It's interesting that most of the people on here who will agree with you are either Aussies or Brits living in Oz.
As outsiders i think we can see the dangers of bringing in too many imports and the benefits of promoting English talent.

British RL cannot afford to lose talented youngsters to Yawnion and Thornley was in line to play for England Academy v Australian Schoolboys later this year, it would've been a great indicator of where he was at.

This is not having a shot at Wigan, it is a problem with the British game in general.

Does anyone find this all a bit ironic considering wigan used to steal, rape and pillage other clubs in the 80s and 90s?

I bet thornley was "irritated" at wigan for signing yet more overseas players.

Oh dear Steve. 2 stand offs!!? Finch is a 7 who has been shifted to 6 to play with Cronk, at the time he signed with the storm many asked the question of why they had two organising 7's and no 6.

As for Thornley, my view from watching the 20's is that he's 3rd in line for a centre spot at wigan behind Stef Marsh and now Charnley. We offered Thornley a new contract to see how he develops but RU have offered more money.

Why offer good money to a player that Wigan see as only 3rd choice centre in the 20's, it doesn't make sense.

Iam no Wigan fan but i have no problem with the 3 Melbourne players coming in. They are the calibre of Aussie player that should be coming over here with all of them in their prime. Wigan will surely be releasing overseas players (that are of a lesser standard) to make room for the Melbourne lads. Add to this the quality of the English lads they already have (loads of them are early to mid twenties in age) and i think Wigan have done some really good business here. On paper Wigan should be a top 3 team for the next 3 years and probably more.

He won't be bothered.

He's been offered a huge money move to Union & being paid more money than Rugby League could offer at this stage in his non-first grade appearance career.

I think Finch at 7 and Tomkins at 6 is a good combination myself. Finch will be able to give Sam good service which will benefit him immensely on the field. The experience Finch will bring will also help Tomkins at this stage of his career. With Leuluei and Mcillorum rotating at 9 will give Wigan the best combination of 9,7 and 6 in the league next year imo. Better than Saints and Leeds.

But you have to look at why such a good player hasn't made an appearance as yet? Leuleuai is pants, Bailey, Roberts, Carmont, Riddell are all pants.

In their youth system Wigan have this massive resource but they don't tap into anything like the full potential of the area. Quality Wigan youngsters should be in the Wigan team, not making up the best part of the other teams and servicing Union.

Why can't any Wigan fans just admit it? They SHOULD have promoted Thornley and they SHOULD be paying him the money they will instead waste on a retirement fund for an NRL player?

Leuleuai is pants - NZ international and World cup winner
Bailey - agreed but there are other quality youngsters behind him, he will be going at the end of the season
Roberts - the best player in the league before his injury
Carmont - no worldbeater but above average for the centres in the SL
Riddell -our best hooker by a mile


The fact is you cant offer all your youngsters big money, there simply isnt the resources in SL to do that, some will always jump ship to other lines of work

I am happy that Warrington will have a settled side again next season. History suggests the successful teams do not make wholesale changes.

Any new signing carries a risk.

11 out of 17 for the last game, only Leeds and Saints can match that figure

The fact is you cant offer all your youngsters big money, there simply isnt the resources in SL to do that, some will always jump ship to other lines of work

Chris Ashton is a great example, now a GB RU international but at the time we could have never offered him the 140k per year figure that RU offered him as he was just a talented youngster

Maybe the RFL should look at this and make youngsters count only 50% on the cap? And the first full year not count at all on the cap.

Well the current overseas players have helped kept us consistanly on the of the league through out the season despite your opinions, haven't they?

Thornley isn't good enough to be starting for Wigan and Thornley isn't worth matching the wages that Union were offering. The rest of Super League obviously agrees as there no equivilant offers to keep him in League, were there?

Can't even believe I took one of your posts on.

Can we name this the "We all hate Wigan thread" or perhaps "Looking for any excuses to put Wigan down (even if it includes lying) because we are extremely bitter about their stature, success, history, league standing, quality youth system, well run club, the fact they are known as the biggest club in world rugby even on the other side of the planet thread".

Sorry, I genuinely took your post seriously until I got to that bit.

Still, must be nice to pick up double Clubcard points where once roamed the likes of Boston and Sullivan...

Chris Ashton had played in the first team which makes it slightly different.

The long Cadoo post is the one to read for those that haven't.

Bottom line is :
1). I've never heard of Thornley. He is not a top player he's a young lad with potential.
2). He was offered a contract by Wigan based on his current performance level and potential.
3). Imagine if Wigan had offered the bloke megga dough and screwed up the entire wage structure at the club, which would have been far worse in my opinion.
4). Don't blame Yawnion. If any individual was offered a great financial deal they would be stupid not to take it, or would you stay because you really like your employer rather than earning significantly more money.

In the past I would agree we were badly run. Now we must be one of if not the best in the league.

As it appears that a number of people are unable to read, i'll put the Wigan argument into short easy words for you.
[list

[*Thornley given lots more money by Sale[/*:m
[*Not played first team[/*:m
[*Not improved as much as we thought he would[/*:m
[*Sale paying for university[/*:m
[*Marsh and Charnley could both be better[/*:m
[*Thornley turned down a Wigan contract[/*:m[/list:u

Another thing I just realised
[list

[*Leeds are the only team in the league with no former Wigan players[/*:m[/list:u

I think you'll find most of the animosity aimed towards wigan in this thread can be put down to nothing more than petty jealousy because they've signed 3 top players.

Clearly Saddened you are just to fickle to reason with yourself. Look at the british talent wigan have developed. THIS SEASON academy players have been promoted and played

BEN DAVIES
JONNY WALKER
CHRIS TUSON
LEE MOSSOP
STEFAN MARSH
JOSH CHARNLEY
LIAM FARRELL

have all made their mark on the super league in their debut season, yes mossop played 3 or 4 games last year but he is now a first team regular. Clearly by most clubs you are referring to wigan there as we this year are developing 7 players who could all appear in the England team so you are either too thick to look at the facts or are just envious due to the quality of player which wigan have signed because they are of the highest quality of NRL stars which are coming over here.

You can furthermore see that you are living at least 5 years ago with your comments regarding salary cap cheating. Wigan have gone through a change of ownership and Mr.Lenegan is the type of chairman who would never break the salary cap. You are still tarring the wigan name with the same brush because you are unwilling to face facts that wigan are an improving side and on the up again! Can you not see that these Aussies coming in are going to improve the standard of british rugby league overall?

In response to your later post regarding Saints rumoured to be signing Michael Shenton and LMS you state that it is not always Australians who should be going for. Wigan actually offered a pretty hefty contract to shenton, when we where unsure as to whether carmont was going to retire and he turned this down for the saints offer. Lenegan has again come out and said that English players demand too much money. Again you are unwilling to read up on this and base your arguement on your idiotic opinion. Wigan attemepted to lure these players but where unwilling to pay their ridiculous salary demands.

So do not be triping all this rubbish before reading! I've never read such envious posts from a supporter!

I'll be bookmarking this thread and bringing it back when Eastmond is playing alongside thornley very soon .

Do you really believe that.
I wonder if they'll sign Fozzard to stop another club getting their hands on him.

And yet Warrington have steadily made good signings which have enhanced them as a team. I agree about wholesale changes. 1, 2, 3, or 4 is about right. Zero signings isn't a good option.

I dont think Thornley will be signing for Saints anytime soon.

lol i love this. anytime player X chooses a Club A over Club B, its always because Club B werent willing to meet their excessive demands - its never because the player just didnt fancy playing for them.

And that is not a dig at Wigan fans BTW, fans of all clubs are exactly the same.

No-one knows what was offered to Shenton, or any other player, by Cas/Wigan/Saints/Wire - except the player and his agent and the clubs.....although if you have any evidence about any of it, I would be delighted to see it.

The good signings certainly didn't look that way for some time with Monaghan and King in particular not firing for the first two seasons. I think 2-3 is the maximum you can realistically allow (and neither of them in pivot positions).

Pity clubs won't have a little more faith about promotion from within but that is the results driven nature of modern sport.

And Wigan, along with numerous other clubs, were after them, but according to our chairman the price was simply too high for players who didn't possess the quality to warrant such wage demands. Albeit he didn't put it like that, but you get the jist.

[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/wigan/8834917.stm[/url



I think we all know who he is referring too and what he is getting at.



Our recruitment for the last few years has gone unnoticed with the fact it's been primarily British. Last season we only signed up Paul Deacon and no-one bats an eyelid. In Ian Lenagan's first season in charge we signed Richie Mathers and Karl Pryce. No-one bats an eyelid. We even managed to sneak in George Carmont in there and still no-one bats an eyelid because he isn't high profile. However, the first time in four years Wigan have made a high profile signing everyone has suddenly become engrossed in what's happening at Wigan and are rushing to lambast the runnings of the club after ignoring the deals handed out to Sam Tomkins, Joel Tomkins, Lee Mossop and Darrell Goulding. The fact that eleven of our 17 that took to the field against Warrington were Wigan born or trained. The fact that we've recently signed up 8 youngsters to our academy. The fact that Josh Charnley is one of around 12 young lads to be loan to Super League clubs, Championship One and Two clubs, taking advantage of the dual registration system more than another other Super League club and therefore accelerating their development. As seen by the emergence of Liam Farrell and Chris Tuson into the First Team squad (who are set to play against Hull FC tonight).

Wigan have only four overseas players for next season - Amos Roberts, Ryan Hoffman, Brett Finch and Jeff Lima. Pat Richards - who has played for Ireland whenever asked with complete commitment and pride - does not count on any quota. Leaving only George Carmont, who would have counted on the quota had other Super League clubs not voted against players who were signed prior to the rule changes announced - which you happen to mention - counting on the quota, which let me remind you our chairman has gone on the record and said:

Incidentally if we are dishing out nefarious lambastings of clubs recruitment policies, why haven't Warrington had some stick?

Richie Mathers leaves and Warrington signed an Australian fullback, who is 32, on a two year contract. That means he will be at 34 in his final season. Michael Monaghan was handed a two year contract extension meaning he will be 34 in his final year. Chris Hicks, who is 33, has been handed a one year contract extension keeping him at Warrington till he is 34. Don't they have a young, hot prospect in Rhys Evans who he is keeping out the team?

I want to make it clear that I'm not essentially picking on Warrington in particular, but just want to show how scrutinised Wigan get compared to other clubs. The reasons for that I think are made abundantly clear with your "scummy hive of scum" post.