These students are mainly from Europe - specifically Ireland, Sweden, and France. We also get plenty of people from the US, and without fail everyone falls in love with Wellington, people may not want to come here if you ask them cold in the street, but if they live here they tend to want to stay.
Don't disagree with anything you're saying about Welly being a great place to live, but that wasn't my point. My point was that "getting to live in Wellington" isn't a draw-card for players who haven't lived here before. Which you seem to agree with above anyway.
No, but there is word of mouth - if Burns and Griffiths say to their peers that Wellington is a great place to work then the word gets around the Australians. And, as I said, the Europeans seem impressed by the level that the club will go to to get their man. You can even tell Mrs Smeltz that there is going to be a top shop here, whatever that is.
Even Pantelis, who never played a game for us in his two years here, said in an interview recently that he misses Wellington, and when he comes here for his role with the PFA it feels like home.