Owen Farrell to sign for Wigan?

[RP London]

6 hours ago, Oxford said:

Give over MWoody when those in Fleet Street stop I will. I'm not holding my breath!

 

In that case you can stop now.. Fleet Street isn't calling anything anything since the newspapers moved out in about the mid 80s..

[Tosh]

On 26/11/2022 at 01:02, The Rocket said:

I would have liked the Dolphins to have made a play for Miller as I think his game time in first grade for the Sharks will always be limited. He certainly showed a lot of energy when he did appear and the Dolphins are light on halves and it`s where Miller said he wants to play. I did see him get run over in defence a couple of times, though that can probably be fixed.

I suppose the other thing is, he is an exciting player and I`d like to see more of him, not much chance of that if he is languishing in the Shark`s reserve grade.

p.s. the raids on union 7`s have begun, the Cowboy`s have three Fijian 7`s players and the Storm at least one in the highly rated youngster Will Warbrick.

The cowboys only signed 2 Fijian Union 7’s players last year and already 1 of them has gone back to playing Union.

Will Warbrick is very highly rated and performed well in his 1st season playing league for the Sunshine Coast falcons in the Queensland cup.

 

[Tosh]

On 25/11/2022 at 23:51, Sports Prophet said:

His kicking and passing will be spot on. He will still be well accustomed to choosing the correct option and creating line breaks with his running and passing game.

I think there are many positions other than fullbacks and wingers that have potential to convert in either direction. The sharks made a great signing of RU 7s Lachlan Miller at age 27. He played league until age 22 but not at NRL standard. Spent 5 yrs on the 7s circuit. Now he finds himself on the verge of pushing out Will Kennedy from FB after injury gave Miller his opportunity.

A union scrum half should have some good transferable skills to wear the 9 jersey in league. The fly half should be transferable to 6. As chief’s on the RU pitch, any talent comes with a hefty price tag. I also think the lesser paid stars of the 7s circuit should transfer across well into league as well. As a moneyball signing, I would be scouting union 7s players for future cross code NRL stars.

Union 7’s players and the NPC domestic RU competition in New Zealand should be heavily scouted by NRL clubs for potential rough diamonds.

[headtackle]

Union World Cup next year so presume he will wait to see if picked for 6 nations and in with a chance of that

Marcus Smith is the new Union glory boy at number 10 so may not be a shoe in

If not going who knows a new challenge to finish his career might appeal

I suspect not though as big money still likely to be available in FrAnce or even Japan

Would like to see it as no publicity is bad publicity.  At his age though would be thinking of a coaching role in union

[SalfordSlim]

On 26/11/2022 at 16:19, Mr Frisky said:

I think Luther Burrell has put paid to anyone taking a chance on a Union player any time soon. Far better a good young Champ player (like Ritson at Saints) or an Ozzy youngun that has lost his way - like Hastings 

Is Tee Ritson the Jesse Lingard of RL? He'll be 27 in 6 weeks so not exactly that young!

Unless you're comparing him to me, in which case he's barely a toddler.

Edited November 27, 2022 by SalfordSlim

[Mr Frisky]

18 minutes ago, SalfordSlim said:

Is Tee Ritson the Jesse Lingard of RL? He'll be 27 in 6 weeks so not exactly that young!

Unless you're comparing him to me, in which case he's barely a toddler.

He was only 25 10 months ago

[Davo5]

24 minutes ago, SalfordSlim said:

Is Tee Ritson the Jesse Lingard of RL? He'll be 27 in 6 weeks so not exactly that young!

Unless you're comparing him to me, in which case he's barely a toddler.

He’ll be 27 by the time he plays a competitive game for Saints so yeah hardly a kid,Young Jack Walker still has a few years to go before he’s just plain Jack Walker by that reckoning.

[Johnny Ringo]

2 hours ago, SalfordSlim said:

Is Tee Ritson the Jesse Lingard of RL? He'll be 27 in 6 weeks so not exactly that young!

Unless you're comparing him to me, in which case he's barely a toddler.

6yrs of his prime ahead would be a good signing with no initial outlay if he turns out as good as the expectations are. 

[SalfordSlim]

2 minutes ago, Johnny Ringo said:

6yrs of his prime ahead would be a good signing with no initial outlay if he turns out as good as the expectations are. 

Not disputing he could be a decent signing I'm just challenging the fact he's being claimed as a youngster!

He made his debut at Workington in 2014 so this'll be his 9th (?) season... hardly a newbie to the game.

[Johnny Ringo]

4 minutes ago, SalfordSlim said:

Not disputing he could be a decent signing I'm just challenging the fact he's being claimed as a youngster!

He made his debut at Workington in 2014 so this'll be his 9th (?) season... hardly a newbie to the game.

I think th youngster claim was someone comparing him to a 31yr old? But point taken 27 is an experienced age. 

[DACS]

When RL was signing RU players in the 80s-90s the biggest successes by far were outside backs. The skills aren't that different and size, speed etc are what you want in both codes. The sports are so different that the decision-making roles can't easily be compared and the success rate outside of threequarters/fullback was pretty mixed. A number of RU halfbacks that did succeed in RL did so in other positions - Davies as a full back/centre etc - and success definitely wasn't guaranteed.

If you were to sign a union fly half you'd want to sign someone younger who would spend a year or so learning the game properly. Its ridiculous to suggest that someone who played RL as a 16-year old 15 years ago would automatically smoothly convert. He's been playing a very different sport in all that time, and a lot of what comes automatically to him in union wouldn't help in RL. Not to mention very different fitness requirements - for all the talk about his big defence, how many tackles or runs does he make in a game? Union has some periods of continuous play, but also very long periods where nobody is doing anything.

The sad thing is that we saw some potentially very good RL players in Farrell and Ford leave the game, plus Eastmond and Harris. Its a bit laughable to say they'd have been anywhere near as good as the best Aussies though.

Edited November 28, 2022 by DACS

[Oxford]

Had to laugh at the three clubs that could sign him article .... are they the only ones that can afford the risk - reward gamble?

[Stanley30]

Can't see how a guy who comes off the pitch with his hair still perfectly styled after each match, for the last 10 years. Will all of a sudden make it in SL? 

 

[EastLondonMike]

Seems the few articles online relating to the suggestion that Farrell is switching codes have been removed.

I'd love to see Farrell have a crack at RL, and wouldn't be that surprised if he did. I'd suggest he'd need to make that switch now though, to have any chance of making any kind of positive impact.

[Niels]

I read in the online headlines Wigan were making a big announcement.

However it was that they are opening a pop up stall in the Mall. 

 

[The storm]

Id like to see farrell on loan at widnes in 2023

Coming off the bench to win us the big one

[ehbandit]

Could Wigan be announcing a pro woman’s team?

[Tippytoe]

On 27/11/2022 at 22:40, Johnny Ringo said:

6yrs of his prime ahead would be a good signing with no initial outlay if he turns out as good as the expectations are. 

Hes got genuine pace,  something most clubs don't have im surprised he hasn't been picked up before now.

[Midlands hobo]

3 hours ago, Stanley30 said:

Can't see how a guy who comes off the pitch with his hair still perfectly styled after each match, for the last 10 years. Will all of a sudden make it in SL? 

 

Keith senior managed it.

[Davo5]

3 hours ago, Stanley30 said:

Can't see how a guy who comes off the pitch with his hair still perfectly styled after each match, for the last 10 years. Will all of a sudden make it in SL? 

 

Jamie Foster did quite well in that dept.

[Jughead]

Mick Gledhill apparently claiming that there’s big news to come out of Wigan. I suspect Michael has put 2 and 2 together on the Gledhill calculator and come out with 57,641 and “**** you Karen Moorehouse”, as per usual. 

[DI Keith Fowler]

I think if we all just keep talking about it we might be able to manifest it. 

I think in the era of six again and a reversion to more mobile ball handling 13s he could work there. Probably not for England though, it's not realistic he's going to be better than Radley when he's still getting better and is a few years younger. 

[Stanley30]

3 hours ago, Davo5 said:

Jamie Foster did quite well in that dept.

Senior I can accept. 

Foster I cannot

[Jughead]

53 minutes ago, DI Keith Fowler said:

I think if we all just keep talking about it we might be able to manifest it. 

I think in the era of six again and a reversion to more mobile ball handling 13s he could work there. Probably not for England though, it's not realistic he's going to be better than Radley when he's still getting better and is a few years younger. 

I think if we, the users of TRL, made up a rumour and spoke about it enough, we could probably get it quite far. Gledhill and Serious About RL would pick it up easily, Aaron Bower and Matthew Shaw would be tougher but I reckon we could get a rumour relatively far. 

[DI Keith Fowler]

24 minutes ago, Jughead said:

I think if we, the users of TRL, made up a rumour and spoke about it enough, we could probably get it quite far. Gledhill and Serious About RL would pick it up easily, Aaron Bower and Matthew Shaw would be tougher but I reckon we could get a rumour relatively far. 

To be fair I submit about 30 letters to the League Express each week, about 75% of the section consists of letters from yours truly under different pseudonyms. It's the other 25% I don't write that concern me.