Watkins is a strange one, before the injury he was superb, but like Leeds he has just failed to rediscover any form. Struggling player in a struggling team.
I wonder will he be looking for a complete change? Toronto perhaps, if they come up?
Watkins is a strange one, before the injury he was superb, but like Leeds he has just failed to rediscover any form. Struggling player in a struggling team.
I wonder will he be looking for a complete change? Toronto perhaps, if they come up?
Warrington to replace Atkins maybe?
"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom." Danny Blanchflower.
Might have been written by a footballer about football - but never a truer word............
In:
Out: Morgan, Douglas, Swift
Re-signed: Makinson, Fages, Lomax, Walmsley, Roby, Taia, LMS
It’s quite a list...
Upside raises a good point though - what if a club signs a player on a five year contract but the club and player secretly agree that a mutual termination with severance payment will take place after two years? That’s effectively a way of paying a player more than you have declared.
Mutual termination simply means no ones going to court - mutual termination can quite easily contain a payout from one party. That being said, Leeds simply made Watkins position at the club untenable - he had to leave no matter what - hence he’s not yet got a contract for next year.
Not so
https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post...stay-at-leeds/
Still had a couple of years to run, could have played at Batley for two years
As i read it ( and it's just what i think and could well be wrong ) They have both agreed to cancel the contract at the end of the season,so there will be no payoff of his other two years ( again this is just what i think ). Watkins forgoes his remaining two years money and has the option to talk to any team and take the best offer. Leeds get cap space as it is only happening at the end of the season and both parties have agreed this outcome.
As a club trained academy graduate could they not be creative? Are there upper limits on how much counts on the cap for acad grads? Depending what they are paying the marquees, are they able to move it around?
All conjecture and playing devils advocate, cant say I know how the live cap works! I'm sure if there is a creative way, Hetherington and the RFL favourite Sinfield will find a way
Declaring Marquees has never been made 100% clear (particularly signing a marquee contract vs choosing mid contract to declare on the cap). They could, in theory, find enough cap space this year to move one of Hurrell or Merrin off of their Marquee positions, switch Watkins in, and he would be 75k on the cap irrespective of the pay off.
Even putting the cap implications aside, I think it’s bad taste from Leeds. Surely you have to question as a player the clubs loyalty to you if their willing to cast aside their captain, who has on numerous occasions turned down NRL/ union money (presumably above what he was offered at Leeds) only to be cast aside after 6 months following recovery from a bad injury.
Watkins has spoken in the past of his battles with mental health issues, perhaps he wants away from Leeds and this is the problem. There seems to be a dressing room friction that may be he cannot or does not want to deal with.
Looking and listening from outside I would say he is going to the NRL and that suits both parties. As earlier posters have said he could still get paid and not play or play lower league.
It looks like DWZ is signing for the Wests Tigers and they will be having a cull to fit him under their cap.
Players like Reynolds, Packer, and Elijah Taylor are making way. None of whom I'd be that interested in for Saints
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Reynolds is a crock, not been able to sting more than a handful of games together for about 3 years.
Packer wont get a visa even if he wanted to come to the UK due to his criminal convictions and recent prison time
Taylor is a good player and i'm sure he'll get snapped up by another NRL club
Not Saints related but seeing as it’s the OOC thread, I believe Hastings to Wigan is a done deal.
NEVER WRITE OFF THE SAINTS
Good player but I think we have the better player in Theo. I think if you saw Hastings tweets recently there were a lot praising Wigan when they played ( think he was lying though) so it pointed to where he was going. Be interesting how he will go at Wigan and if the outside influences will bring out his shady passed.
Humans are more concerned with having than being.