I agree that Wigan have a few things going in their favour, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that he's theirs to lose.

Wigan had the right to speak to him first (which was the extent of the 'first call'). They didn't sign him at that stage so that advantage is now passed.

He wants to come back to the uk for family and it has been said that he prefers the North West. That's Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Salford and Leigh who all fit the bill.

He knows the setup at Wigan and some of the players / staff, that may or may not be an advantage. He moved to the NRL and made a success of things. He's returning of off field reasons.

Like all pro sportsmen he's a competitor, he'll want to win things. That's going to come down to Wigan's track record vs. our ambition as a club.

Coaches? I don't know how he feels about the different coaches.

He'll want to be playing in SL ahead of the World Cup. Whether that means at his 2022 club or a temporary arrangement who knows.

So that means it will come down to money. If two or more clubs can tick the required boxes then it's a bonus-malus situation. The club that is most attractive to him needs to offer the least money but a second or third choice club can still secure his signature if they offer enough money. I don't think that Wigan have such a lead that they can't be outbid. I'm sure that all the competing clubs will have put forward potential solutions as to how he can play this year, it's now about who wants him most / has the deepest pockets.

All good points.

Don't forget as well a deal for Williams to sign for us for next year was all but done before Canberra released him.

He could take a few years of big money from us and then sign for Wigan after that if he wants to win another Grand Final, like Gleeson.

He has agreed terms with the Wire

He’s no doubt agreed terms with all the clubs interested bar Wigan, who will still be trying to get him on the lowest salary they can. He’ll still probably end up there as everything is in their favour cap-wise and and circumstance-wise.

I doubt anything is even close to being sorted with regards to Warrington. Hopefully we have other irons in the fire.

That isn’t how I understand “agreed terms”. You don’t do that with a number of parties and then decide. The process is discuss, negotiate, agree, sign.
Discuss and negotiate can be with any number of parties but would be major bad faith to agree then sign with someone else.
I’m only talking generalities here, I have no knowledge of th GW situation.

Looking at Canberra result today would appear he played unless they have another Williams with 7 as a shirt number perhaps resolved their differences until end of season

That will be Sam Williams I expect, ex Catalan / Wakey half.

Yes you are right

In that case though, if he’d agreed terms in that way wouldn’t he also have signed straight away and the news would be out? Anything that goes on in the NRL is usually leaked immediately and turns up on the Aussie news/websites.

I hope it’s true though.

There are terms and then there is the fine print!

You’ll be surprised.

I’m excited

Anyone ready to eat a BIG piece of pie?
RD.

I want the whole pie. I’m just not getting the plates and cake slice out until I know I don’t have to walk back into the kitchen with them, disappointed and hungry.

As long as it's not the humble variety RD. I believe your doubters might be feasting on it sometime soon though.

Assuming it’s true that Williams has agreed terms / signed, would that be for this season or next?

And if it’s this season (I know he’s returning to the UK this week) where are we offloading Blake to? Canberra?

Bye bye Big Greg. 3 games 2 tries not too bad.

Welcome George.

So presumably you mean Williams will take Inglis’ salary for this season then be on full whack next season?

If true, can we even do that? I thought the cap meant you couldn’t just release players who are injured once they’ve played a game in that season? Not for the purposes of cap space anyway?

Correct, his full salary would count on the cap. We would need to offload players (presumably if we are at cap) to other clubs who pay their salary for this year.

Is it not possible to sign a short term deal ending in Nov and in advance a fresh 2/3 year deal from Nov 21?
Asking for a friend.

Short answer, no.

I don't know the exact nuts and bolts but the RFL ultimately set the level and the figure is calculated weekly. It also doesn't matter who pays the player, the value is assigned to the club that they play for (so if Club A paid a player's wages but he played for Club B then the salary would count towards Blub B's cap).

To deregister a player needs the RFL's permission. We managed it with Kev Brown when he injured himself pre-season because he hadn't played a competitive game. I think that it may be different if a player retired mid-season, but I'm not certain.

Williams and Trueman in the same team would be fun, wouldn’t it?

It will surely be one or the other though.

I think we’re also forgetting that if Widdop stays and can keep the form he’s in, he’s actually better than both Trueman and Williams. I think next year ideally we would have Widdop and either Williams or Trueman alongside him. That’s a best-case scenario…. Worst case we’ll have no Widdop or Williams / Trueman. I’m not sure what Powell will have up his sleeve for that one - Ratchford and Dean?

I think that in my view. The best scenario would be widdop and Williams in the half back positions for next season. And trueman as a backup next season. With trueman also learning from widdop before widdop retires at the end of the season next year.