ENGLISH LEAGUE CLUBS BUSY IN SYDNEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 83, 29 June 1927, Page 7

ENGLISH LEAGUE CLUBS BUSY IN SYDNEY

OFFERS TO N.S.W. PLAYERS HUDDERSFIELD CLUB ACTIVE Under the heading of "A Scrap of Paper," Claude Corbett in the Sydney •‘Sun” refers to the dishonouring of the Rugby League agreement by the English Rugby League. I-Ie gives an outline of the offers that have been made to Sydney players in the following terms: Mills, of Grenfell, has signed an agreement to go to Huddersfield, whereby he will receive £2OO and £6 a match! Similar terms were offered Harry Finch, of South Sydney, and declined! Tommy Gorman, of Queensland, has been offered £6OO, and a certain amount per match! Vic. Lawrence, of South Sydney, was to have been offered the same amount as Finch, but the negotiations were dropped! Moores, the Queensland halfback, is being approached! All these offers were on behalf of the Yorkshire Club, Huddersfield, consequent upon the scrapping of the agreement with Australia and New Zealand. So certain was Huddersfield that the agreement would be repudiated that Mills, who is a school teacher at Grenfell, signed his agreement_on June 4 before the motion of revocation was carried. Mills received £IOO when he signed, and will get the other £IOO when he reaches England. He will receive £6 for each match in which he plays. If he cannot play or is not selected he will get nothing. That’s the catch! Players approached to sign on for English clubs should carefully analyse the propositions placed before them. It was only natural that this matter, so vital to the welfare of the League code in Australia, should have been thoroughly discussed by delegates to the New South Wales body. It was decided to take united action with the Queensland and New Zealand Leagues to protest against the English Rugby League’s action, and to ask that the matter be deferred until the English team came to Australia in 1928, when a conference could be held. Cabled advice from England, however, shows that the English Rugby League has adopted an uncompromising attitude to the Dominions’ representatives, and the position is as it was when the first announcement descended like a bombshell on the League camps of Australia and New Zealand.