Me neither and to think many want him as our next captain

I’m hot and cold on Powell. Sometimes he’s fantastic and others he’s bang average with bang average becoming the norm. Equally I worry about Tommy at hooker, I think his day has been and gone, which jointly is why I’m not over joyed at our hookers for 2020 and think we probably could have got away with spending money there.

Grimmy brought up earlier about the risk of French & Smith as starting halves and it is a risk. Don’t get me wrong as much as I don’t see the point in Hastings for a season, I’m also glad Smith gets another season to develop for a starting HB SL position. It will only do him good going forward certainly but if it came to it and we hadn’t have signed Hastings or, as The S*n rumour suggested and he didn’t come, I think we’d have been alright.

At least it gave us something interesting to talk about in the off season

On to the next rumour!

George Burgess offered a lifeline at Souths?

Adam Blair has been training with Wigan and it’s a done deal

Powell will be an interesting case this year. He definitely picked up under Lam last year regards his running game and that was always peoples stick to beat him with. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we haven’t had a hooker who ran the ball since before Michael Maguire and then suddenly one who didn’t in Powell started to do so under a different style of coach to the last two. If you look at Powell’s stats he’s been fine in regards to setting up try’s from dummy half, racking up more assists than Houghton, Leeming and the great James Roby in each of the last two seasons. He’s a defensive machine also and has a tidy kicking game out of dummy half.

In short he’s underrated for my money and in a more attacking team this year, with what should hopefully be much better go forward, I think he can win a few people round.

I'd say he picked up for a brief period, around 4 games, around 2/3 of the way through the season. Before and after he was the same old.

I absolutely agree.

I think without doubt he was asked to play a certain way under our previous coach to fit a system.

Lam has somewhat allowed him more freedom and he looks to be much more comfortable with that.

His delivery looks better, his kicking is useful and whilst he doesn’t have that dynamic explosive pace his decision making of when to scoot has added to our options in attack.

His defence and commitment is also very good.

I think it’s also fair to say that his best performances have arguably come for England Knights prior to this year where he also seemed to be allowed more freedom.

It’s also easy to forget that he wasn’t really developed as a 9 throughout his junior career and to a certain extent is still relatively new to the role given his age and experience.

I was far from a fan of his however I think he has been one of the players to really benefit from a change in coach and look forward to seeing him kick on again next year.

So now Gary Carter (Sun journalist) puts together an article saying Jackson is actually coming to Wigan using quotes from an interview with Phil Wilkinson without giving Phil credit. A+ plus journalist that one.

Hey! Negative rumours only please,or it's no fun.

I read that earlier and thought it was some brass neck that. He stirred the pot (maybe with just cause) but at least then have the dignity to just stay quiet or if you’re going to now say he’s staying after printing the big scoop that he might not come, put some meat on the bones and give us details as to what’s changed.

Ive left a nice comment on the story on the sun website article

Typical S*n journalist. Scumbags the lot of them

Why do you think he's at the s*n?

Hacks, hackers and sc*mbags the lot of 'em.

I follow him on Facebook and he's definitely down as a Sun journo.

His post today is laughable at best "even though it was quoted by multiple sources" i.e I've eff'd up and published unsubstantiated rumours so I'll pass the blame.

Nothing to do with him being a Salford fan...

The thing is - it is actually true that Jackson wasn't all that keen to sign for Wigan. Iv heard that fron two ex players and one teammate. There were no firm NRL offers and in financial terms Salford were blown out of the water by Wigan's offer. Leeds wasn't an option as they wanted a straight two year deal with no release clause and he probably hasn't felt particularly enthusiastic about it during his time home in the off-season. Hopefully he'll be fine when he gets over here, enjoy the brilliant facilities and embrace the challenge and opportunity to win something. There's always the risk that he'll half-ass it this year but I doubt it as that wouldn't do his NRL prospects any good. Plus he's always been professional and competitive in his time here.

The journalist has probably heard some of these whispers and taken advantage by putting together an exaggerated but plausible story. There was never any evidence that Hastings was going to be unprofessional and not fulfil his commitments.

Nothing wrong with Sam Powell as proved by his International selection and commitment to the club.

Why do some Wigan supporters always have to single out one particular player as a scapegoat?

If he were to leave tomorrow, who do they think will be next in the firing line.

Willie Isa.

As a Salford fan I can guarantee he won't 'half-ass it'. In his first game for us when he had no bond with the club yet he worked so hard that he had to be taken off after half an hour as he was exhausted - still had to be dragged off though. He'll be out to prove that he wants to be there. We did enjoy the 'banter' over the last week but we all wish him well and look forward to playing you.

This thread aged like fine wine. I was wrong too as I said I only thought we would get a year out of him

Whatever happened to Richie S? More rumours than Nosey Parker that bloke.

I bet him £200 to Joining Jack that Hardaker would be here at the start of the year and he disappeared once it was time to pay up. I feel bad about it to be honest as he seemed like a nice guy, just a bit easy led with rumours. RichieS - if you're reading this, come back pal, we'll forget the bet

He worked for one of the club's previous partners so probably won't get any gossip now anyway