SW's lovechild? how's that for a rumour

Has anyone else heard Tomkins to the NRL after the World Cup???? Don't all jump on this as its just what I've heard an was wondering if anyone else had heard similar?

I think a more interesting question would be has anyone NOT heard this?

Gavin Wilson ‏Tweets that Hull FC's Tom Briscoe has agreed to join Cronulla Sharks for 2014 season.

Can't understand why Kevin Sinfield hasn't been snapped up for 2014.

Doesn't surprise me TBH, he has stated on a few occasions his intentions to play in the NRL sooner or later

Will we be looking to replace Hock now or do we think we will just go with the youth.

Our pack is starting to look a bit soft to me. Hock and McIlorum were the only ones with any type of fear factor.

Replace him with who? The only players off the top of my head who I'd be interested in are Manu, Westwood and Ellis. all 3 are at big clubs and on decent wages so I'd imagine they won't budge.

Yeah, fear of players losing their heads.

Great. Another Saints fan who supports Latics. You couldn't make up a more pantomime villain.

I'd like to think the club are on the lookout for an addition to that backrow, It's lacking some punch in attack now.


I can't see any viable options over here so they'll probably have to keep their eyes on the NRL. The good thing from our point of view now is there's no rush and we should have some salary cap space waiting for any player that becomes available.

If we promote from within I'd love to see us through Greg Burke in at Salford next week. He's a real talent and could be a real suprise package for us.

It's not a crime, is it? I'm sure big Gaz Hock comes close to that

I have been wondering is Gareth Cock exempt from our wage bill are does the fact he's still a registered Wigan player count against us?

At the end of the day there is the simple fact that we are now weaker in a number of key positions compared to last season and the season before that.

The reasons for this + the rights and wrongs regarding it have been discussed to death but simply put if you continue to lose top draw players and replace them with less talented individuals then your going to experience a dip.

We are now weaker @ Centre, Scrum Half, 2nd row and arguably, with the loss of Lima, Prop as well.

Add on top of the above we moved backwards at hooker when Piggy left and Tomkins is probably in his last season means there has and continues to be a systematic decline in the standard of players at WRLFC.

I don't claim to know how to fix it or also claim to be any more astute than IL but i do know that the above decline is glaring obvious and that's it's worrying/upsetting a lot of Wigan fans.

Hock will only count on our cap for any element of his wages Wigan are still paying, which is highly likely to be zero.

It seems a far cry for IL calling for a new Wigan dynasty after we won the super league.

With Leuluai out for two months and Finch hobbling his way through the playoffs we are in a better scrum half position right now! Although when they clicked they really did click.

We in my opinion really need to recruit some quality. We need to bring in the right type of player and I expect we will only find them in the NRL.

Players will become available but not yet, so I think we will need to be patient and hope for a mid season addition at best.

We've lost the best #7 in the comp who had an excellent injury record during his time at the club.

It's not all doom and gloom however as i do rate Green and think he'll bring a tough running game that we've needed for a while. He will fit in well with Sam as he's another strike player and we needed more of this type of threat last season.

I think this should be renamed the Rumours Signings and Departures thread.

The days of signing top class from the NRL are long gone. Unless the cap is scrapped or doubled we will continue to slip towards a semi pro game

Didn't IL recently state that he would no longer make signings from the NRL?

If IFL said he would no longer sign players from the NRL then we have the wrong man in charge of our club. Thankfully I doubt he ever said that and thus would no longer worry should the right player become available that we would not try to sign him because he plays in the best Rugby Comp in the world.

Agreed, however I think it's more a case of; we can no longer sign decent players from the NRL due to salary cap increase etc.

Total shame really, people talk about a 'Wigan team full of Wiganers' which on paper sounds good when in reality all of our best teams over the years featured players from Auz and NZ, not just Wiganers.
Over the years so much has been learnt from overseas competitors, pity if that's a thing of the past.

forget top NRL players coming to superleague, their new proposed cap of AUS $5.7m for 2013 which equates to an average of £151,000 per player for a 25 man squad compared to £66,000 per player in SL......... Just goes to show how far we are behind in promoting the game in the UK and how it is perceived by the general public at large