He wanted to go to Canterbury as he had done a stint there in the offseason as was the norm for a lot of players back in the era of winter rugby and he liked it there.He was coming out of contract with Saints and Canterbury offered him a deal,he would of stayed at Saints if they would of payed a bit more.

Some of the coaches i played under are.Johnny Winders,Brian and Mike Parkes,Billy Woods and Wilf Smith

And I played under ken gwilliam as well.

I know he gave the reason. My response was specific to the poster I was responding to, who seemed to be saying that Connolly's tale was one of him being hard done to.



However, he had already chosen to go to Australia in the off season and was contemplating a career with them. That doesn't sound like someone who was sure about playing for Saints.



I wasn't following Saints when he was playing so I don't know what the rest of the team were like. Were they all rubbish and Connolly our only good player?

I was around when Ken Gwill and Alan Swift took over the coaching of the 1st team.

He was contemplating joining them as Saints didnt want to pay the rate for a quality player which even at that young age he was.



Saints were the only team that could really get close to Wigan back then,there were some quality players but there were also some very average ones to.

Two good coaches and worked well together.

But he offered to stay at Saints for a smaller pay rise than was offered. Given the stick he received for years afterwards, I'd say he was hard done to.

This also is a myth,the transfer fee for GC didnt buy us Newlove at all,We sold GC at the end of the 92/93 season we signed Newlove in Nov 95 and as far as im aware the move was funded by person who went on to be a director and the inclusion of 3 players in the package.

Well I remember it all well and a family member of mine is good mates with Gary, he was sold and told to leave. He was on a crap contract at Saints and Wigan offered him a good deal. So in short if the best team in the country (maybe even the world at the time) offered you alot more money and your current club said sod off we dont want you what would you do?



We had a decent team but selling him left a big gap. Newlove replaced Loughlin not Connolly.

As an alternative: if you thought you were worth more than your club was able or willing to pay, and the club with the best team in the country offered to pay you way more than the club you were with could ever afford, why stay with your hometown club? After all, you get to play with the best players of the time, get to win trophies, get to earn more than most players dream of. He certainly didn't come across as hating his time at Wigan!



He just sounded like someone who wanted to be elsewhere. It happens. We've got Jammer and Eastmond now.

But thats just it he DIDNT want to be elsewhere his hand was forced by the tightwads that ran the club at the time.



I feel that we are just going to go around and around with this one now.



Read into it what you will