Don’t get carried away. Matty has been a very solid player for us and has recently played really well, but to suggest MK has “f*cked up big style” by letting him go despite recruiting Kevin Locke, Ben Jones-Bishop, Michael Dobson and Weller Hauraki for 2015 is a little bit daft. We also have Jason Walton, Andrew Dixon and Will Hope as cover and that’s before we announce further signings.

I'm sure Harris will be more than happy with his squad for 2015.

The reaction about Matty leaving from some fans is bewildering to say the least, As I said on twitter anyone would think we’ve just released Gordon Tallis. He is a solid, dependable player who works hard, but I’m seriously not going to lose any sleep over him going to Wakefield. As others have already pointed out we have 6 or 7 players all capable of playing in the back row. If I had a choice of which one of those I would have released it would have been Ashurst (actually if I’m being honest I wouldn’t have signed Weller Hauraki, but that’s a different story)

Couldn't agree more, solid workhorse but we're not short of that type of player. And for the life of me I really can't see why we have signed Hauraki, him and Hock in the same team means more work for judiciary.

I Wish Ashurst the best with Wakey ,
However Andrew Dixon cancels him out as they are almost carbon copies :- Capable tackling back rowers with a reasonable turn of speed & whilst not big or fast enough to create a break are good at supporting one . of the two Dixon is marginally better at it .
Next Season Harris will have at his calling :-
Weller Hauraki
Gareth Hock
Harrison Hansen
Jordan Walne
Andrew Dixon
Tony Puletua
Jason Walton
Steve Rapira
and possibly Will Hope.
9 players who can cover the back row positions . I can imagine Harris not wanting to lose such a hard working player as Ashurst but how far up this list would you really put him ?

People are forgetting about George Griffin too, another of Harris' signings for 2015.

I agree but,with the exception of Hauraki,they're all here at the moment and he's still getting a regular start

Would he be if Hock wasn't banned? No.

That's due to Hock being banned, Hansen being injured recently and Dixon who is still injured. If we had everyone available he wouldn't be playing

But we can name pretty much a full team of second rowers. How many does Iestyn want? I doubt Matty will be the last one to leave and, although it's a shame to see him go, I'm not convinced this is [ithat[/i much of a mistake.

Yes,I totally agree and I don't mind him being released.
Next season, Hock will still be banned at some stage and there'll be other injuries so what we will have is a similar situation but with someone else filling in,and that's fine

So which member of his family are you? You only ever came on here in the past to tell us what a brilliant player he is/that we should be keeping him/extending his contract.

Not related just know a bit about the game around here and local players , in a town like Wigan you get to hear allsorts of stories about transfers etc, Matty Ashurst was someone who Wigan released early on , saints picked him up at about 13 i think before moving onto salford , Wigan wanted him last year but Nobby wouldn't sell without a transfer fee as he was on contract.Harris wanted him to stay on but koukash has already spent up to the cap..that's the truth

“Koukash had already spent the cap”

Since when has Marwan been in charge of recruitment? Harris would have been well aware when he took over what the cap availability was, if he wanted to keep Ashurst I am sure he could have knocked one of Kevin Locke, Ben Jones-Bishop, Michael Dobson, Weller Hauraki, George Griffin and Josh Griffin on the head.

Well. Now he isn't up to the cap.

yes he is, the reason Ashurst left was because there was no money left to offer a new contract for next year,

Tosh, utter utter tosh.

If Harris was so hell bent on keeping him then he wouldn't have authorised bringing in Griffin or Hauraki or would have got rid one of the other myriad of back rowers we have.

Thankfully gone are the days when we are scrapping for the left overs, as a team we have a decent enough squad to mean that losing a player of Ashurst's quality doesn't weaken us at all.

I'd imagine there will be money on the cap, for positions we need. We can't afford to have 10 back rowers on our books and as much as Harris may like Ashurst it's obvious that the money could be better spent for example on a Hooker or Prop, if Harris liked him that much why has he brought George Griffin in as well? I’d rather us keep Ashurst over bringing Hauraki in, but that’s no doubt another sweetener for Chase.

It makes no sense whatsoever for Harris to keep Ashurst next season even if we had 1m spare on the cap.

I wish him the best of luck, but let’s move on.

There is ,but no spare cap to accommodate Ashurst after the other recruitment ongoing :-
Prop - Hooker etc where we have less options & need to strengthen more.
I can't see the allusion that it's Koukash fault's or to Harris detriment , all Clubs have to abide by the same cap & Quota restrictions & all will be having similar hard decisions to make ( those who Can spend up to the cap ) , Teams like Wakefield thereby benefit.

I've got to say I was one calling ashurst to get a new contract but maybe he comes at cost, because of other areas that are more important ie hooker n probs! He'll be a gr8 signing for wakey!

Forgive me if I choose to ignore your opinion. You see, you've already blown it with your opening gambit, laying your true feelings (and therefore angle with your post) for everyone to see.

I don't like MK. I take an interest in local youngsters. I like a good yarn in the pub. Here's my opinion.

If you'd put it in more reasonable terms instead of lacing it with a little trolling you might have got people to listen. Or at least debate you in a reasoned manner. As it is, how can we take what you say as something we should listen to? You started by insulting our Club's Chairman. All you are doing is inviting ridicule, like this post.

This kind of thing isn't really difficult to fathom. I can only believe that you are deliberately provocative for no good reason.

Mixed feelings bout this one. He's done some good things since arriving, but is he big enough or strong enough, or even consistent enough to become a top quality second row. Unfortunately, this is where the problem lies, we'd like to see someone who works as hard as Matty remain at the club, but in a salary capped sport we can't afford to.

So we're in the position where we need to make sure our cap I used to maximise our playing potential. You would think a Wigan fan would understand this, especially when you look at the amount of young player his club have allowed to leave.

Most clubs have used 'can't fit you under the cap' as a reason for deciding which players to release. Doesn't mean there was any cock up involved. Even if Harris wanted him to stay you can't keep everyone when spending up to the cap, as other clubs have also found out in the past.

Good luck to him at Wakey. Worked hard for us while he's been here and we can cite a lot of examples of forwards who haven't.

Will be a loss to us good player (except the wigan game) could do the full 90, and still young bonus for wakey

You just can't win, if we keep Ashurst and release no one we are cheating the cap, if we keep Ashurst and release say one of the Walne brothers we are accused of ignoring the academy. Matty has served us well and if he can get a better deal elsewhere then good luck to him.