BREAKING:
@RaidersCanberra
are are aware that their star English half George Williams is homesick - they’ve talked to his agent and asked him to stay put. The club understands it’s been difficult with Covid and not seeing family and will put support around him.
@9NewsSyd

Potential return now Hastings is going?

If so, I imagine we wouldn't be the only British club pitching in, and some of them, sadly, have much more spending power than us.

As part of the release agreement, Wigan will have first refusal on Williams' services should he return to Super League once his time in the NRL has come to an end


Wigan executive director Kris Radlinksi said: "George has developed into one of the world's finest half-backs and, although we are naturally disappointed to lose a home-grown player of his calibre, we wish him the best in his move to the NRL.

"I have no doubt he'll take that competition by storm”

Williams, who has made 172 appearances for his home-town club, said: "Firstly I want to say a massive thanks to everyone at Wigan Warriors for everything they have done for me.

"I've been at Wigan since I was 12 years old and I have managed to live my dream playing 170-plus games and winning two Grand Finals for my home-town club, along the way making some incredible memories and friends for life



This was the statement when he left. After signing back JTomkins, Mossop, STomkins, Sarginson, JBurgess, Tommy, Bateman. I have faith we’ll get him back SHOULD he return to SL.

George Williams is a brilliant player. If this is true and he does wish to return I do hope he re-sign for Wigan.
If the "first refusal" is correct then hopefully the club will persuade George to re-join us.

Williams was at times excellent last time round but I feel he just got a little stale since his Aussie jaunt he’s been revitalised,if he wants to come back and it wouldn’t surprise me let’s hope it’s to Wigan

It would be awful to see George in a Leeds shirt.

He’ll go to the club that throws enough cash at him and who can blame him either? That might be us, it might not be. I hope it is us, a Smith/Williams HB combo is mouth watering!

Oh will he now
He may as well stay in Australia then?

The whole thing about George is that he is homesick so if he moved to another super league club it's a bit different than being in Australia isnt it?!

It’s a tough time to be away I suppose, I’m sure under normal circumstances he would have family visiting him fairly regularly but obviously that’s a no go now, same goes for the Ozzie lads over here and I know it’s easy to say with hindsight after winning but the club probably played a blinder letting Hastings and French have extended leave.

He’s homesick and wants to come back to the UK. He’ll sign for the club willing to give him the most cash in the UK.

I can’t even believe I’m having to explain such a simple point to you.

I'm not sure he would tbh (or at least I wouldn't).

Regardless of money, I wouldn't go to team outside the traditional big 4 (Us, Saints, Wire or Leeds). Well not if I wanted to A win stuff and B - be the best player I could be.

You see it in the NRL and how successful teams like the storm & roosters can offer below market value and still attract players. There was also the commonly accepted story that some of the Leeds players from their golden era didn't get paid as much as they could/should.

Now GW might not care and might just want to make his money. That's fair enough, but if true I wouldn't want him.

Is it?

Things have been back to normal in Australia for ages.

It’s more normal in Oz but it’s not the standard norm is it? You can’t come and go as you please, your family can’t come and go as they please and there have still been restrictions on crowd numbers and the like at times and various places have gone in to mini lockdowns at points.

I laughed reading people’s comments on the Total RL site about how Williams should man up and get on with it and not throw a great opportunity away, whilst saying how easy they found it being away from home or saying how much they loved it. None of them had done it in these particular circumstances, so how can they make comments like that? Williams and his missus are stuck 12,000 miles away from home in a great country but it’s a country they can’t freely go in and out of, their families and friends can’t either and they’re expecting their first child, which for his partner is probably exciting but quite daunting without her family around.

What will be will be for the lad. If he comes here or goes elsewhere or stays in Canberra then let’s just hope they’re all happy. He’s been a great player for us in the past and might just be again in the future.

So what your saying is there's more to it than money???
If he's Homesick for the UK that's one thing - But what happens if he doesn't want to travel 4hrs a day (2hrs there and 2hrs back) for training? That may put him off signing for Hull or X,Y,Z no matter how much they're offering.

What happens if he wants to win things - That'll put him off signing for A,B or C

What happens if he WANTS to play for someone i.e. Wigan or whoever else - maybe that may become important to him

How do we know that John Bateman came back to Wigan because we offered him the most? Maybe other clubs did? Maybe his relationship with the board of Wigan such as IFL & Rads swayed him to come back?

My reply was only to point out that your simplistic statement that he'll sign for the club who offer him the most cash is IMO over simplistic - As is his current situation it's not Always about Money only, there is a balance to strike

What I will say, Wigan's track record of being fair with players and how they treat them doesn't seem to leave them angry/bitter with the club.
This IMO puts us at the forefront of getting them back should we want them, but obviously striking that balance of loyalty/faith with Pure hard cash has t be struck between the two.

We should definately be in pole position should he become available

On the assumption that we make an offer for him (and I can’t see any reason we wouldn’t) we must have a great chance.

If as mentioned on this thread his partner/wife is pregnant it is highly likely they will want to be close to family. He’s from the Wigan area i think therefore immediate family is also likely to be from Wigan.

Most likely options are us and Warrington IMO. I reckon they’ll go all out for him.

Warrington will need to be a bit more savvy with their cap space going forward for me. I think they’ll get Trueman but he won’t be cheap and at the minute they probably don’t know for sure what’s happening with Widdop. If nothing lands in Oz for him then that’ll be two halves (with Trueman) tied up for next season on very good money. One worry we could have on the Wire score is if Canberra thought Widdop would be a viable replacement for Williams this season. The Canberra statement made it sound like George is quite keen to get home ASAP to me but they’ve asked him to stick it out. A swap deal this season could scupper us but that’s probably a long shot.

It is if you’re a home bird and want to see your family, wouldn’t bother me personally and like you said Oz has faired much better than us with covid.

I'm loving it to be honest. First Bateman now Williams, I really do hope it's starting to annoy Canberra (both staff and supporters). The more it happens the less chance NRL clubs will look to raid us on an annual basis.

Absolutely. Loving reading the Canberra fans moaning on social media about how these lads are breaking contracts. They have no issue with them tapping up these guys before the end of their deals in the UK or with them trying to hoover up young academy talent like Harry Rushton before they’ve even broke in to a first team, so it’s tough to feel sorry for them.

I really do hope Williams comes back because it’ll leave us in a fantastic position going forward regards the age of our spine combined with the chances of them heading for the NRL at the first chance. We’d have Hardaker around 29, Williams at 26/27, Sam Powell would be 29 and Bateman would be about 27. You’d think there’s a sniff of Harry Smith trying his hand there at some point but those other 4 I mention could well finish their careers here and play together for 4,5,6 seasons maybe.

If Trueman does go to Wire I can’t see GW going there too. They’re too similar HB to make a decent partnership, both creative and go off and do their own thing. You need one creative HB and one organisational HB, the latter suits neither GW nor Trueman. That’s not to say the organisational one doesn’t be creative occasionally mind

We shouldn't feel sorry for them at all. Jealous maybe ... because their game is at the zenith of sport in their country, whereas ours is at the nadir.

In fact they have so much talent in Aus, it's pretty despicable that they also come to pinch the little actual talent we have.

It's not like we can afford to see our domestic game continually stripped of its stars. We struggle to sell ourselves in the home market as it is.

Every time one of these defection to Aus stories goes wrong, while I'm sorry for the player, I'm glad to see the NRL club so peeved. It's exactly what they deserve and might even make them think twice before pouncing again.

Looks a safe bet that he'll be back in England in either 2022 or 2023. Some settle, some don't and that's always the risk clubs take. On the Fox League show this week one of the pundits claimed that Warrington have already shown an interest.