George Williams - homesick?

[Saint Toppy]

1 hour ago, Copa said:

Highest average wages, highest levels of education, day trip to beach and snow, a national park network nearby as large as Wales, galleries, theatres, great restaurants, 10 minute work commute…

Drought, forest fires, floods, plagues of mice & rats, high wages eaten up by the extortionate living costs, no free healthcare system. I mean if your unfortunate to need an ambulance they slap you with a $1500 bill for the privilege.

Living in Aus., and in particular in one of the big cities aint all its cracked up to be

[Man of Kent]

15 minutes ago, Jim Prendle said:

George Williams has never been an organising type of half back, he is a strong running half with an excellent kicking game.

He was stuck in at 7 by Canberra to accommodate Wighton at 6 and at times it has worked. However, expecting Williams to turn into Peter Sterling was always a very long shot.

Wighton is a strong player, excellent close to the line, but he doesn't have the broken field running of Williams, or the kicking game. Despite that they are too similar to play as a Half back partnership.

I think Williams is being unfairly maligned for his supposed failure in the NRL. At times he has been excellent and at times he has been satisfactory, but calling him a failure is way too strong.

I am, of course, completely ignoring the thoughts of The Grim Reaper (Graveyard Jonny) as he would fall into a barrel of t!ts and come out sucking his thumb.

Agree with much of this but I think he'll be remembered in Australia as a failure. Not a complete failure, but a failure.

[Adelaide Tiger]

2 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

100 miles - thats much further than anywhere on the M62 corridor is from a beach. No wonder he wants out of it  - its the proximity to New Brighton.

AB it’s 93 miles from Cas to Blackpool so it appears that the additional 7 miles made all the difference to George. Although as we know Blackpool beach is a lot better than Bondi

[Davo5]

2 hours ago, Copa said:

Highest average wages, highest levels of education, day trip to beach and snow, a national park network nearby as large as Wales, galleries, theatres, great restaurants, 10 minute work commute…

Wasn’t the Raiders failure to attract the top talent from Sydney/Qld one of the main drivers in them going down the Superleague route ?

[JohnM]

55 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Drought, forest fires, floods, plagues of mice & rats, high wages eaten up by the extortionate living costs, no free healthcare system. I mean if your unfortunate to need an ambulance they slap you with a $1500 bill for the privilege.

Living in Aus., and in particular in one of the big cities aint all its cracked up to be

Our health service is not free either. 

[Jim Prendle]

On 03/05/2021 at 09:40, Copa said:

We might not be able to leave Australia freely until next year 

Bloody hell man, that's how Australia started.

[Scubby]

I wouldn't get too excited about George Williams return. I must admit to being pumped to see Bateman back in a Wigan shirt. He just hasn't been dominant in the games I've seen. It would be a shame for GW to come back and go through the motions. England needed him to develop further.

[Copa]

34 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Wasn’t the Raiders failure to attract the top talent from Sydney/Qld one of the main drivers in them going down the Superleague route ?

Players have their families in Sydney. So they tend to prefer Sydney teams over the only inland NRL team in Australia.

[Copa]

1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:

Drought, forest fires, floods, plagues of mice & rats, high wages eaten up by the extortionate living costs, no free healthcare system. I mean if your unfortunate to need an ambulance they slap you with a $1500 bill for the privilege.

Living in Aus., and in particular in one of the big cities aint all its cracked up to be

I’ve used ambulances a few times. I’ve never been sent a bill.

[Saint Toppy]

1 minute ago, Copa said:

I’ve used ambulances a few times. I’ve never been sent a bill.

Has it changed in recent years then ?

When I was in Aus my colleague got knocked off her bike in Sydney. For the use of the Ambulance she got a $1500 bill (plus about another $7K for her hospital treatment), and her insurance would only pay back 70%

And before you ask she was Australian with full citizenship

[Hela Wigmen]

Aaron Bower reckons Newcastle Thunder want him. 

[Copa]

10 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Has it changed in recent years then ?

When I was in Aus my colleague got knocked off her bike in Sydney. For the use of the Ambulance she got a $1500 bill (plus about another $7K for her hospital treatment), and her insurance would only pay back 70%

And before you ask she was Australian with full citizenship

Different states have different ambulance systems. Some have it incorporated into a household bill, others ask people to pay a very low fee annually to cover the potential cost.

I’ve never been charged for hospital treatment in NSW, QLD or the ACT as a result of trauma. I even had all my physiotherapy covered in QLD and ACT to help me recover from wrist surgeries.

I’ve never used insurance to cover it. All 100% taxpayer funded. That’s been over a few decades now.

Maybe your friend went private.

[hunsletgreenandgold]

3 hours ago, Copa said:

Highest average wages, highest levels of education, day trip to beach and snow, a national park network nearby as large as Wales, galleries, theatres, great restaurants, 10 minute work commute…

Mate Australia is great - we all know that. But don't mistake many of us Brits being self deprecating about life here as us actually believing it's bad. Higher wages are all relative to cost of living, you know that, so against a cost index that factors all that in Aus is marginally better than the UK - very similar to Ireland in fact. Education wise i'd be interested to know what metric you're using to declare 'highest level of education' - you're certainly not using the overall system in Aus, as it's widely known the difference between the 'haves' and 'have nots' in Aus is shockingly unbalanced? All the rest is quite subjective really - if life was all about weather and beaches then why do 70 million decide to stay on this little rock above France? It's not that deep i'm sure, but it's good to recalibrate the argument every now and again when it starts to get all 'Aus great UK bad' vibes. 

[Davo5]

25 minutes ago, Copa said:

Players have their families in Sydney. So they tend to prefer Sydney teams over the only inland NRL team in Australia.

So moving & living in Canberra isn’t that attractive to a lot of Australians from other areas ?

[Spidey]

1 hour ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Aaron Bower reckons Newcastle Thunder want him. 

Few people reporting that now. Hope they land him

[Dave T]

I don't think the pandemic can be over-stated in all this. Without the pandemic he would have had regular visits from family, friends, and would have been able to visit home too. Losing that is a big issue. 

Asking to leave at the end of the year after a couple of years playing there is not unreasonable, it's life. 

[Copa]

1 hour ago, hunsletgreenandgold said:

Mate Australia is great - we all know that. But don't mistake many of us Brits being self deprecating about life here as us actually believing it's bad. Higher wages are all relative to cost of living, you know that, so against a cost index that factors all that in Aus is marginally better than the UK - very similar to Ireland in fact. Education wise i'd be interested to know what metric you're using to declare 'highest level of education' - you're certainly not using the overall system in Aus, as it's widely known the difference between the 'haves' and 'have nots' in Aus is shockingly unbalanced? All the rest is quite subjective really - if life was all about weather and beaches then why do 70 million decide to stay on this little rock above France? It's not that deep i'm sure, but it's good to recalibrate the argument every now and again when it starts to get all 'Aus great UK bad' vibes. 

I was referring to Canberra, not Australia.

[Copa]

1 hour ago, Davo5 said:

So moving & living in Canberra isn’t that attractive to a lot of Australians from other areas ?

For some NRL players, that’s correct. They have lots of options to play near their families and friends in Sydney.

[EastLondonMike]

Jut watched the latest NRL 360 debate on George Williams and it's quite embarrassing for Paul Kent and James Hooper, who really go after Williams with the intent of painting a certain picture of him. Only Hannah Hollis really offers something close to an unbiased view of the situation. Hooper clearly feels offended.

There really is an air of authority about these two in situations like this. Like no one else knows or understands.

Clearly all is not well at the raiders and i don't think Williams will be the last one out the door. He hasn't handled the situation as well as he could of, but these blokes seem intent on completely portraying him as the villain.

[Dunbar]

I have visited Australia and thoroughly enjoyed it. But while I enjoyed the 1980's I wouldn't want to live there permanently again.

[Lowdesert]

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby-league/you-would-go-to-war-for-george-williams-canberra-raiders-team-mates-impassioned-defence-3250732

[Dunbar]

All is not well at the Raiders. There will be a lot more fall out yet to come.

[Anita Bath]

what about Brid, Filey and folk tell me scarborough is still bracing. He obviously misses the beach life.

[DavidM]

If the players aren’t happy about this , considering they weren’t exactly a happy bunch anyway , things could get even worse . 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, EastLondonMike said:

Jut watched the latest NRL 360 debate on George Williams and it's quite embarrassing for Paul Kent and James Hooper, who really go after Williams with the intent of painting a certain picture of him. Only Hannah Hollis really offers something close to an unbiased view of the situation. Hooper clearly feels offended.

There really is an air of authority about these two in situations like this. Like no one else knows or understands.

Clearly all is not well at the raiders and i don't think Williams will be the last one out the door. He hasn't handled the situation as well as he could of, but these blokes seem intent on completely portraying him as the villain.

It's reall aggressive stuff from the media isn't it? We don't really see that here.