Exiled Wiganer

It’s a hyperbolic reaction against the position that he must be picked, which is simply repeated ad nauseum. There is only one precedent for a player who has played his career in the NRL and not come through the system in the UK having much of an impact, and that was Widdop, who was shining in the NRL in a spine position. I have watched dozens of NRL games over the last 18 months and seen nothing to suggest he is a stand out player in the NRL, and have been nothing but under whelmed whenever we have picked average NRL players for England/GB. I am not the one trying tediously to shoe horn him into the squad every day of the week. The one eyed obliviousness in the never ending Herbie For England camp is not just tedious but goes against history and reason. In my opinion. As you get 10 Herbie for PM posts compared to every “err, maybe not” I am sure you can cope.

Maybe Wane has been on here and realised that having someone so much better than the rest of the squad could seriously disrupt the balance of the side.

Newman is class, and a joy to watch. Of Wigan’s quartet, I think that all 4 of them will have good SL careers ahead of them. I think Havard is the best forward we have produced for a very long time. What a talent. I am not sure which of Smithies or Shorrocks will be the better player. Shorrocks seems to have more ball playing skills but Smithies has Bateman level mongrel. Smith is a wonderful reader of the game and that will take him a long way. They are a wonderful combination of young players...

I was thinking about this the other day - to what extent do the commentators’ emphasis affect the disciplinary? Say, if you compare Sky’s reaction to Smithies’ indiscretions against their ignoring Walmsley’s attack on Wells’ knee, would that be a factor in the process? Surely they aren’t influenced?

Not sure how Greenwood failed to make a go of it, as he is clearly a better player than Sutton. Maybe he joined the wrong team? There is a risk that SL will be unable ever to keep its stars, but I hope that is one of the things focussing the minds of the chairmen. Wigan are particularly susceptible to people leaving, as our name is so well known, when compared with clubs like St Helens. When Williams joins, Canberra will play more Englishmen than Catalans play Frenchmen most weeks...

I think Allora is in full on “Everything English is rubbish” mode for some reason. I think it is an interesting list, and don’t see why you can’t have all the English qualified players on a list of English qualified players. I thought the Morrises were born here, but may have that muddled. Certainly, there has been discussion from time to time about their availability (and the other “Aussies” on the list). I thought that Sutton was lined up to play in the Canberra first team, though that might have been in the Wigan papers. I will be interested to see whether how far he goes. I also read that Bateman needed an interpreter. The point though is well made. The more English qualified players we have in the NRL system, the better our strength in depth. Anything that deepens the pool.

That works on so many levels. If it was meant as a multi layered joke, it worked for me!

Given how much money I spend on products you sell, I'd have thought you'd be interested in how much "I can take". He's entitled to his opinion, he's entitled to slag off anyone and everyone. What puzzles me is his desperate need to do so. There are so many ways to make a point beyond - "listen kids while I tell you again how great I was and how rubbish everyone else was and is." It's sad and desperate. You can be a vocal critic of many things, and argue a case without doing so. I'd certainly read Hanley's views on how he was so much better because he genuinely was better, not some re write of history to suggest Schofield was in a different class from the likes of Edwards. I hope you can handle my opinion.

Just picking up on this. For what it's worth, I think there was a brief period when Schofield was a better player than Edwards, and a very fine 6. Not the world's best player, but a very good one. What Edwards had was a will to win and a drive which made the most of every ounce of his talent, over a very long period. He became the game's most decorated player for a reason, and deserves better than to be casually dismissed by someone who never once managed to lift the team he played with into one good enough to win a major prize. I can and I will compare their medal hauls - when the disparity is this vast, it demands close examination. Determination and drive are as much part of what makes a player great as speed and balance. That he was the corner stone of every great Wigan side of the era, the most successful club side of any era, is reason to hail him, not dismiss him. We sold Hanley when his powers waned. We'd have done the same to Edwards. Now, I know that Schofield is deranged, but entertaining, but in case anyone reads his column and believes he was a class above Edwards the facts provide a massive rebuke.

Isn't there a lot of evidence to suggest that none of these clubs will thrive in SL (though they might survive and contribute)?

Schofield managed not only to big himself up as a guru on half backs and then to dismiss anyone else who played after him (as per) and then turned on his peers, Goulding and Edwards. Surely, anyone new to the game might think, such a stellar player would have inspired the side in which he played to win trophy after trophy, and would be destined for a glorious coaching career. That playing career in full - GS - 1 Yorkshire Cup, 1 Panasonic Cup (I was a bit embarrassed even to include these, but they really are the whole story); SE - 3 World Club Challenges, 8 Championships, 9 CC wins, 5 Lancashire Cup wins. That coaching career in full - GS - I was almost too embarrassed to write anything here - 13 games at Huddersfield and 5 at Barrow; SE - sadly, all Dark Side, but seemingly impressive in their terms. GS awarded himself the Golden Boot for each of the "lost" Open Rugby years, before being given it well after the event by his employers. Edwards won Man of Steel once. Next week, read how GS was so much better than that Alex Murphy fella.

Never heard of him, but then I was trying to think of a current union player I had heard of, other than the ex leaguies - is there a TUilagi? A Cockerill? A Moody? The timing is good - made the front page of the BBC web site - nice subliminal message. Makes you wonder whether Sally Bolton is pulling the strings for the whole of the sporting world.

I like L-P. I'd have been gutted if they'd gone for Veuve Cliquot - it's diesel oil in a bottle.

We should be selling them as the greatest rugby players in the world. I have a poster of Brett Kenny in his Kangaroo kit walking out that they put up all round Wigan for our match in the 1986 tour. It just said "They're Coming!" On the Dark Side, they build up the All Blacks image/myth so that getting close to them is considered an achievement. We should do the same for the Greatest Game equivalent.

I am not sure it is extra revenue - didn't we sell all the rights to IMG, who are entitled to on sell them to whoever they want?

OF - I'm gutted no one looked beyond the overt aggression to the underlying wit. If only I'd added a smiley. (It did cross my mind that I'd have to don my keyboard armour though.)

It's ok, far from a classic edition. It has the obligatory Schofield "I would have done better than what I was given free tickets to sit through on my way to 10 consecutive Golden Boots" comedy self parody moment of course. And it has as much doom and gloom moaning as this board, though you have to pay for Sadler's d and g.

I hadn't thought about it, but I must say reading the replies makes me appreciate how far HKR have gone. One thing I'd say about them is that they seem to be able to attract players you'd pay good money to watch, which is a tremendous credit to them.

I agree - what if they've only made 40 % of 40 % available and sold 40 % of those? Where would be without our resident French cynic? A happier place, perhaps?

Given how far out we are, I remain pretty optimistic about this. For our game, getting to 500k tickets would represent an unprecedented level of success and popularity, as we watch the greatest World Cup in our history. We seem well on track so far. A big performance from England at Cardiff and we'll be set very fair indeed (and weather like 95 rather than 00 please).

He only need sto be better than Tuson to be a step up. He'll go well and is a great age.

Oh and given that it was mentioned on here as an example of SL at its best, on Monday Wigan had a huge number of young British players stepping up to the plate. From our perspective this year has shown that well coached British talent can go a long way given the chance. I hope that HKR go down that route and that the next Dobbo is a Brit.

Dobbo may be reserve grade but then Scott Moore is a first team player. Maybe his style better suits SL than the NRL. From what I have seen Burns looks to be pretty much as good as Green, for whom they got a fee, so maybe HKR have another 7 already lined up? Sandercock must have decent connections there.

Did we nick him from Wakefield? Wigan's youth set up can be widely acquisitive.

Williams and Hampshire are real talents. Not seen Tierney so can't comment on whether he is a Keiron Cunningham or a (wide to) West in the sons of famous fathers stakes.