Wigan announce signings for 2022

[Rupert Prince]

2 hours ago, Davo5 said:

Field was an average NSW cup player and was typical of Radlinski’s flawed recruitment policy.

How do you know.  He has not played.   

The heart of Wigans problems have been injuries, not selection policy.  Plus the vagaries of the disciplinary system.

Wigan produce good players and then they go to the NRL or RU, all within a Salary Cap. 

The club could have released Tommy or O'Loughlin earlier, but there is still the cost of keeping them as coaches, and spending big money on keeping players happy for say 4 years contract then ties up Cap money....  and then other players leave.

In the good old golden days, players would hardly move clubs and get a benefit.  That may be a to say view, but players these days move in and out like a fiddlers elbow.  

Working out a new team every year (and not just Wigan) is like cracking the Enigma Code.

[Exiled Wiganer]

Wigan’s main problem is that we invest far too much money in player development, including fielding a women’s’ team. If we ditch that, then we can invest all of our time and energy in recruiting a great first team. We get zero return on investment from, say, Gildart. Our entire business model is completely flawed. It isn’t our purpose to develop players, it is our purpose to win. Our great teams often had virtually no home grown talent.  We are not even considered worthy of hosting a World Cup game, so our standing in the game is clearly as low as it has ever been. 

[Lowdesert]

17 hours ago, Davo5 said:

A bang average Championship winger & 2 NSW Cup forwards with a handful of NRL appearances,hoping the replacements for Gildart & Hastings are of a higher quality.

I think I would rather have a player with something to prove Dave, rather than an NRL superstar on marquee money.  Satae and Sao have done brilliantly for Hull both on the outer beforehand.

Gildart could be back

 

[The Future is League]

Would i be right in thinking that MOST Super League clubs have scouts at MOST championship games?

[Southerner]

Underwhelming names for Wigan. 
Obviously time will tell but doesn’t look good on paper. Miski has been pretty good but at championship level and was released by Manly. 

[Saint Toppy]

1 hour ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

Wigan’s main problem is that we invest far too much money in player development, including fielding a women’s’ team. If we ditch that, then we can invest all of our time and energy in recruiting a great first team. We get zero return on investment from, say, Gildart. Our entire business model is completely flawed. It isn’t our purpose to develop players, it is our purpose to win. Our great teams often had virtually no home grown talent.  We are not even considered worthy of hosting a World Cup game, so our standing in the game is clearly as low as it has ever been. 

Quite the opposite, Wigan are one of only a handful of SL clubs who should be very proud of their investment in juniors and in being able to bring them through into the 1st team. What's flawed is that the RFL don't have rules & regulations in place that force all of the clubs to make a similar investment & commitment

[Jinking Jimmy]

5 hours ago, Davo5 said:

Field was an average NSW cup player and was typical of Radlinski’s flawed recruitment policy.

I must bow to your superior knowledge.

[Exiled Wiganer]

1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:

Quite the opposite, Wigan are one of only a handful of SL clubs who should be very proud of their investment in juniors and in being able to bring them through into the 1st team. What's flawed is that the RFL don't have rules & regulations in place that force all of the clubs to make a similar investment & commitment

Why should we be proud of what we have done? That emphasis on investment has lead to this dead end. If we develop talent, we will lose it as soon as it gets anywhere.

As a shareholder and very long time season ticket holder, I was happy enough with the model, but it has clearly abjectly failed. We should do the barest minimum required by the RFL and no more - which I assume would be something like having a Borough Academy with Leigh, and ditching all other teams. We have something like 80 employees doing things like public engagement and community engagement.

People are right to laugh at recruitment like this, particularly when it is in large part a product of wasting money on non first team activities. We have something like 15 home grown players in our first team squad. How can that make any kind of sense - the Catalans have shown us the way forward. Some years we don’t even use our full overseas quota! We should be fielding Kasiano, not Smithies. 

[goldcoaster]

Shows how far Super League has fallen when the competitions biggest club is signing reserve grade rubbish from Australia. Indeed the only time SL clubs sign an NRL player of note is when they are either about 35 years old or have run into legal / disciplinary problems.

[Exiled Wiganer]

16 minutes ago, goldcoaster said:

Shows how far Super League has fallen when the competitions biggest club is signing reserve grade rubbish from Australia. Indeed the only time SL clubs sign an NRL player of note is when they are either about 35 years old or have run into legal / disciplinary problems.

We could sign better players but we waste our money on home grown talent. 

[WN83]

Bevan French was playing NSW cup when he signed and he’s gone pretty well. The three of them have been or still are fringe players in the NRL but that doesn’t mean they’re poor players. Wigan seem to be going down the route of signings younger overseas players, who are looking to rebuild a career or kickstart a career before potentially heading back down under with an improved reputation. I would rather we did that than go head first in to signing 34/35 year old big names, who are coming over for a pension top up.

 

I hear positive things about Mago and Miski looks dangerous, although he may not be first choice. I don’t know a great deal about Ellis but plenty of unknowns have done very well here. The beauty of what we have at Wigan is that we won’t be solely relying on signings. Kids like KPP and Brad O’Neill highlight exactly where our strength lies. We’re in a sticky patch at the minute but all the times the youngsters are getting more experience and will continue to improve. 
 

Our biggest signing for next season won’t be made on the field. 

[Rupert Prince]

11 hours ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

We could sign better players but we waste our money on home grown talent. 

Wierd comment.  Home grown players like Gildart and Williams?   And we spotted good young players like Smith and Bateman from elsewhere.

Is or was Walmsey rubbish because he came from Batley Bulldogs... and went straight back on loan?

[Clogiron]

Have they stopped celebrating on the streets of Wigan over their new signings yet

[Saint Toppy]

 

How short sighted, if everyone followed that path then there wouldn't be any youngsters coming through and the game would be completely dead.

Catalans are NOT the way forward, in fact i've commented many times on this board that I think they're a joke in that the vast majority of their first choice players are from overseas.

There's absolutely nothing wrong at all with the policies of clubs like Wigan & Saints who consistently bring through juniors into their 1st team, its the RFL's rules that are $$$$ poor. There should be a far greater reward & incentives for clubs who bring through their own (such as a 50% dispensation on the SC for all home grown players), and rules in place for all clubs such as at least 50% of your top 25 players having to be home grown, in conjunction with a lowering of the number of overseas players to say 3.

If every club had 15 home grown players in their top 25 squad like Wigan just think how much better England's prospects would be in the future with a significantly increased talent pool. Instead we're scraping around with NRL cast-off's who have an English grand parent. When you have 2nd rate Aussie half backs playing on the wing for your national team you just know there's something seriously wrong with our system.

 

[Tonka]

As a Wigan fan I'm a bit underwhelmed.  That said, big name signings flop as often as not.

It smacks to me of buying cheap and hoping to mould them into the "Wigan way".

It's debatable whether a young, fringe player is a better buy than a past his prime 31 year old...

[Waynebennettswinger]

Wigan have also been linked with Renouf Atoni a prop for Canterbury although Lam is playing it cool according to RLE. 

It’s strange seeing other posts on the forum linking Tom Johnstone with Warrington (not sure how true that is) but no mention of the likes of Wigan or Leeds moving for him. Yes, I know he has had his injuries but he is a top class winger IMHO. Personally I hope he stays, remains injury free and helps Wakey to improve but he is exactly the sort of player you would expect the top clubs to be sniffing around.

[goldcoaster]

On 21/07/2021 at 07:22, WN83 said:

Bevan French was playing NSW cup when he signed and he’s gone pretty well. The three of them have been or still are fringe players in the NRL but that doesn’t mean they’re poor players. Wigan seem to be going down the route of signings younger overseas players, who are looking to rebuild a career or kickstart a career before potentially heading back down under with an improved reputation. I would rather we did that than go head first in to signing 34/35 year old big names, who are coming over for a pension top up.

 

I hear positive things about Mago and Miski looks dangerous, although he may not be first choice. I don’t know a great deal about Ellis but plenty of unknowns have done very well here. The beauty of what we have at Wigan is that we won’t be solely relying on signings. Kids like KPP and Brad O’Neill highlight exactly where our strength lies. We’re in a sticky patch at the minute but all the times the youngsters are getting more experience and will continue to improve. 
 

Our biggest signing for next season won’t be made on the field. 

I just don't see the point in bringing over these average imports. Surely there are better players playing in England that clubs could recruit - then they don't have to deal with bringing them over, visas, accommodation - plus the risk of them getting homesick and bunking off home. This is not a Wigan-only issue by the way, it seems to be trending across the league.