Carmont, Deacon and Coley retiring means we should invest more in Wigan trained players? A rumour about Richards possibly maybe perhaps being offered a ridiculous salary by Union, Hoffman being off contract if he doesn't agree to the second year and Roberts being a shadow of the player he was last year mean that we should invest more in Wigan trained players?



I'm all for having as many Wigan trained players in the squad, [size=150if[/size they are good enough to be in the squad. Like it or not we need players from elsewhere to challenge for honours. Would you have chosen a Wigan lad over Richards and Carmont when they signed, now that they may be leaving?

Lots of rumours here, and I hope some of them are less well sourced than others!

I think we need to confirm our coach as soon as possible so that they can start preparing for next season regarding retaining and recruiting players. Whether it be Wane or someone for outside, they're going to have no chance if they don't know their getting the post till late summer and half the squad have signed up elsewhere by then!

Of the various rumours circulating here, I'd be most concerned about Richards and Leuluai. It was obvious early season how much me missed Richards, he provides so much to the team and would be very hard to replace. Leuluai has developed into a superb player for Wigan and it's probably more disruptive to the team changing a half back than any other position so I'd be gutted to lose him. That said, both have been very good servatns for the club and if they are tempted by the allure of the NRL (in Tommy's case) or a potentially huge wage increase for Pat then I wouldn't hold anything against either of them.

We all knew when we signed him Hoffman was too good for SL and he is proving that. It'd be a miracle if we managed to keep him any longer than a year but as people keep saying, we are blessed in the back row department and although he'll be a big loss in terms of quality, professionalism and experience we'd arguably be better off using his quota spot to improve other areas of the team.

I'm not convinced as to the credibility Finch wants off at the end of the year. He's taking a little while to settle in so rumours of home sickness are inevitable but I'm not too concerned about that yet.

I'd look at trying to give Coley, Carmont and Deacon new deals but if, as seems likely, all three do retire at the end of the year then I think we're going to have to sign a hooker, full back or stand off (depending where Sam plays) and probably a couple of utility players, one covering prop and second row (depending on which positions the coaching staff see Hock and Mossop playing long term) and another being able to fill in at half back or out wide (and I agree Ratchford would be good for this purpose).

A reply earlier said we should get Prescott re-signed. He has, it is a 3 year deal done last Sept.
As for Hoffman. I'm hoping he'll see out his two years here and then return to Melbourne. They may not be able to take him 2012 but will the following year when their new TV deal comes into effect.

Our pack will be ok I feel, it's the halves and backs that could be a worry. Gleeson going is a blow, to lose Carmont and Richards for next year would be dreadful. Deacon retiring doesn'thelp either.

I'm sure IL will be working flat out to sort of the Madge replacement and then fill likely vacancies asap.
Wigan RL as a club are better run now than I can ever remember.
They are getting it right on and off the field, I do trust them to continue as they are doing!

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6043832308 Looks like the aussie media are spinning the finch to souths story. No smoke without fire

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6043832308 Looks like the aussie media are spinning the finch to souths story. No smoke without fire

The english super league contracts ain't worth the paper they written on ey?

God I hate the big headed, ego mad, arrogant convicts!

Bar Lima and Leuluai, all our overseas players may be gone next year.

Richards may go, Hoffman may also. The article re Finch confirmed what I had heard previously - he wants to go home and his heart wasn't in it in the first place. Doesn't mean he'll leave but not a good sign. Carmont will retire whilst you can't see Amos Roberts staying in the reserves for another season. Doesn't benefit him or the club to have an overseas player and decent wage earner playing in the 20's.

Whether or not they all end up leaving, it will definitely be all or some of the players mentioned. In all likelihood we'll need to recruit significantly in the backs, be it from the UK or overseas. Whilst we could probably cope in the forwards, we may need to look at bringing someone in there as well considering Coley's retirement also.

If finch goes I personally would be fuming at the Aussie players who come over and don't see out a contract I'd let them rot in the reserves so we don't get shafted like we have done in the past e.g Trent barrett,mat orford, seemingly willie Mason makes a joke of our game there must be a legal standing somewhere it's ok people being soft and saying if they don't want to be here let them go but in all honesty they should have thought about that before signing

well put!

Look at the facts. They are more likely to play for the club and stay around for a lengthy period of time which is beneficial to the club.

At this point I can't figure out if you're just being thick or arugmentative?

What's with the sudden snotty tone?

It has crept into everyone of your recent posts.

Just not being a mug.
In fairness there are a lot of fans on here who truly wanna discuss and have a good chat about the state of play at Wigan, however there are a few who only seem to want to argue and belittle without genuine discussion. No doubt someone will have an issue with me over this post.

Shane tronc, Dallas Johnson, Greg Eastwood, George gatis? It's the trend. NRL far superior comp, strong Aussie dollar, UK tax law changes, Englands crap life style and doom and gloom credit crunch.

it's gonna happen more and more plus our best talent going over there.

Shaun Wane-do you think he'll use Wigan as a stepping stone to audition himself for an Aussie club? Or do you think he'd stay?

Who do you think is more likely to play for the shirt Josh Charnley or Amos Roberts and give it their all?

Who do you think is more likely to be here next year Joel Tomkins or Brett Finch?

Sam Tomkins is one of the best young talents in the game today, why do you think he plays at Wigan? Do you think we could sign the likes of Todd Carney or Jamel Idris? No. Why not?

Bang on! Someon in here actually sees sense!
Add Matty Orford to that list as well.

No they're not. Would you like to provide some statistics to back up your assertion?
We've probably produced about 100 players in the past 5 years, of which we've kept about 20. I'd say that 1 in 5 ratio is about the same, if not worse, than the figures for imports.

what facts?..thats an opinion not fact.

Totally y stupidity.

Although I see your point, I think you seem to be on some sort of quest to prove that you are right and everyone else is wrong. If we don't have twenty odd Wigan born players good enough to play at the highest level then we need to look further than our back yard. For Barrett I raise you Richards, Carmont, Leuluai, Dallas etc. I wouldn't say the Wigan lads are more likely to put in the effort, do you question the commitment of Richards, Leuluai and Carmont? Do you want to see a team full of the likes of Brown, Wild, Aspinwall etc? For every Sam Tomkins there is 5 mediocre players that just simply aren't good enough for Wigan. Also for every overseas player that has left Wigan over the last few years I'd wager 3 or 4 homegrown players have left. Do you not think that if the depth in talent was there for us to have a team full of English players then we would? I agree that bringing in overseas players is not ideal, but neither is it the disaster that you're making it out to be. For all we know this time in a couple of years the Tomkins brothers could be playing overseas, you can't base the fact that local lads don't leave when we realistically haven't had any real world class young local lads for a fair few years.

I think you are missing the point, this is why I'm getting frustrated. I agree with some of your points, and for the record I'm not trying to get everyone to agree with me, just not come down on me like a sack of $hit for my own opinions on what would benefit our club.
If you look at my recent post on the Pat Richardss thread you'll see my point.

PS Thank you for responding in a positive manner with no name calling or put downs throughout. Not all posters have such class.

At the end of the day everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I can see why you would be getting frustrated! I'd rather have a reasoned debate than a slanging match, but as you say not all posters would have it that way!

The problem is that it's easy to say in hindsight that player x shouldn't have been signed because they left early, as frustrating as it may be, because next time the overseas player could be a Pat Richards. I'd definitely agree that if we can have a team of predominantly English players then there is a chance that the team would be more stable over time, but there is also the chance that these English players will leave too. With the salary cap staying the same and the quota decreasing the demand for real quality English players is rising and I worry that the likes of us who bring through so many young players will be unable to keep the real quality as their value will be inflated.

Exactly, can't argue with that.

Another worry for me is the fact that Englands best (arguably) two forwards and 6 are all playing in Australia, if their clubs can offer more money and a lifestlye that I imagine would appeal to many English players how long till the best English players start to move there in larger numbers? If we can't afford to sign real quality NRL players in their prime, and the best English players move over there where does that leave Super League? We may be more competitive in internationals but at what price? But that's a whole other debate!

Quality post!

well thought out response