I'm very happy with this signing, gives it 100% wherever he gets played

Unusual to make announcements on a Bank Holiday!

Moran must be offering the overtime

Guess he fills the quota spot for next year.
Happy if that's the main deal done and dusted.

That depends on whether we offer Drinkwater a new deal.

Now that Hayes is unavailable, and possibly going into next season, it is inevitable that we will retain Drinkwater.

Industry in the engine room, hopefully removing a few tackles from the playmakers quota and thus allowing them to focus on building off a solid platform.

If we've got him and Crowther on the pitch during an opposition purple patch it could be a nice mitigation

He made a few errors in the Catalan game, saw Fitzgibbon give him a rocket.

Nicholson confirmed to Canberra just now, so I suppose that'w why we pre-empted it with the announcement of Yates, to soften the blow.

We don't have another emerging half back ready for Superleague in our Academy, to cover Hayes' absence.

The problem with retaining Drinkwater is a Quota player who won't command 1st team selection when Hayes recovers from his injury.

Serious question, would you rather have Yates or Nicholson?

I think the only advantage Nicholson has over Yates is age. At the moment Yates probably is a slightly better player. I think Nicholson could easily surpass him but as a replacement I think it’s a very good one. Softens the blow.

Different players with different roles in the team

Also this is likely Yates last big move. We should get a solid few years out of him playing 100% and at the top of his game.

Nicholson always had that next move on the horizon.

For team stability, this is a very good signing.

The question of who we would rather have is irrelevant. Nicholson isn’t leaving because we didn’t offer him enough money, he’s off to the NRL to show off his undoubted talent at only 20 years of age. Hopefully the fact we let him go early, means he’ll look favourably on us when he returns.

Plus, the biggest loss we are facing happens at the end of next season when Burgess goes.

we have 2 years here dont we?... if we continue to be a good side under him, he will be at the Rabbitohs before we know it... its just one of those things.

Of course it’s relevant, losing one player and gaining another has a bearing on the team/squad. Also, the salary Yates is commanding will be in excess of the salary Nicholson receives. You also need to factor in the loss of a non-federation trained player. Regarding your comment about Nicholson, I assume you don’t think he will make it in the NRL?

My own view is that you have lost a lad who I believe will become an international forward but you have gained a workaholic. Nicholson has a super smart agent, I can’t believe that Fitzpatrick agreed to such a clause in his contract. In effect, Fitzpatrick agreed to pay Wigan a transfer fee without any guarantee that Nicholson would stay more than 18 months. I call that poor business.

Why do you think they won’t have to pay a fee? A release clause would normally contain a trigger fee.

Why is it poor business when we’ve probably trebled what we’ve paid for him eighteen months ago. He would have left the year after for nothing if we had stood in his way.
There is no doubt the lad is going to be a very good player if he stops getting these little niggling injuries.
Matty Peet was visibly annoyed when he left Wigan. You don’t often see a coach express those emotions.
Hopefully Warrington will still get a fully focused and injury free player for the rest of the season. Looking at celebrations on social media he his still fully committed.

I’ll turn that on its head, why do you think they will? As I said, his agent is very clever.

I agree Matt Peet was annoyed and rightly so, the lad is a star in the making there is no doubt about that in my mind, he just needs good luck with injuries. Are you so sure that you have trebled your outlay? Anyway, do you think Yates is better, as good, or worse?

The transfer fee that Wigan received for a teenager that they neglected to tie down with a contract would have been the absolute minimum under the RFL rules and would have been peanuts.

The fee was associated with the training he had received, playing as an Academy Player.

He was offered a deal at Warrington that was due to start at the end of his Wigan contract.

Wigan chose to release Nicholson early when they realised that they had made a mistake.

There is a report in the Warrington Guardian, that Wire will be entitled to a transfer fee to any NRL club that signs Nicholson.

He is now an established Superleague player, so they will have to pay a lot more for him than Warrington did.

Mate, where have I said that Wire will not get a transfer fee? Back to my original question, do you think Yates is as good as Nicholson?

I would say no, I hope the club can find a way to persuade him to stay. For what it’s worth I’m not a fan of Yates. Since he was linked to us and now confirmed I’ve seen nothing that would get him in to our current starting 17. And that says a lot about our improvement under Burgess because till this season I would not have had Currie or Philbin in the team. Like I said in reply to your comment on King people can change their minds.

Thank you and I too have changed my mind many times. For what it is worth I agree with you. What really worries me is that SL is losing one of its rising stars. Unlike some, I would sooner see players like Nicholson signing for other SL teams than moving to the NRL. The standards of our game continue to decline.