Darren Lockyer

[TEZLEY]

Darren Lockyer set to retire

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12196_6838532,00.html

[mike]

It's a smokescreen 

[Pop Cider]

What's all the fuss about.

DL is 34 and well past his best. I thought this 3 year franchise palaver was to get established, bringing through your youth players and not bankrupting the club with Aussies past their sell-by date, looking for a final bumper pay day.

There is no long term future with the likes of DL etc.

[Brynhild]

There was no long term future in Andrew Johns going to Wire but they used it as a publicity stepping stone

[PSC]

There was no long term future in Andrew Johns going to Wire but they used it as a publicity stepping stone

Beat me to it Brynhild.

Surely you (Pops) can see the benefit of signing the best player in the world in the last decade.

Bums on seats an all that.

[Pop Cider]

It's no use having Pavarotti if the rest of the choir can't sing.

The kings ransom Lockyer would want would be better spent on younger players who aren't going to be back off to a coaching job in Aus as soon as.

[POPPY1]

It's no use having Pavarotti if the rest of the choir can't sing.

The kings ransom Lockyer would want would be better spent on younger players who aren't going to be back off to a coaching job in Aus as soon as.

I would buy another shirt with the name lockyer on it and I am 43, so i imagine there would be many, many more and hundreds if not thousands of kids doing the same.

But the dream is over now, who is the second best player in the world?

[Sandgroper]

Dreams are great and his presence would be a dream for me at any rate!

More realistically we need an organiser (a la Monaghan) who can pull our team around the park.  Cameron Smith would do for me, but again, it's highly unlikely.

With exchange rates being what they are atm, the NRL lifting the salary caps, and a credit squeeze here we may have to settle for a good quality Pom or Poms(if we can find one!)

Shopping list should be, and I believe is, one FB, one SH, at least one late twenties Prop. We should then be able to fill in around them for the first year at any rate.

[johnf]

Beat me to it Brynhild.

Surely you (Pops) can see the benefit of signing the best player in the world in the last decade.

Bums on seats an all that.

Until we find we can't afford the cost of the seats ... let me see, who did that happen to not so long ago ? 

[johnf]

I would buy another shirt with the name lockyer on it and I am 43, so i imagine there would be many, many more and hundreds if not thousands of kids doing the same.

But the dream is over now, who is the second best player in the world?

Where are these 'thousands of kids' going to come from ? Lockyer is noweher near the best player in the world - hasn't been for about 4 or 5 years at best.. 

[POPPY1]

Where are these 'thousands of kids' going to come from ? Lockyer is noweher near the best player in the world - hasn't been for about 4 or 5 years at best.. 

they were all at the salford game the other year, but realise you probably didn't see them being so far away from widnes

[johnf]

they were all at the salford game the other year, but realise you probably didn't see them being so far away from widnes

  Thousands ? 'the other year' really ? I may live 12,000 miles away but I can still read attendance figures and do my sums 

The point being that the passing fad of an over the hill (albeit world beater in his day) isn't the foundations that we require whne we get the SL nod later today. He would be nowhere near the drawcard that he would have been ten years ago and that type of player [the early 20s version of Lockyer] is what we should be looking for and would probably be more of a hit with the fans.

[POPPY1]

Thousands ? 'the other year' really ? I may live 12,000 miles away but I can still read attendance figures and do my sums 

The point being that the passing fad of an over the hill (albeit world beater in his day) isn't the foundations that we require whne we get the SL nod later today. He would be nowhere near the drawcard that he would have been ten years ago and that type of player [the early 20s version of Lockyer] is what we should be looking for and would probably be more of a hit with the fans.

So how many kids out of 8000 does your sum add up to?

[johnf]

Sorry, you've lost me now ... are you talking about the match against Salford with the subsidised tickets still ? Genuinely not sure what you mean by the 8000 and how many of them were kids ....

[local viking]

Yes I think he is talking about the Salford game, there were over 8k at the game, at least half were kids, subsidised tickets or not, they were still there, unlike 'Fax's mythical attendance ours were on view all game that day, and I honestly don't see why some of those kids wouldn't want to come again.

As for them all wanting Darren Lockyears name on their shirt, I think that would be highly unlikely, he is past his best, and kids want the glory name on their backs, not a has been.

I could see us getting some value out of him from a coaching set up, but sadly not from a playing perspective, there are better candidates to spend our money on.