It’s certainly not showing on the field or in interviews but it’s probably not a massive surprise, the weather has been grim for months now and I’m sick of it, if you’ve been in Oz for years it’s likely amplified and being a Saints fan at Wigan that probably feels strange.

We've had the same drizzly cold weather almost every day since October. Although it was quite nice this afternoon for a couple of hours.

Not that he’s going to say any different but in an interview on Wigan TV today Thompson said he’s loving it here.


I think we could all do with some Aussie sun at the minute. If he is struggling a bit, hopefully the brighter days we’ll cheer him up (if we get any).

I must admit it felt like spring this afternoon

Luke’s a tough bunny he’ll be reet. He was gutted that he didn’t play in the WCC.

Souths are after George Delaney from Saints and Tom Amone from Leigh.


Dupree and Holroyd have also been mentioned as target.

Hope we can keep Tyler.

I was just about to post the same. Amone would be the most realistic with him being out of contract. Holroyd I can't see because of the injury problems. I think with somebody like Dupree, a lot would depend on if he wants it or not and if they were prepared to pay up for him. I'll be honest, I don't think he's ready for that step yet. I rate him and what he brings but he just needs to start stamping his authority on the biggest games before thinking of NRL moves. It'll come no doubt about it but he's still quite an inexperienced top level player because of his time out of Superleague.

I wonder if the negotiator they've sent over is another of these NRL pillocks whose first approach will be: "Sending your best guys to us is such an honour that we were hoping you wouldn't even contemplate asking for transfer fees."

You'd like to think the club would put a line in the sand at this point with NRL interest in contracted players. It's hard enough trying to keep hold of players who are out of contract. Hopefully having a billionaire as an owner makes transfer fees easier to resist.

Having said all that we don't know how many of our players are only signing long contracts if there is an NRL clause in place.

i'm taking it with a rather large pinch of salt (more like an industrial grit spreader) given its come from serious about league. They've nowt better to write about, so just picked 4 random names to make an article

They've just ripped it from another site (surprise surprise). It originally comes from an Australian journalist for the Daily Telegraph. There is no way that guy is in England just to bring a pen for Lewis Dodd to sign a contract, so I'm sure he'll be talking to other players but I do think they may have thrown some random names around.

Due to the success of our forwards going over there I'd be amazed if the likes of George Delaney and Harvie Hill are not right at the top of their target list. Both look ideal for the NRL

Huge blow for Leigh with Asiata taking a huge deal at Hull FC for next season. If Amone goes back to the NRL as well, they've already had a glance in to how the pack looks without them and the replacements will need to be top class to make up for that sort of drop off.

Got Holmes as well but Leigh have re-called Chamberlain early from his months loan…nothing to do with Beaumonts rant we think.

Got Holmes as well but Leigh have re-called Chamberlain early from his months loan…nothing to do with Beaumonts rant we think.

They also mentioned on Sky about Adrian Lam following him to Hull with the potential to bring Lachlan too.

Interesting comments from Graham on NRL360
Said that Souths have made an illegal approach for Delaney and Saints are fuming.

the trouble is they can get away with it, especially now more of our players are getting Oz based agents to represent them.

i think we are probably all in the same boat. If a player gives his all for Wigan / Saints, and are offered a gig in the NRL, then whilst we are disappointed they go with our best wishes. If they are getting tapped up or down tools then they quite rightly get abuse from the fans. We had KPP leave last year, we knew he was going, and he went about everything in the right way and performed on the pitch, however prior to that Gildart appeared to down tools and his attitude from a fans perspective looked poor so he got quite a bit of grief

Chan coming on loan to Hull this week, can he play backrow, that probably where we are weakest right now?

I don't think Souths or any NRL club will be bothered. They will carry on approaching who they want as they don't respect anything over here.

Chan two week loan to Hull FC

He has played there for us but wasn't massively successful in the position. That said, a lot of us, myself included, think that's where he would be best to concentrate his efforts going forward. Whether that would be helpful to yourselves short term is debatable though. If you're short in the back row he may go better at 13. Whole hearted player who runs it in hard. He should do well for you.

It would be good for Wigan if he does get a go in the second row and plays well in the position. Our need there longer term is certainly greater than prop. I like the looks of him as a ball playing loose forward in the reserves mind and if we ever decide to move Ellis from loose forward, he would probably be my choice to go in there, over us just running an extra out and out prop in there.

He does look handy at 13 and could develop well there. As you say though, we could really do with him converting to a strong running 2nd row and I reckon he's got the tools to do that. Maybe that's behind the Hull loan, given their need there?

I like Mago at 13. He's got good hands and moves the ball well whilst still having the powerful running game that the extra prop option brings. He seems to have the fitness levels to play extended minutes now too.

I was going to say about Mago; he has played 13 a bit, hasn't he? Can pick a pass as well as having an offload. It's another option, at least.