Mostly at retire age, here because they could not be fitted on the salary cap of Melbourne Storm, crocked, not good enough or in the case of Tommy wanting to play in the NRL.

All replaced by players from our own good production line. As will be the case with the last five if and when they leave.

No player is bigger than the club.

I don't disagree with this.

My previous comments notwithstanding, I feel deeply despondent about the Sam thing. I don't understand why we can't make him see out at least another year of the ringfenced portion of his contract. It's not even as if NZW is the sort of chance he can't afford to miss. Why on Earth he's going there completely baffles me. Even Russell Crowe was bemused by it.

Joe Burgess in for Richards next season. Scored another two tries in U20's this weekend against Warrington. The lad is special.

He scored three.

#
What is a contract in any sport these day's when players and agents seemed to have all the power.

Certainly seems that way sometimes...

A contract being in force is the difference between a club getting a transfer fee and not.
Graham and Eastmond left Saints when their contracts had run out, the club didn't get a fee for either.
Joel, Mossop and Sam are leaving in contract and Wigan will pick up £100,000s.
That's what today's contracts are worth IMO.

Surely needs first team experience under his belt before it can be suggested that he is Pat's replacement for next season. The selections when injuries have hit in our backline suggest that at least Gelling is ahead of him in the pecking order. I find it very doubtful that we'd throw an untested youngster in without ever playing at that level before, hence why we are linked with Tom Briscoe.

Burgess may be a cracker but we can't throw him in as first choice and expect it to work. He hasn't even made his debut yet and to go from a points scoring machine, club legend wingman to an untried kid just won't stack up both from a onfield perspective and a financial one.

With all the injuries in the modern game he'll get his chance anyway as a squad player and if he's good enough he'll take it and make himself first choice.

NZ Warriors have won the U20s competition for the last 3 years IIRC and are pretty dominant at that level with several players stepping up into both the NRL side and the Kiwi side. Granted that may change with their current coach leaving and Stacey Jones coming in, but it won't be a bad thing for some of our younger players to head over there for a season and train/play in that setup.

Are you related to him? Phil Clarke raves on about him and guess what? he's his uncle. From what I've seen of him is an above average player not anywher near the class of Pat Richards

You do realise you're comparing an academy player to a points machine who has been at the club for 8 years? How can you compare the two at all? Give the lad a chance before you make judgements like that. Burgess hasnt even made his debut. Of course Burgess isnt in the class of Richards, hes 18. It doesn't mean he wont be in the future when he gets his opportunity.

The answer to your question is no.
I've seen quite a bit of him, he ripped the old U18's competition apart and broke into the old U20's took his chance and didn't look out of place.

He's tall, deceptively fast and once he breaks the line (which he does often) he's rarely caught. Pretty good defence too which will only get better over time.

Currently on 19 tries in 13 games with two hat-tricks in his last two games.

Yeah - he's definitely only 'above average'.

you're not quite getting the grasp off this whole system of promoting from within are you? Maybe you preferred it 10 years ago when we signed players from the NRL whenever possible and sold off our youngsters. Of course we never won anything but there were plenty big names to put bums on seats. Do you think Richards was at his peak when he broke into the first team in the NRL? If we can get Briscoe then great, otherwise Gelling, Thornley, Burgess and Manfredi give us enough competition to make it very likely that one of them will prove good enough for the spot.

Not even 1 1st team appearance

Well done, at least George Williams got 1 game earlier in the season before someone had a go at him.

The best prop in the world at the moment is George Burgess

Your right Saints didn't get a penny in transfer fees. What they did get is those players available for them for the full duration of their contracts.

Graham was very professional about it and gave his all for the cause right to the end.

We have had players do this also. Like Tommy and Pat is also doing so.

I'd far rather see players see out their deals and move on than be sold for a quick buck. What good is the money? The idea it will be used to train the next Sam T is a bit of a joke because if we unearth another player like that we will sell him as well!

As NickyKiss said the issue is the way it's going the losses aren't sustainable. Players lost early are Joel T, Hock, Mossop and likely to be Sam T. All could be playing for us in 2014 had they not been sold and we'd be a better team for it whereas instead we are vulnerable to the experienced players we have left being injured. Look at the Widnes game and expect more like that if the player drain continues.

lol

It's only natural though for people who have seen a player, to pass on their opinion.

More often than not the "public" get it wrong.

e.g. I remember when Eamon O'Carroll and Paul Prescott were coming onto the scene.

O'Carroll was often favoured on here, but the coaches obviously knew otherwise. The rest is history.

We will always be at a disadvantage to the coaches in terms of viewing the player, understanding strengths and weaknesses and their ability to fit into the system.

To the supporter it's means nothing. To the Chairman it's money in his pocket.

But let's wait until the news is confirmed before we levy the accusation.

I don't want Wigan to be the richest club in SL, I want them to be the most successful

I know its pretty bad for you being Aucklands feeder team as of now, but atleast us at Leigh have shed our 'Wigan B Team' tag, we're now 'Auckland C team'.

10/10.....

Yeah, they were both crocks!

I agree, there is always the chance it really is just a rumour but a lot of people are going to look at bit stupid if Sam doesn't leave for NZW at the end of the season and I don't mean supporters. Journalists mostly! It's a done deal according to the NZ papers.

No I must apologise I want a full teams of locals. The point I was trying to make is there are players getting hyped for by former players, Phil Clarke with his nephew and Jason Robinson with his son etc, some are good but Wigan cannot lose objectivity in selecting players, lets have a fair system and not have ex players fasttracking relatives to nice contracts at the expense of real talent. We all know this world is full of country clubs who trade in favors