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Steve Williams (59)
It's being reported in the Canberra Times today that Ben Alexander is about to re-sign for another two years with the Brumbies, and that Dan Palmer has been linked with a possible move to France.
That's good news for Benny A, but I don't know if the outcome for Palmer is a good one. It may be press speculation or jaw-boning from an agent but it does highlight a problem already touched on in this thread.
In Europe the highest paid rugby players are ..... props! Specifically at THP. Yes, star play-makers are also in the mix, but quality props often eat first. It's a different story here - and it's hurting us.
A few pages back I mentioned being ambivalent about Israel Folau's ARU top-up; reportedly $400k. The positives included media publicity for the code-convert story, and that's welcome. But balanced against this is the fact that, player-wise, our shortfall is in the forwards, not the backs.
Whether Folau shoots the lights out or not, we'd still have a lot of good winger-fullbacks in this country. However, if the Wallabies can actually start winning silverware such as the Bledisloe, it'd be worth a helluva lot more publicity-wise than the Izzy story.
I'd like that $400k (or more - say $500k) to be split four or five ways as an extra top-up incentive to the best and most promising THPs, like Palmer and Ryan (or Kepu, Alexander, ..... - leaving personal bias out of it). This extra payment would be contingent on the player being at a province where he'd be the first choice starter.
If a player is looking at France for cash, he should be willing to look at Melbourne or Brisbane - with the right top-up and the chance to play in gold.
That's good news for Benny A, but I don't know if the outcome for Palmer is a good one. It may be press speculation or jaw-boning from an agent but it does highlight a problem already touched on in this thread.
In Europe the highest paid rugby players are ..... props! Specifically at THP. Yes, star play-makers are also in the mix, but quality props often eat first. It's a different story here - and it's hurting us.
A few pages back I mentioned being ambivalent about Israel Folau's ARU top-up; reportedly $400k. The positives included media publicity for the code-convert story, and that's welcome. But balanced against this is the fact that, player-wise, our shortfall is in the forwards, not the backs.
Whether Folau shoots the lights out or not, we'd still have a lot of good winger-fullbacks in this country. However, if the Wallabies can actually start winning silverware such as the Bledisloe, it'd be worth a helluva lot more publicity-wise than the Izzy story.
I'd like that $400k (or more - say $500k) to be split four or five ways as an extra top-up incentive to the best and most promising THPs, like Palmer and Ryan (or Kepu, Alexander, ..... - leaving personal bias out of it). This extra payment would be contingent on the player being at a province where he'd be the first choice starter.
If a player is looking at France for cash, he should be willing to look at Melbourne or Brisbane - with the right top-up and the chance to play in gold.
