Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Apr 11, 2023 12:54 pm  

Phuzzy wrote:

Excellent tries. He looks strong and fast with good evasion. Really needs to be in and around the first team once his loan spell is up. He looked ready last year to me. Even more so this, at least from those highlights.

They were great tries but my god.. Swinton were worse than awful in that video. Is that really the standard in the Championship?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Apr 11, 2023 9:39 pm  

I wonder if this is why we were prepared to let Halsall leave. I watched him play wing in the academy 2/3 years ago and he was a real prospect (Joe Burgess like) but he’s looking good in centre

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Apr 11, 2023 9:45 pm  

cherryandwhitedavid06 wrote:

I wonder if this is why we were prepared to let Halsall leave. I watched him play wing in the academy 2/3 years ago and he was a real prospect (Joe Burgess like) but he’s looking good in centre

I don’t think so. Giants wouldn’t release Wardle if Halsall didn’t go the other way.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Apr 12, 2023 6:17 am  

cherryandwhitedavid06 wrote:

I wonder if this is why we were prepared to let Halsall leave. I watched him play wing in the academy 2/3 years ago and he was a real prospect (Joe Burgess like) but he’s looking good in centre

He’s doing pretty well at Huddersfield to be fair to him but I think there are some limitations. It’s amazing how many players across Superleague our academy has produced and just how much other teams fans are raving about them. Obviously Wire revolve around the best one and Nicholson will be an international, Catalans have changed their whole culture based on 2 of them, Salford don’t bother running an academy, safe in the knowledge Wigan and Saints can do the work for them. Leeds are loving McDonnell, Leigh have a few, Huddersfield a few as well and Saints haven’t really got them out of our academy but their side is full of Wiganers.

There is always frustration when you lose players you don’t want to but the club should be proud in many ways of just what it brings to the game overall.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Apr 12, 2023 6:50 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

He’s doing pretty well at Huddersfield to be fair to him but I think there are some limitations. It’s amazing how many players across Superleague our academy has produced and just how much other teams fans are raving about them. Obviously Wire revolve around the best one and Nicholson will be an international, Catalans have changed their whole culture based on 2 of them, Salford don’t bother running an academy, safe in the knowledge Wigan and Saints can do the work for them. Leeds are loving McDonnell, Leigh have a few, Huddersfield a few as well and Saints haven’t really got them out of our academy but their side is full of Wiganers.

There is always frustration when you lose players you don’t want to but the club should be proud in many ways of just what it brings to the game overall.

Only Welsby and Makinson.

From the squad, Percival, Bennison, Lees, Wingfield, Delaney, Roby, Lomax, Dodd, Royle, Davies, Knowles all came through our Academy and are either St Helens lads or non- Wiganers

What has markedly changed now though is the scouting system it seems. Wigan now regularly sign from Blackbrook which was unheard of years ago, Blackbrook was a feeder team to Saints as Judes and Wigan St Pats was to Wigan.

Conversely, Saints are now regularly signing from Judes, St Pats and Orrell St James so there's definitely been a change.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:24 pm  

Warrington have extended deals for Vaughan and Williams, on the face of it great for them, 2 of the best players in the league this year, some would say the top 2 but I’d say their agents have done well to get their deals while their stock is high, I'm a fan of Williams but his form dropped for us after signing his bumper deal and this has also coincided with him talking about the NRL so a clever negotiating tactic.
Vaughan looks a star here but there was always a good chance of that, it’s his off field issues that are the potential red flags, again it could prove to be a hasty decision extending his contract so early into the season.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Apr 12, 2023 4:40 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

Warrington have extended deals for Vaughan and Williams, on the face of it great for them, 2 of the best players in the league this year, some would say the top 2 but I’d say their agents have done well to get their deals while their stock is high, I'm a fan of Williams but his form dropped for us after signing his bumper deal and this has also coincided with him talking about the NRL so a clever negotiating tactic.
Vaughan looks a star here but there was always a good chance of that, it’s his off field issues that are the potential red flags, again it could prove to be a hasty decision extending his contract so early into the season.

Williams definitely wanted a move back down under, he hasn’t been happy at Warrington so be interesting to see how that pans out in time.

Vaughan is a no brainer, he’s been class for them and looks to be enjoying his rugby again.

As for Wigan, the post Bateman plan was to monitor performances at the start of the season before deciding if/when we needed a replacement but recent circumstance might just accelerate things.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Apr 12, 2023 5:29 pm  

You’re right Williams seems absolutely livid to be at Warrington with his surly demeanour, woeful form and transfer list request.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Apr 12, 2023 5:34 pm  

Really depends on how Williams maintains his form. Would have loved Wigan to have signed him on 2023 form as Williams/Smith could have been a partnership that lasted 6-7 years plus we would have had the cap exemption. On 2021/2022 form definitely not.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Apr 12, 2023 6:09 pm  

Apart from a barbecue, can you please clarify Vaughans ‘off-field issues’ for the rest of us? Disregarding the overcooking of some chicken drumsticks behind his governments back, he seems to have been the model family man. He certainly has at Warrington.

Anyway, it’s good to see that Super League hasn’t lost the likes of Fench, Field, Williams and Vaughan to the NRL. There aren’t many box-office players in this hemisphere at the moment.