Bateman Signed for Wigan

[Graham]

England back-rower John Bateman will return to Wigan Warriors for the 2021 season, having spent two seasons at Australian NRL side Canberra Raiders.

The 26-year-old rejoins the club he left in 2018, on an initial four-year deal, and will be closer to his daughter, who has stayed in England.

Bateman was a major hit in Australia, winning the Dally M second row award and reaching the Grand Final in 2019.

"I'm very happy to be returning to Wigan," Bateman told the club website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/53285056

 

[Futtocks]

Well, if this is the case, the ending of his Canberra contract wasn't handled well at all. I hope he's learned something from that, but probably not.

[Graham]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

Well, if this is the case, the ending of his Canberra contract wasn't handled well at all. I hope he's learned something from that, but probably not.

There are so many people with a voice in the media who’ve already had their two pennyworth. This will give them chance for another dig. His manager seems to be his guide in all this. Maybe it’d have turned out better if he’d had a different representative/advisor.

[Futtocks]

53 minutes ago, Graham said:

There are so many people with a voice in the media who’ve already had their two pennyworth. This will give them chance for another dig. His manager seems to be his guide in all this. Maybe it’d have turned out better if he’d had a different representative/advisor.

The whole affair has been a godsend to that chippy minority who hate it when the Poms do well in the NRL. It won't be very long before their narrative will be all about how he wasn't good enough and went home a failure.

[Graham]

14 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

The whole affair has been a godsend to that chippy minority who hate it when the Poms do well in the NRL. It won't be very long before their narrative will be all about how he wasn't good enough and went home a failure.

Raiders have come over as a Pom friendly club with their contingent being an important element in their on field improvement.

If he'd been the only Pom there then I'm sure what you say would have been possible or maybe even probable. There's an important Pommy contingent still at the club and in the fans good books, so it's likely the general pom bashing won't happen and the critics will just home in on him as a person.

This downtime and restart to the season without fans with proper home and away fixtures has given the game an almost unreal feel to it.

If this had been a normal season things may even have turned out differently. Of course the seeds of his unrest were sown earlier than this, and there's hardly ever just one dimension to this kind of parting of the ways. Even so the sooner we have the game back to normal (if ever!) the better.

[Futtocks]

8 minutes ago, Graham said:

Raiders have come over as a Pom friendly club with their contingent being an important element in their on field improvement.

If he'd been the only Pom there then I'm sure what you say would have been possible or maybe even probable. There's an important Pommy contingent still at the club and in the fans good books, so it's likely the general pom bashing won't happen and the critics will just home in on him as a person.

This downtime and restart to the season without fans with proper home and away fixtures has given the game an almost unreal feel to it.

If this had been a normal season things may even have turned out differently. Of course the seeds of his unrest were sown earlier than this, and there's hardly ever just one dimension to this kind of parting of the ways. Even so the sooner we have the game back to normal (if ever!) the better.

You're assuming that facts will be part of their reasoning, rather than ingrained beliefs.

[Graham]

This open letter has been generally well received, with some unpleasant comments. None I saw mentioned him being a Pom.