[urlhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/117807867/new-york-rugby-league-circle-marquee-players-in-the-wake-of-sonny-bill-williams-move?fbclid=IwAR1VJCHojjwm83RWTBHByJniwkBUBSOWJWcDxgyGPQzb05PiMjzGI3OwRHw[/url


Program Printer....= working with expansion club?



Got to love the off season.....all the nutters come out. There's 2 BBC threads over on total fascist RL.COM claiming that a clive James obituary and a mike Portillo train journey show are proof that auntie hates us, even though she shows live club RL

This is great news! Their team is going to be stacked! SL by 2024 will easily be obtainable

I suppose that if TWP can make it all the way to Superleague with the apparent approval of the game here, and sign players nobody else could, it sets out the exact path the next North American club would logically need to follow to get to Supeleague. This press release was also with the added detail that "in time" New York would produce their own Rugby League players from a junior system. You need to note in your diary for next year that Ottawa will be putting out that same press release, only the names of the marquee players will change, but Ottawa born RL stars will be promised for 2050.

That TWP "did it", came with a £5Million deficit, before they started their major spend on this year and beyond, so they will rack the debts up into tens of millions in time. Is Ricky Wilby really that rich to be able to follow that or does he have the usual "mystery investors"? I don't suppose investigative journalism has any place in the Rugby League press, I can only surmise that those who (and I am very very thankful they do - thank you Gentlemen) scratch a living putting out Rugby League Newspapers and Magazines prefer to report all this "growth and glamour" rather than undertake any investigative journalism on the realities and difficulties. You don't appear to be enamoured with Total.RL.COM, what on earth did they do to you?

Which English Superleague club do you hope will get relegated to the second tier for New York Steph? What if it turns out to be your club?

Rugby League has been played in and around New York for 20 years now and they have had junior programmes running at times in places like Rhode Island and Delaware.
They have had a handful of players with NRL experience over the years, and even SOO rep Daniel Wagon for a few years.
Several American born players have also played or trained with qld cup and strong country sides in Australia like Helensburg in the Illawarra comp. One winger, Smith was his name if I remember correctly, trained with Parramatta for a pre season after he scored a good try playing for USA against Australia.
There are at least a thousand guys in New York or surrounding areas who have played more league at a higher level than most people on this forum.
When you whiners are talking down Canada, you can make some fair points about them only playing League for 3 years or so, but guys from the New England area in America toured Australia as far back as the early 2000's and played games against teams like Saint George reserves in Sydney, Wyong Roos in Wyong and played 7s against teams like South Sydney, Lebanon and Fiji at Russell Crowe's comp in Coffs harbour (I was at all those games).
In short, League is alive and well in New York.

Whoever finishes lasts. That will be who deserves to get relegated.

I really cant see it being St Helens though. By 2024 we will have the likes of Lewis Dodd, Jack Welsby and Josh Simm who will all be England Internationals by then, tearing up SL.

Don't get me wrong mate, I'll only whine if New York don't bother with any USA players and just sign up players en masse from the English club who get's relegated next year and then sign up Aussie marquee type players past their sell by dates. I am very well aware of the USARL and of their International sides. As far as I know their poor performance in the World cup was due to them deliberately fielding USA born players. Toronto Wolfpack could not get rid of their North American players fast enough.

What the article and other statements they make say to me, is that New York will buy the best players then can from anywhere they can. I am only concerned that they will totally ignore American players - do you really think they will want to be playing in the Championship for the next ten years nurturing these lads?? Again apologies if I have got this wrong or upset you.

So your OK then Steph! I don't know where this is all going but I can't see (allegedly) rich north american clubs going on recruiting from relegated English SL sides. Won't TWP, Ottawa and New York want to sign players like Percival, Grace, Roby, Makinson Thompson and Walmesley with their marquee allowances? How would you feel if their scouts were watching the debuts of Dodd, Welsby and Simm?? Surely they will be after your players Steph, not Wakefields.....Does this not worry you??

Why should it worry me? You are making it sound like New York targeting players is a new thing and never happened before. Teams are always sniffing around our players.

Of course they will get the best players they can - like every other side.
They do have a very strong American bias I have noticed in conversations with them over the years, so if they can find American players of a good enough standard, they certainly will, but they aren't crazy enough to throw a lot of money around to field an uncompetitive side.
My feeling is that they will be about half American born in the lower grades, but if they make the ESL they'll probably only be able to find 2 or 3 American players of that standard for the first year or two, but America isn't the strongest sporting nation on earth by accident. They will throw a lot of money and effort at developing their own players, as they do in every sport.
From my conversations with the players I talked to at the Orana 7s competition in Coffs Harbour, Americans are convinced they will dominate Rugby League if they get serious, for no other reason than they are Americans, and that's what they do, and supporting "funny talkers", as they call Australian and English players, is not the way they see things going.

Well said roopy we near teams like this to make people see what ruby league is all about and if they can get their players up to speed and ready for super league we can then move to 14 teams or more with more players

They will need to do some rapid work to have any of their own players SL ready in that timescale.
Despite the previous poster suggesting that there are 1000 RL players in the area, how good are any of these players ?
If they were up to Championship quality, some would already be over here. It's more likely that they are of conference standard, enjoying a game on a Saturday afternoon.
The reality is that the new N. American clubs will be taking the bulk of their players from the UK, topped out with "Aussie" players.

The reality is that for each club formed in N. America, there will be a casualty in the UK.
Best case scenario is a SL club playing part time in the Championship and worst case is the demise of a "heartland" club to facilitate a N. American side.
Some would say this is a price worth paying and IF the game were to take off over there then, in the grand scheme of things it may be but, lets not kid ourselves that there will be a championship or SL club in N. America with and "home grown players on their roster- this would take 10/15 years.