RL this century (IMO) and to have him back is a massive coup for the game. Well done whoever made it happen, maybe it was his fiance who after comparing the freezing cold at Bath to the Bonidi Beach sun and surf she made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

If the NRL signs a big name player from another code then the player should play for the team that came last the prev season. Burgess is v.good...but not a crowd drawer like SBW or Hayne or Folau. The NRL has endured 3 consecutive years of dwindling crowds in the face of a growing population no less. Where is Greenburg's explanation, market research and plan?

That is the big problem with third party agreements. The sponsorship support. Another problem is when the deal falls through and the player doesn't get paid. That was why Gasnier left to go to French rugby, Hayne was having problems as was Parra's ex halfback. These are the ones that have become public. If the NRL wants an even field, get rid of third party deals.

In what planet does that make sense?

Well, thats quite ironic coming from you Mascord... just the other day you were waxing lyrical about the lack of patriotism in league and bemoaning that in union. Now you are going on about growing international rugby league?!

The salary cap was not the real reason that Falou was not signed by Parra. Ian Schubert , the Auditor , put too big a price on him. Parra was to register him on say $250,000 but the league said he was a $400,000 player, so parra could not afford that price.

I get the feelig you are forgetting one massive fact when it comes to the league v other sports concept - league "poaches" plenty of talent from union at junior level. It's actually smarter doing it this way as well excuse it's cheaper. The ARU have only picked up 1 league player in the last 5 years of any real worth. And that's Folau. And really, they got him off AFL anyway. He is also costing them a bomb.

more lefty garbage from mascord. No surprises there. The fact is Oz does far more for the int game than anyone else. They provide players for most int teams, not just the minnows, but supposedly 1st tier nations the poms and kiwis. They do far more for int league than say NZ does for union. Going so far as to introduce a random and discriminatory rule that disqualifies many players from origin, even though they might consider Oz home. But here's a quick fix. Move the int league eligibility in line with most other respected international codes, such as union. i.e one team for life. That'd solve a lot of the problems. But of course, the moaners will have nothing of that, because they know it will decimate the international game!!!

The first code that refuses to bow down to these money seeking mercenaries will benefit the most.

They didn't lose Taupau to cap pressure, he left because of the way they've treated Farah.

He's not a "boofhead."

No way, the league getting involved would be a utter joke and further seek to undermine the credibility of the comp. It's the duty of clubs to scout and sign players. If they can't do it on their own then so be it.