Happy with yourself?

In this week's Rugby League Week, there is an article by Tony Adams, stating that the Wests Tigers have signed this week, one of the best young back-rowers from England....Mark Flanagan to a two year deal.

The young 21 year old has been playing for Wigan, and his father Terry, played for Great Britain in the 1980s.
Mark has also played for the England's Academy side, consider the stepping stone to full international honours for many of Britain's best.

Flanagan came recommended by former Cronulla centre, Phil Bailey , a now teammate of the young utility player from Wigan. Phil's a good mate of WT assistant coach, Peter Gentle and that's where the contact was made.

Tim Sheens said..."We have done our homework on the kid, and the mail is very good......He has good versatility-he can play half,5/8, hooker as well as back row"

Good news for me, i go to watch the Tigers every 2nd week.

Sounds like a good investment for both clubs.
I love the idea of young pommy kids coming to Oz to better themselves.
They can only come back better players to Super league.
The kid will love the West Tigers set up however I think he will be playing alot of reserve grade with the Tigers at the start of the season.
The Tigers are going great guns atm and play Parra on friday night which would surely be one of the best matches of the season and a sell out crowd is expected.

Flanagan lacks a bit of pace but has good ball skills. he is an honest hardworking player.

Two years in Aus will help his development, can you also take Farrell, Ainscough and Thornley?

Mark Flanagan has not signed a contract with Wests Tigers yet, they have offered him a contract though and i personally hope he signs it and comes to play for the Tigers.

Here's an interesting one, do they come back from the NRL as better players

Mathers ?
Sibbit ?
Thorman ?
Mason ?

I would not e surprised to see him used in this role in Australia.

Add Mark Edmondson to that list.

Did they go out there as good players?

Mason went out there very young and is now maturing into a very good Prop, the rest were odd selections by the Aussie clubs indeed.

On that evidence, no.

Here's another question. If they turn into a raging success down there, will they bother coming back at all?

I can't help wondering if this "go to Aus to face a real challenge and also improve your game" is a bit of a myth. No doubt, the first part is true - you'll face a real challenge, not least getting into the first team. But the second part has yet to be proved IMO.

Still, from what I hear, Flanagan wants to go for personal reasons, so there's probably not much Wigan can do to stop him.

fair play to flash for showing a bit of nerve and moving out of his comfort zone to go down under. i hope the lad shows his talents down under like he has started to do with us- hopefully if he comes back he will be snapped up by us.

According to Dave Parker the contract will only be extended if all parties are happy with the deal, i assumed that all parties also included Wigan. Having another english player at the club will help and i wonder if this could now be part of a longer term partnership with West Tigers?

i must admit i'm sceptical of players go over to Oz to better themselves, i can only think of Morley where there has been a success and improvment, which he then stayed for 5 years. But good luck to him if he does go, hope it all works out as planned.

I do feel wigan are soft sometimes with regards to players, its as if contracts don't matter anymore and they can come and go as they please. Could you imagine one of the manchester united players going to sir Alex saying "sorry boss but my other half wants to go spain, so can this be my last season please." he'd say NO!

I guess only time will tell if this grand plan works out.

Wasnt it Victoria who wanted to take David to Spain and then the USA? He didnt say no to that.

With regards to Flanagan i think he is going to a club where he is going to some excellant coaching and after a year or two in the NRL he could well develop into a better player than he would if he remained in Superleague.

Gareth Ellis seems to be doing pretty well at present too.

Flanagan is out of contract this year so i dont see your point really

Flanagan is out of contract though.

Didnt another one of our younger players join an NRL club a few years back?

I think it was at the same time that Adrian Lam left the club?

Yea, the lad at Salford now, erm, Jewitt I think, went to Cronulla with Lam?

Yup, spot on.

His bird is an Aussie, and she's moving back home, so he wants to go with her. Fair play to him, seems like a good prospect.

Baileys only way of getting another contract? Getting rid of other forwards?

Masterplan.

I'd have rather kept Flanagan if we'd had the choice but we didn't.

Hope all goes well for the lad over there and will be keeping an eye out for him if anybody decides to bother with the NRL coverage over here.

I don't really want Flanagan to go, he has impressed me when I've seen him in the first team this season.

Hopefully, if he is indeed going, that he'll come back to Wigan after his time in Oz.

I agree with you, I'm happy for him to go to aus, but I would be after a garentee for him to be back at wigan. I'm not sure how you could do this, maybe offer him a contract for 2012? but even then thats risky.

i dont think these deals exist do they?

Lost loads of collisions last night didn't he?