Hes certainly been around. Didnt he go to Catalans at some point?

Good luck to him though

Yeah and HKR. Shame he ever bothered with that Union move, as that probably set him back a bit.

Cracking lad Iain. I hope he does well at Wakefield.

I noticed this at old Trafford (didn’t come across on the tele) but Miski was hurt badly in the second.

Was hobbling around, Isa keep talking to him to make sure he was fine, King dropped back for a few kicks.

Some effort to get through the game.

Been told unfortunately he needs a op and will miss the start of the season.

Immediate chance for Eckersley?

The Union move definitely did. Good for the bank balance but less so for his development (that’s not a pop at Thornley - we make the best decisions for our family and I respect that). Madge was furious and I think he made some remarks in the press after he’d gone that showed that.

Thornley has had a good career but I always felt he was destined for more. Never placed for England etc.. He was destroying youth teams at centre playing for our academy and he needed to be pushed earlier to play against players his size so he could develop further and not just rely on his size advantage. An advantage he wouldn’t have when he joined the first team. As a country we don’t seem to be able to produce top class centres. Thornley had the potential to be a top class centre.

At one point before he moved to Union Brisbane Broncos were interested in taking him. Would have loved to have seen how he would have turned out there.

We can add him to the list of Union casualties.

Henry Paul, Iestyn Harris, Joel Tomkins. None of them came back the forces they'd once (or could have) been.

Not great for Miski.

Obvious thing to say, but a good pre season really sets a player up right for the whole season. Was it Byrne who was injured last year? It took him a while to get up to speed and then he pulled up injured after that. French missed a pre season a while back and suffered a big injury a few games into the season etc.

Like you said however, it opens the doors for others - much in the same way that Miski has benefited from previously. I'd expect Eckersley, Douglass and even Hampshire to be training the house down over the next 3/4 months.

Could be wrong but I think Miski got injured early in the game rather than the second half, and managed to get through it. That's not to say he was 100% but I'd hope/assume it's not that bad an injury if he played through the majority of the game with it.

Still hoping we (Hull FC) will try and Sign Joe Shorrocks. I'm guessing with the strength of your pack for next season then his game time will be limited.

In theory we're not ridiculously well stocked at second row. We're losing KPP and Farrell turns 34 next year.

That said, he's still behind Faz, Walters, Isa and Nsemba, so it makes sense for him to move on now for the sake of his own career.

Potentially Isa's last season with us in 2024 plus who knows how long Faz will go. Take those two out and we look short if injuries occur.

From a selfish point of view I'd like to keep him - he was really useful to have in reserve this year and there's every chance that we'll have to call on him next year too for a handful of games.

If I were him though and I was given the chance to get a proper run as a first teamer at a good club, I'd probably take it. Even if this is Isa's last run and we can't look too far in the future for Farrell, we still have two second rowers who are younger than him and ahead of him. Maybe there could be a role for him as a ball playing 13 now that Smithies seems to be gone, but that doesn't seem to be the direction that we're going in.

That will be fixed when necessary. It would allow the club to recruit a non-federation player with experience to fill the gap.

Seems to me there's a transition in place.
With Farrell & Isa senior 2nd rows. Walters, Nsemba & Shorrocks.
The club could always bring in an NRL 2nd row.

Or get Smithies back in a few years.

No, once you've gone your gone, there is no return

Smithies more suited to playing 13 than second row.

He doesn’t have the speed or evasiveness that would make him a second rower in the ilk of Farrell.

We will miss Faz when he eventually decides to call it a day. One of the most consistent players I’ve seen at Wigan in the last 20 years. He has made every six outside of him look brilliant with the lines he runs.

Didn't realise he was 33. His current contract to the end of 2025 may be his last one then.

I shudder to think of the day he calls it quits. The guy is a machine and even though he seems to have been getting more of a billing across the game in recent years, than he did a few years back, I still think he’s well underrated.

On the plus side, the guys that fit I think he could play until he’s 37/38 if he wants to, so we’ve got time to get the succession plans in place.

Tonight's the night

IYKYK

Just been a dream, local lad, played in the academy, took to the first team like a duck to water, won loads of GFs, will retire a one club man.

We need more Liam Farrell’s

Wally Lewis ?

Ultimate professional and the only player out the current team I am very worried about losing

I’m a saddo with Faz, he’s my joint favourite ever player along with Terry Newton. They share in common the fact they’re just Wiganers through and through. I think we saw with Newton that he wasn’t quite the same player away from Wigan and I think Faz would be much the same. He’s been an absolute dream as you said and it’ll be a long while before we see that like again.