i dont know. i dont watch the nrl but id be looking at our options there. the problem with king is that his wages will be top dollar. he wont take a pay cut to join us and when he signed for wire it was rumoured to be the biggest sl earner ever 250k+ considering the increase in the aussie cap he can prob command a wage increase if he moves home!!! you dont spend real cash on a guy not to get the best out of him - a lesson we learnt the hard way with ainscough and for a year pat.

anyway, who says it needs to be OOC? IL splashed for gleeson who is the best all round centre in this league. full stop.

id take a put on j-p baille. reminds me of bj mather

having thought about it since my last post i think if we were looking at a signing from within sl for a fee i'd be interested in sa from catalans - him and menzies are the most dangerous attacking combo in the league...

Matt Elliot has stepped down as Panthers coach. I know there's a top to bottom sort-out at Penrith but getting rid mid-season?
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him in SL next year.

Keth Senior to Crusaders?

wouldnt want elliot, just dont think he is good enough or what wigan need,
get the legends back in the club coaching,
get the brits bk coaching,
that would push us forward,

I'm not suggesting for one minute that he's on his way to Wigan. I personally think we've got our next coach sorted. Look at SL and there are a few posts that could be up for grabs next year; Hull KR, Hull, Quins RL and dare I say Wakefield.

i thinkelliot needs to go to a team with alot of money, seemed to do an ok job at bradford when they had a good squad but (i dont really know) his nrl credientials seem to be lacking

Chris Irvine from The Time has just mooted that.

Keep up Chris

Add Leeds to that maybe?

I don't think he has been given anywhere near enough time to make an accurate and fair judgement on whether or not he looks like he will fill his potential. He has played five Super League games. He hasn't stood out, but hasn't done an awful lot wrong either. It took Paul Prescott years before we started to see the level of performances expected from a first team prop. Joel Tomkins has said it has taken him 50 Super League appearances before he felt comfortable playing at this level. Mike McIlorum has also only started to shine after more appearances and a consistent run in the first team. Until we see him at his best fully developed we can't (or shouldn't) just write him off. Touted as one of the most promising up and coming English prop forwards in the game - massive mistake to let him leave IMO, especially since good English props are such a rare commodity.

Totally agree. It'll take patience on both fronts, from the club and Ben himself. But examples of what being patient can reap, are there for all to see.

It's not easy to offer a solution. Our options in the NRL are limited/zero. Ian Lenagan stated at the fans forum that the market for centres is very grim. Top NRL centres will be harder to entice to Super League now the NRL salary cap has gone up. All the best are signed up. Justin Hodges is staying at Brisbane and Matt Cooper wants to stay at St.George. You can almost rule out a centre from the NRL. Then you must turn to Super League. I compiled a list of all the OOC players in Super League and Matt King is the best centre available. Matt King would not be able to demand a wage increase ANYWHERE in RL - especially not the NRL. He will be 31 when his contract runs out and has just come back from a nasty knee injury. The rumours about his wage when he arrived at Wire are just rumours, but when he arrived at Wire he had played 9 times at origin level and had been capped 10 times by Australia, 2 time consecutive NRL grand finalist, winning the latter one. He was also 25/26 years of age. His value will have decreased - not gone up. However he is still performing in Super League (demonstrated by the hat-trick he scored last weekend) and was in the Dream Team last year as a centre. He's be a shrewd signing. He is certainly the best available.



I can't see Ian Lenagan splashing the cash for a centre. I can't think who he would buy in Super League anyway. I also don't see who he would buy and why he would buy a centre when someone like King is available.



So you wouldn't have Matt King, but you would take JP-Baille?

Ive just noticed on Twitter that Burgess is trying to talk Tomkins into following Maguire to Souths

i'd have matt king but i think it would be a wiser move to sign someone on less wages with more to offer long term such as baille. i think in light of the aussie cap increase you might see a scramble for players and some seriously over inflated wages flying round so dont rule out king commanding the same or slightly more in terms of wages - 31 is a fine age to go back to the nrl and still cut it.

what do you think about sa as per my other post?

While I don't rate McDermott, I reckon his job is safe.

£10m please Mr Crowe

You sure it's not Luke Burgess they're after?

Not when its Sam Burgess talking directly to Tomkins saying do you want to follow your coach! haha.

Burgess and Cross now left Leeds - [urlhttp://www.therhinos.co.uk/news/16847.php?[/url

I wonder what Hetherington has up his sleeve...

When I say 'they' I mean Souths. When was Sam Burgess promoted to head of recruitment?

Tomkins is on a 5 year deal so he would surely have to break Fieldens transfer record to go down under.

yes £10m

The problem is, realistically, that money would be little use to us. We couldn't spend it on player wages, so although we could offer large transfer fees for big name players the chances are we couldn't offer them the wages to entice them.

Luke burgess to souths with immefdiate effect to replace the injured sam