Friday is deadline day apparently in terms of player recruitment. According to Price there will be no new faces so that suggests no early Inglis arrival and no Widdop leaving early either. https://www.totalrl.com/steve-price-on- ... this-week/

Friday is deadline day apparently in terms of player recruitment. According to Price there will be no new faces so that suggests no early Inglis arrival and no Widdop leaving early either. https://www.totalrl.com/steve-price-on- ... this-week/

If GW did seek a contract break, it wouldn’t affect Wire’s dominance. We don’t need a hb, although i hope we are looking at recruiting a decent prop for when we lose BBM and Akouala (perhaps).

Does this deadline also apply to signing players down under?

OK I'll bite for fun - wel sort of.
Sod all on tv anyway.......

First of all I agree we need at least one good prop unless one of the youngsters is thought to be good enough. Akauola is out of favour big time. Latu is clearly not seen in a favourable light either (although I thought he did ok in his 2 matches). The issue appears to be that there aren't that many good props available - same situation as last year - hence the Latu signing.

'Wires dominance' - mmm - we're on a good run but this is not a normal season and the rule changes help us, but as I understand it, they are temporary.
I get the feeling we've stumbled on this good form - yes a lot of hard work has ben put in, but I've yet to understand why we were so dire and inept last year when SP semed to have no idea about how to fix it even though he said he did.
I'll believe in Wire dominance when we win the GF this year and next (but would settle for one!) and score tries for fun. For me the 2011/12 team we had was the closest we've come to dominance. Over 1000 points scored and great attractive rugby.
Wigan and Bradford are the 2 sides that I can think of as having had dominance - the Pies last century only because they had a full time squad stuffed with internationals and the best players from the UK, plus half decent coaches.
Leeds won GFs, but often it was from a lower placing (how I would have loved it if Peacock had accepted our offer).

Who would we put in at h/b instead of GW ?
I assume you mean Ratch (Patton out at the end of the season and Dean not yet ready) and Austin being full back.
It possibly works for the team, but from what I've seen it's his 3rd best position - behind full back and loose.
Time will tell.

Just to confirm, Ratchford is stifled at half back.

Exactly. The fact there's a thread on here called "Widdop's family" smacks of poor taste to me, especially when it comes to people speculating about what's going on behind the scenes and making judgements on overseas players not knowing in advance how their families would settle.

I agree, but unless the dice fall any other way, I can see Ashton at fullback next year, unless of course that Tommy gets his marching orders and Ashton moves to wing.

I really like Ratch at fullback, but as I said before - from a team point of view SP may decide otherwise.

Ok so if Widdop does leave can we not get Sezer from Hudds please.

Him and Blake would run riot.

So the rumours persist, he’s been offered a deal by the North Queensland’s Cowboys to return to the NRL next year..

Yeah he won't be here next season that's for sure. Odd that he's linked with the NQL Cowboys though when his famiy are based in Sydney.

This es me right off. Did he not discus it with his family before he signed?

Who knew eh? Oh yeh...

I've got no problem at all with him going if he goes. If his family don't want to be here and are unhappy then let him go, he goes with my full blessing. Came over, give it ago in a very boring most of the time team that is clueless in attack most of the time. He won't really be missed to be fair, he's not come over and lit the team up like sezer so i hope he finds a club back home.

What did he not discuss the potential for a global pandemic hitting and his family being put into lockdown in an alien country?

I can't believe that wasn't at the forefront of their thinking back in early 2019 either.

It's been hard enough for us locals so how hard must it be, as PY says, for his family in an alien country. Gareth has a ready made set of mates and rugby to keep him occupied. His family have 4 walls to stare at. It's a real shame as I, as well as many others, had high hopes for this halfback pairing. He hasn't actually gone yet though.

Maybe the reality of being so far from home was harder to deal with than they expected. You never know. Whatever it was, it must have been exacerbated by the last nine months of restrictions.

He’s not lit the team up here and if he’ll be happier somewhere else then good luck to him. It has been a funny year but it should be a lesson that big name signings won’t change our world by themselves.

I think this is good news for Warrington if true. Widdop has been anonymous on a huge wage and if you can get that cap wage back its a good deal all round. Problem Warrington seem to have though is you can never seem to sign a good half back. Sandow was good but a loose cannon. Kurt Gidley was class but a better 1. If the club has known about it for a while i wonder who they have lined up? Be an interesting signing that because your side really isn't that far away but that is certainly a weak area. Rob Butler is a very good signing too. He will come on leaps and bounds in a higher class of facilities and training regimes. I would have wanted him at Wigan if we didn't have so many young props coming through.

His wife is an Aussie as are his kids you can’t blame them for being homesick. They had already gone back to Australia whilst he was playing here during lockdown. I don’t blame Widdop one bit for wanting to be with his kids half way across the world. Family is more important. It’s always the risk you take signing Aussie based players. I’d look more at the club, did we do our due diligence? Hmm...

Due diligence? Are you suggesting that a couple of years in Warrington playing Super League didn't match up to the players expectations?

The pandemic was unforeseeable his family's reaction might have been inevitable given the situation that we ALL find ourselves in but I'm unsure what the club should've done differently once they'd reached a deal with the player.

I'm not blaming him btw family must come first but surely its more appropriate to judge the club on what it does next not what it should have done without the benefit of hindsight

Everytime any club signs an Aussie based player they are taking a risk. When you sign one with a very young family it becomes an ever bigger risk. We seen that with Peta Hiku most recently.

I’m merely suggesting that in the future it would be nice, if, instead of throwing marquee money to the other side of the world for a 31 year old, with a dodgy shoulder who comes with a serious risk of wanting to return home early, we look to our own academy or sign an English based player like Jake Trueman.

I think covid totally ruined the widdop signing for us. He's a fantastic player, no doubt about it, but it's not surprising that his family couldn't settle here under lockdown and restrions. We haven't seen the best of him and thats a real shame, best of luck to him in whatever he moves on to. I genuinely belive he signed for us with all the right intentions so no hard feelings from me if he does end up leaving us as expected.

By and large I don't disagree with your sentiments on the type of player who the club might target particularly our own youth (I'm no sure how Keanan Brand fits your narrative given your previous comments on another thread) but I didn't pick up on this detail in the "due diligence" post. to which I responded,

An Australian import is always a risk, sometimes they work out even at Warrington. I was 50/50 when Widdop was announced but not because of his dodgy shoulder or primarily that there'd almost certainly be a bout of homesickness for Australia.

After all he's 31 so not a wide eyed kid, he's from Halifax so will have some family links to the north of England and its environs should be of no surprise. He's a GB England international so you'd think that he'd have a good idea of the game over here both team mates and opponents. Added to that he's on top dollar, so for a couple of years maybe all parties thought that the risk was minimal and IF he packs his bags it was due to circumstances beyond anyone's control

I don't see the big deal about Widdop wanting to go home if he does. He's not been in great form and if he's a big wage earner it makes things easier for us to get him off the books. Same with Tyrone Roberts a few years ago. I don't know why fans whinge when these opportunities come up that allow us to quickly move a player on who isn't working out.

The bigger issue IMO is when you get guys like Asotasi who don't want an early release, then the club has to suck it up for the whole contract, regardless of how many fans offer to pay for their flight home themselves.

We signed Widdop too late in his career, he doesn't appear to be the player he was. Shame it hasn't worked out for both parties but if we move on I wouldn't get too stressed about it, a team rebuild is easier with him off the books. That is no reflection on Widdop's distinguished earlier career, he dominated the NRL in a playmaker position - when was the last time an English player did that? I wish him and his family well and will respect his career regardless of what happens with us.

RL Mole on Twitter pretty much confirms it, he’s very rarely wrong..

[urlhttps://twitter.com/9_moley/status/1331212253018800129?s=21[/url

I did quack some time ago and told you he was gone at the end of the season.

I beginning to thing Warrington is the (NHS type) NRL’s rehabilitation club of choice.
All we do is sign them crocked. Pay for their treatment and all expenses, $(Aus)1/3m grant, care for them and let them return for nothing and pay the airfare.