Cream always rises.
I liked the look of Lloyd White at Cas yesterday. And Pickersgill looked useful.

Add Eastmond to that list who was destined to be England's long term half back, imagine Widdop and Eastmond as a halves combination!

It never ceases to amaze me how our players, according to some supporters, suddenly become rubbish the moment they leave. Mossop is an excellent young player who has served Wigan RLFC well. So much so that he is wanted in the NRL.

this

how many years does he have left on his contract? are we looking at a decent fee for him?

Mossop was great first half of last season. Hes had a slow 12 months, so his performances are hardly at the forefront of anyones memories.

Mossop has huge potential but he's had that for a while now and I don't think his game has developed as we'd have liked so far. I think injuries have played their part for sure but he also did a seasons worth of cruising last year when he had a pretty poor season. He's started this season in much better form but its again been blighted by those injury issues.

I think he'll have a big year this season in World Cup year to try and cement his spot in the side then move over to Oz for a new challenge. I think that will be great for his development and it should help him fulfil that potential.

I still maintain that if Mossop hadn't popped his shoulder back in during the Challenge Cup Final to come back on we probably would've lost. He gave us a real boost when it was needed

Lots of Mossop bashing before he's out of the door, same people who were banging on not so long ago about how he's the next Jamie Peacock, Dom Crosby probably has that mantle now.

Seems to be a bigger issue than Mossop going, he's just another piece in the negative pattern forming at our once prestigious club. I say once as it's clearly not the honour it once was to wear the cherry and white; evidence? Players are not just leaving, they are breaking their contracts to leave or even using Wigan as a shop window to finish in the NRL or SL.

A contract seems to be a method of securing payment for a player when he signs for another club when under contract, not something to honour.
We are getting the financial rewards as we sell our young promising talent, but for what? Now we still look within as there's no one of quality who's obtainable, that is evidence with the lack of movement in the transfer market, linked with a 31yr troublemaking Union forward; so very exciting



Are we going to sign a player of Mossop's quality or potential in return? I don't see how.

Worse so, I think this is only the beginning, expect to see Sam, Faz, Josh etc to follow in time, I mean, why would you stay?

I know what you mean, but still, Sam, Mossop, Faz & Josh all came from our academy let's remember. Proof that we can produce them! Mossop will go and we'll find the next Mossop. Then maybe he'll go, and we'll replace him too. Sam of course is a special talent that only comes along every once in a decade... the good news is not many clubs are producing lads like him either!

The Burgess brothers were ripe for the picking due to the Bulls well documented financial problems. Graham wanted to test himself against the best, much like Morley and Ellis. Eastmond, along with Joel and Ashton, went purely for the money but his style of play doesn't really suit union. Many backs have suffered in union due to the lack of an open running game and have come back to league a shadow of their former selves e.g. Pryce, Smith.

I can see why Mossop, Hock and Sam may want to test themselves in the best comp. With H you also have to consider his heritage. Farrell strikes me as being another Lockers, Wigan through and through. You often see him watching the junior teams. Personally I think we have the talent coming through to replace them all bar Sam, though Hampshire, Williams or Tierney may prove me wrong.

Why are they looking at Wigan? Because we are the biggest name in the game, have a good production line, we have a good culture in terms of sports science/coaching and training methods and produce players with the attitude to succeed.

Which doesn't help us in the slightest.

Unless the clubs find ways to get more revenue and investment, losing star players to the NRL and RU is going to be the least of our problems.

Most of the clubs in the league can't afford to pay player salaries any higher than a SC that was introduced over a decade ago and has been massively eroded by inflation. The game is headed for a semi-pro future.

Many players will simply not get involved in RL in the first place due to the lack of a viable career. I'm not sure that in 10 or 20 years' time we will have any players RU and the NRL will want.

There seems to be no appetite amongst the clubs or (judging by these boards) many fans to address the issue of financial failure by clubs and the game as a whole in England. No one would argue that SL is likely to be as rich a league as the NRL but there is much that could be done to improve club and RFL finances.

If we carry on as we have been doing for decades then the best we can hope for is for RL to become a feeder competition for the NRL. That way we would see some talented athletes playing RL in England, even if only briefly.

we will have 5-6 SL clubs that will pick up the best young players around from academies and other SL and Championship clubs, keep them for 2-3 years and if they turn out exceptional at an early stage try and sign them up to a longer contract so we get a fee when the do get approached by NRL or Union.

As a sport we just don't have the revenue streams to compete with the NRL or Union, we have teams that can't pay up to the salary cap now so raising it would probably only benefit a couple of teams

How many of these are there now?

Serious question, because if it's only a couple, then that seems an odd reason to condemn the clubs who've managed to develop their income streams to a future in which they exist purely to seed the NRL and the RFU.

Nothing against Mossop at all because careers are short and I've full respect to anyone who wants to test themselves against the best but something really does need to be done to stop the rot in Super League. I agree with us having a salary cap and I know some teams are bound to be better than others but there are 7 clubs at the bottom and who have done nothing for years and don't look like doing anything (bar maybe Salford). Why are we pandering to them so much? Lets have a smaller league of 10 teams and a cap that the top 4 can afford. If the others can't keep up they need to find ways to bring in more revenue

Lenegan had no real option.

About 2 years ago Mossop progressed quickly after coming back from loan and had he carried on this improvement would be first choice for an England jersey, however for one reason and another this didnt happen. and TBH we have managed without him, as we have done without Finch, Tommy, Carmont etc.

Are we a better team? no, it just shows the lack of competition and poor standard in the other SL clubs.

Wire's ageing team looks to have caught up with them.
Leeds ditto to a certain extent and dont look the same without Buderus bossing them round the pitch and a handful coming up for retirement.
Stains, shadow of former selves following loss of Graham and centre issues going from Lyon to Gidley to Shenton. Look lost without Roby and Tony P.

I think that Mossop is a loss but not an irreplaceable one, and if we can make some cash on the deal, why not? My fear with him is that he is rapidly turning into another Prescott, injury wise. I am more concerned about the rumour being banged out on the jungle drums (the more reliable ones) that Sam and Logan, as a package are off to Oz. The story is that Sam won’t go without his brother. I was told it’s a done deal, only time will tell.

Coming totally in peace, and nothing to do with our new owner trying to buy Tomkins.

It has been mentioned, Wigan get special dispensation for Tomkins salary, but what were the circumstances that set this precedence? If other teams were able to take advantage of these rules it could, possibly(?), improve the standard of player in SL.

Unfortunately the powers that be want Super League to be competitive for all teams. The only way they can achieve this is to let the tail wag the dog as some lower teams just don't have the capacity to generate greater revenue, so the cap is kept low and the teams at the top are penalised by running the risk of losing their better players. The whole league becomes weaker as a result. How long before young players don't even bother coming into the sport..??

I think youngsters will still come into the sport, but their ambition won't be to win the grand final or the challenge cup, it'll be to win the NRL final or the 6 nations. The NRL and union have been bigger than us for ages but the gap really is too big now. No way will we be able to produce and retain players of the calibre of Radlinksi, Long, Fielden, Peacock, Farrell and Sculthorpe in future, they will all leave for money and a better competition

Sam to play first team and Logan to sell hot dogs I presume! In all seriousness I can see why a team would take Logan on if it meant they were getting San but I'm far from convinced he's Wigan quality so therefore he's probably not quite up to the standards of 'most' NRL teams. He was poor yesterday I thought.

Whatever does happen with Sam Tomkins I just hope we have plans in place to soften the blow via a couple of big signings.

It seems like under the RFL's stewardship the quality and progression of Super League is dictated by it's weakest teams, any one for a 10/12 team competition?

I increasingly feel that this is the only future for the fully pro game in this country.

A higher salary cap, discounts on home-grown players and a central fund to top of the salaries of our marquee talents should also be in the mix.

No doubt there'd be objectors to this, but I'm increasingly thinking that it's do something or die a slow death.

These are my thoughts entirely, the RFL claim to be "innovative" in expanding the league but I think for financial viability and quality of rugby league in this country they need to take a proactive approach and reduce the teams now. Nigel Wood claims the sport in this country is better than it's ever been but how much more blow out score lines and quality players leaving super league does he need to observe before he notices some thing isn't right with the current setup.

But how do you address the fact that our very own chairman opposes a SC hike? Seems to me that it's not the size of the pond that's important, merely being the biggest fish in it.