Craig Innes signed with Leeds in 1992 and played with them until 1996 when he joined us. However while still with Leeds he did play 10 games for the Western Reds in 1995. He left Manly after 1997 and went back to yawnion to play for the Auckland Blues before retiring in 2000. He played 50 games for Manly, scoring 25 tries and kicking 6/11 goals (including one of each in the 1996 GF).
This guy may not get the headlines like other current Pommie imports such as the Burgess' and James Graham, but one player I don't think is going too bad is Donkeys centre Jack Reed. Interestingly though, despite being born in England (Silsden in West Yorkshire) he never played senior football there. His family moved to Brisbane when he was a kid and he came into the NRL via the Qld Cup where he played with South Logan Magpies (under contract to Canberra) and the Norths Devils when he signed with the Donkeys. With Hodges and Tate nearing the end and Inglis odds-on to move to FB when Slater retires, it wouldn't surprise me (if it hasn't already happened) if Reed was approached by Mal Meninga at some point to switch allegiances from England to Qld.
One of the best Poms I have seen in my time who played out here was Gary Connolly. If we were going for an import back in 1993 I'd have chased his signature over John Deveraux's any time. Although I think Connolly's best position was FB and we had that covered with Matthew Ridge and Ivan Cleary, he was just as good in the centres and we needed quality centres back then after Snoz's retirement at the end of 1992 (Danny Moore, Chris Ryan and Jamie Olejnik were ok, but still young and it wouldn't be until 1994 that we got Terry Hill). I just think Connolly would have been a much better buy for us than Deveraux. We all saw how good he went when he played for the Scumdogs that year.
