Bulldogs sign England star Graham

AyiosYiorgos · Apr 27, 2011

Canterbury have secured a coup by signing England captain James Graham on a three-year deal with the NRL club from 2012.

Graham, 25, said he had long wanted to test himself in the Australian-based competition.

The Great Britain prop will arrive at the Bulldogs after a nine-season Super League career with St Helens which saw him earn accolades including the 2008 Man of Steel Award, the Rugby League Writers Player of the Year and World XIII selection.

Advertisement: Story continues below "The decision to leave St Helens has been by far the biggest decision of my rugby league career," said Graham in a statement issued by Canterbury.

"I've been on the books with Saints since I was 11 years old and I grew up supporting the club. I love the place and I never wanted to play against them, and as such I didn't consider any other Super League options.

"Testing myself in the NRL is something I've always wanted to do, and the Bulldogs just seemed right from day one.

"From meeting with (chief executive) Todd Greenberg and (coach) Kevin Moore and also (recruitment manager) Peter Mulholland, I got a feeling that the Bulldogs are a club heading in the right direction."

Moore relished Graham's signing.

"James is a player of the highest quality and we're very much looking forward to having him on board," said Moore.

"He's been rated among the best front rowers in the world for a number years now and it's always exciting to add international quality to your forward pack.

"His leadership qualities are obvious and he will be a great addition to our club and our team.

"I think he's going to make a big impression across the NRL

NRL's Bulldogs sign England star Graham

lilreddevil · Apr 27, 2011

I read about this just then! Pretty excited to be honest, we're back to basics with tough, young forwards, led by the experienced Andrew Ryan. Can anyone tell me what's happening with Greg Eastwood? I thought he was on our team?

sharkies4eva · Apr 27, 2011

interested to see if he has as much downtime and impact (?) as sam burgess. will it just be another case of aussie dollars wasted on players from overseas that arent up to the week in and week out rigours of our comp???

dazla · Apr 27, 2011

lilreddevil said:
Can anyone tell me what's happening with Greg Eastwood? I thought he was on our team?

Eastwood played his first game for 2011 against Souths on the weekend. He'll be a big force for us come finals time. A genuine impact player from the bench.....

sharkies4eva · Apr 27, 2011

if they can sort out his bracelets, lol

Camo · Apr 27, 2011

Nice Salary Cap the Dogs have their

GiRDS- · Apr 27, 2011

camo i think you will find thye are well under the cap.

they just lost idris.

and if anyone has bothered to note the bulldogs NSW Cup team that one the grand final last year is filled with 10+ first graders. well you will find that out of those 10, 8 havnt been resigned freeing up what i assume to eb close to 1,000,000 so they would sweet in terms of the cap i assume.

the team i would be worried about would be souths ahaha.
you have to think although asotasi isnt playing all that well he is on over 300,000 ... burgess inglis, taylor, sutton would all be on the big bucks too.

ooneil · Apr 27, 2011

Heard the following rumor this arvo.

Gower to Souths
Sandow to Parramatta

Will be interesting to see if either are true.

GiRDS- · Apr 27, 2011

sandow to parramatta is close to confirmed.

gower wont go there trust me he hates richardson more than i hate hard work, if he does i assume it will be to keep his new born child close to his and amanda's parents but you never know.

mischap123 · Apr 27, 2011

I hope this pom can play

shane_sharks · Apr 27, 2011

great signing for the bulldogs
whatever happen to bred not bought lol

AyiosYiorgos · Apr 27, 2011

First and Foremost it's irrelevant that they have lost Idris as Idris was not on big money...
Salary Cap for top 25 players in Squad is either $4.2m or $5m, 2nd tier cap is approx $250,000..
Greenberg this afternoon on Radio said that the Dogs have been in negotiations with Graham since Oct/Nov, so up until a couple of weeks ago the Dogs were preparing to
purchase Graham and sign up Idris to a big contract, also Greenberg stated that by signing Graham it wouldn't impact them signing Paea and Armit..
They only way i can see them been able to do this is by showing the door to A.Ryan, remembering that they have paid good money for JMorris, Hodgkison,Ennis, Tolman, Pritchard, Keating, or they will have to back ended Graham's contrat in the 3rd year...
Anyway Im sure every supporter could come up with excuses that a team is cheating Salary Cap or not....

GiRDS- said:
camo i think you will find thye are well under the cap.

they just lost idris.

and if anyone has bothered to note the bulldogs NSW Cup team that one the grand final last year is filled with 10+ first graders. well you will find that out of those 10, 8 havnt been resigned freeing up what i assume to eb close to 1,000,000 so they would sweet in terms of the cap i assume.

the team i would be worried about would be souths ahaha.
you have to think although asotasi isnt playing all that well he is on over 300,000 ... burgess inglis, taylor, sutton would all be on the big bucks too.

mischap123 · Apr 28, 2011

AyiosYiorgos said:
First and Foremost it's irrelevant that they have lost Idris as Idris was not on big money...
Salary Cap for top 25 players in Squad is either $4.2m or $5m, 2nd tier cap is approx $250,000..
Greenberg this afternoon on Radio said that the Dogs have been in negotiations with Graham since Oct/Nov, so up until a couple of weeks ago the Dogs were preparing to
purchase Graham and sign up Idris to a big contract, also Greenberg stated that by signing Graham it wouldn't impact them signing Paea and Armit..
They only way i can see them been able to do this is by showing the door to A.Ryan, remembering that they have paid good money for JMorris, Hodgkison,Ennis, Tolman, Pritchard, Keating, or they will have to back ended Graham's contrat in the 3rd year...
Anyway Im sure every supporter could come up with excuses that a team is cheating Salary Cap or not....

Another forgotten in this equation is Ben Roberts who is on $200K plus. Rumour has it he wants out NOW as not getting a run. Apparently had approaches from 2 clubs(1 I believe is Cronulla) but Dogs won't let him go until the end of season

1967Sharks · Apr 28, 2011

I cant believe we are chasing Roberts.....Yuck!

hobo · Apr 28, 2011

GiRDS- said:
sandow to parramatta is close to confirmed.

gower wont go there trust me he hates richardson more than i hate hard work, if he does i assume it will be to keep his new born child close to his and amanda's parents but you never know.

Gower to Souths seems to be a pretty stong rumour

Sandow to Parra...well if Souths have signed Gower that would give some more credibility to this one.

Graham will be a good signing for the Dogs,the Pom can play, I too question the revolving door and the high quality of players going to the Dogs but hey innocent until proven otherwise.

Ross

1967Sharks · Apr 28, 2011

I like the Gower to Souths rumour better than the Albert Kelly to Souths which i heard last week.

ooneil · Apr 28, 2011

Also heard Bird to Knights this morning........uggghhhh

If Parra think Sandow is going to be the solution to their problems then they better get ready for another 5 years of mediocrity.

hobo · Apr 28, 2011

ooneil said:
Also heard Bird to Knights this morning........uggghhhh

If Parra think Sandow is going to be the solution to their problems then they better get ready for another 5 years of mediocrity.

Bird is a Newcastle junior so that might be a viable move too.....plus Tinkler and Bennett make the Knights a rather enticing team to join.

I know Sandow is much maligned but I like his have a go attitude and at least he takes the line on and poses an attacking threat unlike their current halves.

Ross

doggies4life · May 8, 2011

back to the signing of graham, i think the bulldogs should have focused on the resigning of jamal idris i can not believe the bulldogs could have let him slip out of there hands....he is and will be a superstar of the game and im pissed of that the bulldogs couldnt even match the rival offer from the titans....i heard the bulldogs offered him 200k for the next 4 years and expected jamal to sign based on loyalty....WTF IS THAT, if i was jamal i would take that offer as an insult and im sure he did, hes the best player in my view for the doggies and he is getting better each game....i am shattered his leaving , in my view that was a massive mistake by the bulldogs.......we have enough tough forwards such as tolman, paea, eastwood, pritchard, ryan, payne,millington we dont need to sign another forward...they prob offered graham 400k a year, if so , that just goes to show the lack of expertise, knowledge and priority in the recruitment offices at the bulldogs.....with the sacking of ryan tandy the dogs should have extended jamal's salary by adding tandy's lost salary...IT IS BLOODY RIDICULOUS HOW THE BULLDOGS CAN NOT PRIORITISE THE SIGNING AND RESIGNING OF THERE TOP PLAYERS.....the next episode im wary of is the resigning of ben barba, he comes off contract at the end of 2012 and if his form is as good or better than now, he will get big money offers from other clubs and the bulldogs will let this one go too, eventhough they would have the money resources to keep him......it happens to often in the history of the bulldogs especially in the past 8 years.....SOMETHING HAS GOT TO CHANGE WITH THE RECRUITMENT PERFORMANCE AT THE BULLDOGS......

mischap123 · May 8, 2011

doggies4life said:
back to the signing of graham, i think the bulldogs should have focused on the resigning of jamal idris i can not believe the bulldogs could have let him slip out of there hands....he is and will be a superstar of the game and im pissed of that the bulldogs couldnt even match the rival offer from the titans....i heard the bulldogs offered him 200k for the next 4 years and expected jamal to sign based on loyalty....WTF IS THAT, if i was jamal i would take that offer as an insult and im sure he did, hes the best player in my view for the doggies and he is getting better each game....i am shattered his leaving , in my view that was a massive mistake by the bulldogs.......we have enough tough forwards such as tolman, paea, eastwood, pritchard, ryan, payne,millington we dont need to sign another forward...they prob offered graham 400k a year, if so , that just goes to show the lack of expertise, knowledge and priority in the recruitment offices at the bulldogs.....with the sacking of ryan tandy the dogs should have extended jamal's salary by adding tandy's lost salary...IT IS BLOODY RIDICULOUS HOW THE BULLDOGS CAN NOT PRIORITISE THE SIGNING AND RESIGNING OF THERE TOP PLAYERS.....the next episode im wary of is the resigning of ben barba, he comes off contract at the end of 2012 and if his form is as good or better than now, he will get big money offers from other clubs and the bulldogs will let this one go too, eventhough they would have the money resources to keep him......it happens to often in the history of the bulldogs especially in the past 8 years.....SOMETHING HAS GOT TO CHANGE WITH THE RECRUITMENT PERFORMANCE AT THE BULLDOGS......

I tend to disagree a bit. YES I too am shattered Idris is going BUT just think back a few years when they had all their eggs in one basket with SBW and Mason. It took ages to get back on track. Injuries or other probs can derail the whole production. Dogs have a lot of great players (not superstars) and therefore a great team. They had one contentious call up in the test team and may get 3 at most in Origin. I reckon it's good for the club in terms of Telstra premiership. They also now have depth and can cope with injuries etc much better

Bulldogs sign England star Graham

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