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Is Bevan French really leaving Wigan?


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Bevan French has had a brilliant post-Covid series of performances for Wigan. He has single-handedly turned the Adrian Lam coached team from one struggling to make the top four into a real challenger to St Helens drive towards the Super  League title. French is contracted to Wigan until the end of 2021.  Yet now the story is being promulgated that Parramatta want French to return, and that he is considering it. This is causing great stress and anxiety among Wigan fans and management. 

This story appears to be one of the greatest player agent contract negotiating tricks I have ever encountered.  If Parramatta was to seriously pursue French then where would he play? The utter phoniness of the story is revealed in the claim that Parramatta has offered French the full back position. Really?

Parramatta has a full back named Clint Gutherson. That player is the team captain! Gutherson is regarded as one of the top 6 full backs in the NRL. He was just named Dally M full back of the year. He was in the final top three contenders for Dally M player of the year.. There is no way that Parramatta is considering replacing Gutherson with French. What a laugh!

Could French play in another position at Parramatta?  He was originally a winger there. But Parramatta has two top class wingers in Maika Sivo and Blake Ferguson. For French to be signed as a winger would put him in third ranking, and as cover for the other two he would not be offered anything like the money that Wigan can offer him. He could also be played at five eighth. But again a Parramatta already has a quality player in 20 year old Dylan Brown, Could Parramatta really be considering replacing Brown with French? It is theoretically possible. But Parramatra is facing the need to replace top class centre Michael Jennings because of the latter’s alleged drug offenses which could see him banned for at least two years. So the Eels may need a lot of money in hand to replace Jennings.

All in all the claim that Bevan French is being tempted to rejoin Parramatta reeks of player agent chicanery.

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13 minutes ago, Manfred Mann said:

AHBevan French has had a brilliant post-Covid series of performances for Wigan. He has single-handedly turned the Adrian Lam coached team from one struggling to make tje top four into a real challenger to St Helens drive towards the Super  League title. French is contracted to Wigan until the end of 2021.  Yet now the story is being promulgated that Parramatta want French to return, and that he is considering it. This is causing great stress and anxiety among Wigan fans and management. 

This story appears to be one of the greatest player agent contract negotiating tricks I have ever encountered.  If Parramatta was to seriously pursue French then where would he play? The utter phoniness of the story is revealed in the claim that Parramatta has offered French the full back position. Really?

Parramatta has a full back named Clint Gutherson. That player is regarded as one of the top 6 full backs in the NRL. He was just named Dally M full back of the year. He was in the final top three contenders for Dally M player of the year.. There is no way that Parramatta is considering replacing Gutherson with French.

Could French play in another position at Parramatta?  He was originally a winger there. But Parramatta has two top class wingers in Maika Sivo and Blake Ferguson. For French to be signed as a winger would put him in third ranking, and as cover for the other two he would not be offered anything like the money that Wigan can offer him. He could also be played at five eighth. But again a Parramatta already has a quality player in 20 year old Dylan Brown, Could Parramattacrealky be considering replacing Brown with French? It is theoretically possible. But Parramatra is facing the need to replace top class centre Michael Jennings because of the latter’s alleged drug offenses which could see him banned for at least two years. So the Eels may need a lot of money in hand to replace Jennings.

All in all the claim that Bevan French is being tempted to rejoin Parramatta reeks of player agent chicanery.

 His high ball defence / commitment to the challenge  from full back remains suspect. His attack from   6 would be scuppered by NRL zombie defenders. His attack from the back  is inspirational to the speccies. over here

He thrives in SL  Maybe it's the way we play in SL

Move at his peril I say but

 Still best mates with Hastings  from junior levels and they will probably decide together.....

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3 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

French can play in a load of positions, he’d be a shrewd signing for an NRL side and looks as though he could slot in to most positions in the backs and halves, if required. 

Maybe. But which club?

In any case, the story that Jenna Brooks recycled in her question about it in the recent post match interview was that Parramatta specifically are interested. And in response French confirmed it but said only that he was thinking about it. Meanwhile Wigan are now feverishly preparing a lucrative contract extension for French.

Good work Bevan!

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1 minute ago, Manfred Mann said:

Maybe. But which club?

In any case, the story that Jenna Brooks recycled in her question about it in the recent post match interview was that Parramatta specifically are interested. And in response French confirmed it but said only that he was thinking about it. Meanwhile Wigan are now feverishly preparing a lucrative contract extension for French.

Good work Bevan!

He could quite easily go back to Parra. Jennings may be facing, what could be a career ending ban, and Blake Ferguson is 30 now, so they may want a younger option to cover that position, too. 

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4 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

He could quite easily go back to Parra. Jennings may be facing, what could be a career ending ban, and Blake Ferguson is 30 now, so they may want a younger option to cover that position, too. 

But French would never be considered as a replacement for Jennings in the centres. And Blake Ferguson has at least two seasons ahead of him. 

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1 minute ago, Manfred Mann said:

But French would never be considered as a replacement for Jennings in the centres. And Blake Ferguson has at least two seasons ahead of him. 

Cheers, Brad Arthur. 

French could quite easily cover the centre berth for a short period, given his versatility, as he could the wing spot. French could slot in at Parra and compliment the way they play quite easily. 

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26 minutes ago, del capo said:

 His high ball defence / commitment to the challenge  from full back remains suspect. His attack from   6 would be scuppered by NRL zombie defenders. His attack from the back  is inspirational to the speccies. over here

He thrives in SL  Maybe it's the way we play in SL

Move at his peril I say but

 Still best mates with Hastings  from junior levels and they will probably decide together.....

Bla bla bla ... NRL supermen ... yada yada yada ...

Where we are pygmies at is with our administrators   ...  playing clubs 4 times in 9 days. Can anyone work out how we expect our players to play at their best in those conditions?  

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1 hour ago, Scubby said:

If I was Ricky Stuart I would be signing French asap. They are desperate for dangerous three quarters.

agreed- raiders always seem to miss that spark in that area

see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

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I'm sure NRL clubs would be lining up for his services but for what price! That's the question.

Hes in the top 5 players in SL playing arguably the most influential position. What salary does that demand in SL? Marquee £300,000 (AUD 550,000) a year? Hes just as Influential as Hastings, Austin, Siezer, Widopp,Tomkins who I believe would all be earning somewhere around that figure.

An NRL team won't pay him anywhere near that to be a utility player just there to cover multiple positions when theres an injury. Remember, the last two season in Aus he has played predominately in the NSW Cup (reserve grade). 

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18 minutes ago, AB90 said:

I'm sure NRL clubs would be lining up for his services but for what price! That's the question.

Hes in the top 5 players in SL playing arguably the most influential position. What salary does that demand in SL? Marquee £300,000 (AUD 550,000) a year? Hes just as Influential as Hastings, Austin, Siezer, Widopp,Tomkins who I believe would all be earning somewhere around that figure.

An NRL team won't pay him anywhere near that to be a utility player just there to cover multiple positions when theres an injury. Remember, the last two season in Aus he has played predominately in the NSW Cup (reserve grade). 

Well first off, at least the NRL have a reserve grade.

But more importantly French is influential in a different way to say Hastings or Gale... or Roby.  He produces the unexpected. Not unlike Jason Robinson, and he puts uncertainty, fear,  into defenders like Offiah or going back many years , Billy Boston.

Now on top of this, ignoring his speed, he does a lot of everything else well enough.

So frankly he would fit in with any team, and any team would have to work hard to nullify him... and wouldn't that mean the remaining 12 would be happy to have him?

He would be OK in Canberra... the next best thing to an English import.

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4 hours ago, Manfred Mann said:

Bevan French has had a brilliant post-Covid series of performances for Wigan. He has single-handedly turned the Adrian Lam coached team from one struggling to make the top four into a real challenger to St Helens drive towards the Super  League title. French is contracted to Wigan until the end of 2021.  Yet now the story is being promulgated that Parramatta want French to return, and that he is considering it. This is causing great stress and anxiety among Wigan fans and management. 

This story appears to be one of the greatest player agent contract negotiating tricks I have ever encountered.  If Parramatta was to seriously pursue French then where would he play? The utter phoniness of the story is revealed in the claim that Parramatta has offered French the full back position. Really?

Parramatta has a full back named Clint Gutherson. That player is the team captain! Gutherson is regarded as one of the top 6 full backs in the NRL. He was just named Dally M full back of the year. He was in the final top three contenders for Dally M player of the year.. There is no way that Parramatta is considering replacing Gutherson with French. What a laugh!

Could French play in another position at Parramatta?  He was originally a winger there. But Parramatta has two top class wingers in Maika Sivo and Blake Ferguson. For French to be signed as a winger would put him in third ranking, and as cover for the other two he would not be offered anything like the money that Wigan can offer him. He could also be played at five eighth. But again a Parramatta already has a quality player in 20 year old Dylan Brown, Could Parramatta really be considering replacing Brown with French? It is theoretically possible. But Parramatra is facing the need to replace top class centre Michael Jennings because of the latter’s alleged drug offenses which could see him banned for at least two years. So the Eels may need a lot of money in hand to replace Jennings.

All in all the claim that Bevan French is being tempted to rejoin Parramatta reeks of player agent chicanery.

He hasn’t done anything Single -handedly and when were Wigan struggling to make the playoffs??

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I don't think the Eels thing is realistic, and he will struggle to nail down a full back spot anywhere, the utility thing is more realistic  with somone like the Dogs, Tigers, Cowboys,Dragons or Titans but whether he could match what he's on at Wigan is doubtful, depends what he wants and how much his agent can grift for him.

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12 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Well first off, at least the NRL have a reserve grade.

But more importantly French is influential in a different way to say Hastings or Gale... or Roby.  He produces the unexpected. Not unlike Jason Robinson, and he puts uncertainty, fear,  into defenders like Offiah or going back many years , Billy Boston.

Now on top of this, ignoring his speed, he does a lot of everything else well enough.

So frankly he would fit in with any team, and any team would have to work hard to nullify him... and wouldn't that mean the remaining 12 would be happy to have him?

He would be OK in Canberra... the next best thing to an English import.

Yeah of course. Every SL would love to have him. He's one of the best players in the league.

Regarding NRL, due to his slight frame I think its fullback or nothing. And there's only 16 of those positions available.

Canterbury Bulldogs would be a shout.

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4 hours ago, Rupert Prince said:

Bla bla bla ... NRL supermen ... yada yada yada ...

Where we are pygmies at is with our administrators   ...  playing clubs 4 times in 9 days. Can anyone work out how we expect our players to play at their best in those conditions?  

??????

Made his mark in a lesser but much more fluid  attack based  competition. SL rather than NRL well suites his shape and style. Up to him and his agent where he goes next

As for your 4 /9 game play comment that's down to  the TV contract,  Sometimes we all feel like pygmies . But without that contract we could all soon be reduced to just park football....

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I would be amazed if he was on any more than £200k (A$380,000) at Wigan. You cannot underestimate how 2020 will test NRL-standard players dedication to staying in the UK. They are only human and have extended families.

He may even be happy with earning the same amount as he is now at an NRL club. The NRL GF tomorrow will have 40,000 in attendance. It is a big pull for the likes of Hastings, French, Widdop etc. to return down under.

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From what I remember of French was that he left for a reason, and that was that nobody really wanted him. He was just another talented attacking player who was flaky in defence and could go missing in attack. If Brad Arthur is after him it will only be further evidence that Arthur is not the man to deliver the Eels another premiership.

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15 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

From what I remember of French was that he left for a reason, and that was that nobody really wanted him. He was just another talented attacking player who was flaky in defence and could go missing in attack. If Brad Arthur is after him it will only be further evidence that Arthur is not the man to deliver the Eels another premiership.

That's harsh, my memories of Bevan was very classy but inconsistent. He scored 36 tries in under 50 NRL games. The guy is also 24 years of age.

I would say a number of NRL clubs would be looking at him if he wanted to return. He would be a great buy for teams like Raiders, Dogs, Warriors, Tigers. He would be a great replacement for Ado-Carr or Vunivalu at the Storm too IMO.

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6 minutes ago, Scubby said:

That's harsh, my memories of Bevan was very classy but inconsistent. He scored 36 tries in under 50 NRL games. The guy is also 24 years of age.

I would say a number of NRL clubs would be looking at him if he wanted to return. He would be a great buy for teams like Raiders, Dogs, Warriors, Tigers. He would be a great replacement for Ado-Carr or Vunivalu at the Storm too IMO.

He reminds me of Albert Kelly and Tyrone Peachy at the Gold Coast, who by the way are at the Gold coast for a reason, both of whom can do some magical things but have too many mistakes/brain explosions in them. Centres in the NRL have to be pretty big these days as well or at least very robust.

With all due respect the bit I have seen of SLE is that it is considerably less intense than NRL, his price tag might help though if what you are saying is correct, that sort of price tag is chicken feed over here and someone might take a gamble on him. Is he fast enough for wing at Storm? He`s not the sort of player Storm normally pick up.

Not sure how old Hastings is but I would have thought he may be more likely to be picked up, I think he only ever really left because there was those episodes of fighting with team mates, first at Roosters then at Manly. I gather he has gotten over that and looked a pretty talented half to me. Big ask to come back here and steer a team around but It can be done, Bulldogs might be a nice fit for Hastings, there`s not exactly a surplus of quality genuine 5/8`s floating around.

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7 hours ago, The Rocket said:

He reminds me of Albert Kelly and Tyrone Peachy at the Gold Coast, who by the way are at the Gold coast for a reason, both of whom can do some magical things but have too many mistakes/brain explosions in them. Centres in the NRL have to be pretty big these days as well or at least very robust.

With all due respect the bit I have seen of SLE is that it is considerably less intense than NRL, his price tag might help though if what you are saying is correct, that sort of price tag is chicken feed over here and someone might take a gamble on him. Is he fast enough for wing at Storm? He`s not the sort of player Storm normally pick up.

Not sure how old Hastings is but I would have thought he may be more likely to be picked up, I think he only ever really left because there was those episodes of fighting with team mates, first at Roosters then at Manly. I gather he has gotten over that and looked a pretty talented half to me. Big ask to come back here and steer a team around but It can be done, Bulldogs might be a nice fit for Hastings, there`s not exactly a surplus of quality genuine 5/8`s floating around.

Tyrone Peachy is at the 9th placed finishing Gold Coast because the Panthers couldn't meet his wage demands after he appeared in SOO

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Been an absolute joy to watch. My favourite player, he's the only current player I'd pay to watch!! Hope he stays, however the reality is these type of players come to súper league to prove to the nrl they have "changed" it's when they get back to Australia with they're mates things can turn quickly!!!! Good luck to what ever he chooses to do

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