Lee Grant
John Eales (66)
Let's assume that Melbourne definitely gets the 15th team – which players will realistically be available to play for them in 2011, without making pie in the sky assumptions? We don't know when the contracts of some players expire; nor do we know for certain which players were cut for 2010, let alone will be for 2011, but some reasonable suppositions can be made.
It will be fair enough to nominate a few domestic players from other squads who we think are off contract in 2010, even if we are not certain, and we think there is a chance they will be interested in making a move. In particular, we can look at players who we think may be off contract in 2010, and are 2nd stringers, but have the quality to start in games – or, in the case of young players, will be by 2011.
With offshore players: we can assume that a few journeymen will return if they are given a Super15 opportunity – and if it turns out that the players we name are contracted beyond May 2010, or otherwise will not return here, there is every chance that other journeymen who are not nominated will be available instead.
Please add names to the list in the next post for discussion, or recommend that some be deleted. Use, as much as is possible with our inferior knowledge of player availability compared to those doing the selection at Melbourne, the same thought processes that they will use. I have nominated many Sydney club players because I know them well, but please post some names of players from other places who are better known to you than to me. Don't nominate anybody who was at school in 2009.
Most of the names on the list in the next post are not household names. With such a short lead time, and the staggered timing of contract terminations, this was always going to be the case. We can all remember some of the scrubbers who were given 1 year contracts by John Mitchell at the Force in Year 1. It will take 3-4 years of accumulated decisions of players not to go overseas until the quality of the Melbourne team rises.
Therefore people who want to post that the list proves that we should not have a 5th team should be quiet for a few years, (or at least start their own thread on the matter.) And if they say that it would be better to have an ARC competion than a 5th Super team they will get no argument from any sentient poster on this forum. But until some funding of such a competition can be sourced, I'll take the 5th Super team to get more Aussies playing professional rugby, warts and all.
It will be fair enough to nominate a few domestic players from other squads who we think are off contract in 2010, even if we are not certain, and we think there is a chance they will be interested in making a move. In particular, we can look at players who we think may be off contract in 2010, and are 2nd stringers, but have the quality to start in games – or, in the case of young players, will be by 2011.
With offshore players: we can assume that a few journeymen will return if they are given a Super15 opportunity – and if it turns out that the players we name are contracted beyond May 2010, or otherwise will not return here, there is every chance that other journeymen who are not nominated will be available instead.
Please add names to the list in the next post for discussion, or recommend that some be deleted. Use, as much as is possible with our inferior knowledge of player availability compared to those doing the selection at Melbourne, the same thought processes that they will use. I have nominated many Sydney club players because I know them well, but please post some names of players from other places who are better known to you than to me. Don't nominate anybody who was at school in 2009.
Most of the names on the list in the next post are not household names. With such a short lead time, and the staggered timing of contract terminations, this was always going to be the case. We can all remember some of the scrubbers who were given 1 year contracts by John Mitchell at the Force in Year 1. It will take 3-4 years of accumulated decisions of players not to go overseas until the quality of the Melbourne team rises.
Therefore people who want to post that the list proves that we should not have a 5th team should be quiet for a few years, (or at least start their own thread on the matter.) And if they say that it would be better to have an ARC competion than a 5th Super team they will get no argument from any sentient poster on this forum. But until some funding of such a competition can be sourced, I'll take the 5th Super team to get more Aussies playing professional rugby, warts and all.
