no hes luving being here,also for wigan luv to its bits,and the r good things ahead.

Thats a move that could make great sense for him.

If he's close to family and friends you get the feeling he could play some sensational rugby for them.

If IL & BN anticipated Smith going back to Aus all along then surely they'll have a replacement in mind already. Interesting to know if that's Sam with the 6 shirt next year or another halfback coming in.

Maybe they intend going with Sam at 6, Tommy 7, Riddell 9 and McIlorum off the bench. That would mean Sam and Tommy doing 80 mins which neither do now.
Piggy will have his work cut out keeping McIl from starting.
Separately, it looks like Phelps will get another year from his deal. He's looking good at FB and has that important ingredient, pace!

id sign another player similar to phelps for the halves to cover if anyone gets injured.

joe mellor will be ready in a couple of years to step up.

lockyer would be a perfect signing for a couple of seasons, it would be bigger than barrett if we could get him even at his age he would bring a whole lot to super league similar to menzies at bradford.

This would make sense if tim went back as this would have been trents last year and we may not have saw sam T in the league yet we will never no.

Phelps has to stay imo.

I think if we look at it logically we probably won't be signing a halfback for next year unless one of McIlorum/Riddell were to leave.

We won't keep paying Riddell good money to sit in the stand so i'd expect him to be starting at 9 and with McIlorum looking back to top form he'll probably get a bench spot which leaves us with Tomkins and Leuluai for the halfback roles.

I can see us running with that with Phelps, Gleeson, O'Loughlin and Flanagan to act as cover for the halfbacks.

We will be ok with that imo but need to get a monster pack for them to play on the back of.