Social Media Luke Thompson is rumoured

It was magical stuff!! Managed to get rid of has bin deadwood like Klemmer in the process.

 

St. Helens announce Luke Thompson is leaving after 2020 to join the Canterbury bulldogs!!!!
Big news for us we finally landed one!!!!

 

Well one rumour finally turned out right...

 

Wow it’s finally tomorrow

 

Thompson leaving St Helens to beef up Bulldogs pack

St Helens have announced highly rated English prop Luke Thompson will be heading to the NRL in 2021 to beef up the Canterbury pack.

The Bulldogs, who are yet to make an official announcement regarding Thompson's signing, have trumped several NRL suitors including the Warriors, Titans as well as St Helens to secure the 24-year-old.

He will see out the final year of his contract with the Super League club before moving to Australia next season.

St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus confirmed his club’s “bitter disappointment” at losing Thompson in the early hours of Tuesday morning AEDT.

His signature is a coup for the Dogs given their recent years of salary cap hardships.

The Bulldogs have farewelled representative props David Klemmer, James Graham and Aaron Woods in recent years as it reshaped a roster hamstrung by back-ended contracts.

Thompson will pack down alongside another representative prop in Dylan Napa from next season.

St Helens also came to the table with a lucrative offer to keep Thompson at his junior club, but were trumped by the Bulldogs' lucrative offer and the lure of proving himself in the NRL.

Dumped English coach Wayne Bennett is also a fan after handing him his Test debut in 2018, while new Titans mentor Justin Holbrook pursued Thompson having coached him at St Helens as recently as last year’s Super League premiership-winning campaign.

It has been suggested Canterbury could secure Thompson for 2020 by paying a transfer fee which would not come under their salary cap for the coming season.

But it’s understood the Bulldogs do not have the salary cap space to fit Thompson in this year, and St Helens appear loath to release a key player as they bid to defend their Super League title.

“We were informed last week that Luke has decided to join Canterbury Bulldogs next season,” McManus said in a club statement.

“We accept and totally respect Luke’s decision and wish him nothing but success in his career and in his life.

We are absolutely sure that he will be absolutely sure that he will be absolutely committed to the club and his teammates for the rest of this season.

“There’s no hiding from the fact that this is a bitter disappointment to all of us as Luke has been connected to the club since the age of 11 and has developed into an absolute top player at 24 years old.

“If ever he decides to return to England and to Super League then there would be a red carpet waiting for him at St Helens.”

From nrl.com

 

hopefully the start of a few more quality players joining us next year

 

Well there you go.. It's great news and hopefully there are more signings to come.

If Thompson can perform anywhere near the level of James Graham during his time with us then we'd all be thrilled.

Thankfully Hill has something to show for all of his efforts in chasing Thompson. Sorry I doubted him in that regard.

Hopefully this leads to other players following suit as they see that we're a club on the rise.. Hopefully we can follow Canberra's lead and keep signing more of the best ESL players..

 

Stupid fkn incompetent board and coaching staff wtf they do all day ffs. Non existent shit

 

could be just what we need to get the ball rolling with some other players wanting to come here. Our pack is starting to look very good on paper again. Napa, Thompson, Jackson, CHN, Stimson, Tolman, Elliot, Renouf, RFM - great depth. Have a good feeling that Thompson and Napa will have a bit of a Pritchard/Kasiano bromance and go after teams together

 

the board needed to show us something in terms of recruitment for next year and this is a great start... man of the match in the super league grand final last year.. young and hungry welcome to the pack!

 

Took a while. Would have been good for this year but they prob think it’s a lost cause this year (watch the ‘don’t have cap space’ moots come in)

 

Thompson leaving St Helens to beef up Bulldogs pack

St Helens have announced highly rated English prop Luke Thompson will be heading to the NRL in 2021 to beef up the Canterbury pack.

The Bulldogs, who are yet to make an official announcement regarding Thompson's signing, have trumped several NRL suitors including the Warriors, Titans as well as St Helens to secure the 24-year-old.

He will see out the final year of his contract with the Super League club before moving to Australia next season.

St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus confirmed his club’s “bitter disappointment” at losing Thompson in the early hours of Tuesday morning AEDT.

His signature is a coup for the Dogs given their recent years of salary cap hardships.

The Bulldogs have farewelled representative props David Klemmer, James Graham and Aaron Woods in recent years as it reshaped a roster hamstrung by back-ended contracts.

Thompson will pack down alongside another representative prop in Dylan Napa from next season.

St Helens also came to the table with a lucrative offer to keep Thompson at his junior club, but were trumped by the Bulldogs' lucrative offer and the lure of proving himself in the NRL.

Dumped English coach Wayne Bennett is also a fan after handing him his Test debut in 2018, while new Titans mentor Justin Holbrook pursued Thompson having coached him at St Helens as recently as last year’s Super League premiership-winning campaign.

It has been suggested Canterbury could secure Thompson for 2020 by paying a transfer fee which would not come under their salary cap for the coming season.

But it’s understood the Bulldogs do not have the salary cap space to fit Thompson in this year, and St Helens appear loath to release a key player as they bid to defend their Super League title.

“We were informed last week that Luke has decided to join Canterbury Bulldogs next season,” McManus said in a club statement.

“We accept and totally respect Luke’s decision and wish him nothing but success in his career and in his life.

We are absolutely sure that he will be absolutely sure that he will be absolutely committed to the club and his teammates for the rest of this season.

“There’s no hiding from the fact that this is a bitter disappointment to all of us as Luke has been connected to the club since the age of 11 and has developed into an absolute top player at 24 years old.

“If ever he decides to return to England and to Super League then there would be a red carpet waiting for him at St Helens.”

From nrl.com

 

Oh so NOW you want to believe the media? Whenever it suits. Lol gul

But to say we couldn’t bring him this year due to salary cap? I am not a fan of overloaded back ended contracts but Thompson isn’t a huge risk like others before. He’s 24, props get better with age and has that JGesk type of no nonsense football. If he was signed this year, that would be an excellent acquisition and would be over and beyond what we expect of the board.
Signings for next year is guaranteed, anyone can tell you that, only thing for me is it’s a good one.

 

I’ve been saying for months we don’t have the cap room for this year that people thought. That was from the club, not the media but there is some more info to answer the question you asked

 

Not surprised you’ve found something in this great news to have a gripe with.

This simply speaks volumes about the character of Thompson that he’s honouring his contract with St Helens and playing out his final year with them rather than breaking early and leaving them short.

 

Here we go, same two at it again. As always.

Gripe? What’s the gripe? That a signing has been made? A well overdue one? Cool.

He’s an excellent talent, not denying that. I’m saying I would congratulate the board if he came this year. Shows management skill to do that.
Getting him for next year is still good, but it’s a football clubs job to hire and fire, nothing out of the ordinary other than that it’s a good signing.

Now stop trolling

 

NRL to restrict back-ended deals and consider trade periods
Author
Brad WalterNRL.com Senior Reporter
Timestamp
Wed 14 Nov 2018, 06:28 PM

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The NRL will refuse to register back-ended contracts from next year, while player transfer windows to coincide with State of Origin and the end of the season may be introduced by 2020.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg declared a ban on heavily back-ended contracts after a meeting of club bosses on Wednesday and also announced that a working party had been established to investigate the feasibility of a trade period for signing players.

Greenberg said clubs were in favour of ending the practice whereby players are paid below market value in the first year of their contracts and then receive an over-inflated amount in later years to manipulate the salary cap.

Canterbury officials have banned the practice after becoming hamstrung in their ability to recruit and retain players due to back-ended deals negotiated by the previous regime, while Manly, Parramatta and Penrith are other clubs to have had salary cap problems blamed on the practice.

Greenberg said the clubs had wanted the NRL to "help us help ourselves".

"In really broad terms what we are not going to allow is a contract to come on the table for $200,000 in the first year and $600,000 in the second year. We are just not going to allow that to happen anymore," Greenberg said.

"Historically we have left the decision up to clubs to manage their salary caps but there is a clear appetite from the clubs for us to put rules in place.

"There is a very small number of examples, albeit problematic ones, where clubs have got into trouble ... and that has hurt so there's a desire for us to get involved and ensure that doesn't happen again."


NRL to crack down on back-ended contracts


NRL to crack down on back-ended contracts

Greenberg said the NRL salary cap auditor would still register contracts in which a rising star was offered a significant increase in the value of his deal.

"We are not going to stop any player receiving what they are worth on the open market," Greenberg said. "But we have to stop clubs pushing payments to later years to reduce salary cap pressure in the short term.

"Our salary cap keeps the competition close and we want to ensure no club gets into salary cap problems because they have back-ended contracts."

He said there was also support for the introduction of trade periods to restrict when players could move clubs.

Under the NRL's current anti-tampering policy, players can negotiate with rival clubs from November 1 the year before their contract ends.

However, they would be able to move clubs immediately if they signed during a mid-season transfer window, which is likely to coincide with the stand-alone representative weekend.

"I think there is an opportunity mid-year, particularly around State of Origin. We could look at that as a mid-season window as well as an end-of-season trade window," Greenberg said.


Greenberg open to player trade windows


Greenberg open to player trade windows

The NRL working party will study the transfer windows in other sports, including soccer and AFL, while discussions will need to take place with the Rugby League Players Association before any changes are made.

The RLPA is supportive of the proposal to ban back-ended contracts as players are unfairly targetted for the amount they receive in later seasons, despite having played for below their value at the start of the deal.

Recent examples include Bulldogs forward Greg Eastwood and Robbie Farah at Wests Tigers before leaving the club for South Sydney last year.

However, the RLPA is likely to need more convincing before agreeing to trade windows replacing the current player transfer model.

"Players are always open to considering new initiatives that will help improve the NRL Premiership, which the NRL and clubs are well aware of," RLPA chief executive Ian Prendergast said.

"The RLPA demonstrated this throughout the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations last year and even since, where we have agreed to balanced changes around the new NRL contract model.

"While we are open to discussing new concepts, we believe it is important to look at issues such as player movement in totality.

"We currently have one of the most balanced competitions in the world, which has driven huge interest in the NRL Premiership.

"The free labour market is something that past players and the Association have fought hard to establish.

"Together with the salary cap, it has served the game well in terms of providing players with a fundamental right to choose their employer and helping balance talent relatively evenly across the competition.

"Any changes to the player movement system would need to be evidence-based and consider the intended and unintended consequences of how they would work in practice, while ensuring the rights of players, key stakeholders and the competition are protected.

"There are a range of factors that will need to be looked at regarding player movement across the competition, such as improving the stability at clubs around coaching and football staff and ensuring clubs manage their salary caps responsibly.

"We look forward to working through this process with the NRL and clubs on behalf of players."

 

huh? By this stage he already told St Helens he was leaving

 

Read the first sentence. From this year.

When did Hill go to England? This has been around for months now, couldn’t have done a deal last year and registered it then? Or maybe deliberately waited until this year so they can use as an excuse that they couldn’t get the deal over the line for 2020?
There are a 1000 ways this can be interpreted, that’s why it’s a forum.

Now shoo, stop trolling