The same source that confirmed Smithies was leaving a few weeks back told me last night that Harry Smith has an NRL offer on the table along with (as you'd expect) a contract extension offer from Wigan.

Huge decision for him and huge for us. I think it’ll need to be lucrative any offer from Wigan but I’ve got everything crossed we can get him sorted on a long term deal.

He will go

We are due a player turning down the nrl surely! Not had much luck at fending them away have we!

Use the club trained marquee on him I reckon.

I think they are all used.
LT - Fed
JF & BF

Think this might be an unpopular opinion, but i would let one of French or Field go at the end of the season if it was necessary to keep Harry Smith on, he is so integral to everything that i think he is more than worth it. Whichever stays would be fullback and i would be looking to purchase a budget friendly Stand Off.

Personally (although i prefer him as a fullback) I would let Field go as French is more versatile and overall the better Rugby player.

If you factor age in if one had to go I think I would be keeping Field at the end of the season if you could tie him down to a long term deal

Not sure one would have to go, looks like we have cap space with Shorrocks and Powell going and Cooper and Mago will likely be leaving next season with their replacements already at the club so should be room to give Smith a tidy pay rise.

From what I’ve heard it will take a substantial pay rise to even give us a chance of keeping him.

I think that was always going to be the case even without the NRL interest. An integral part of the team with proven big game ability, full international (and a Man of the series one at that!) plus the normal contract increases you would expect for a player of his ability would all combine to suggest a hefty increase. Factor in the NRL and it is, as you say, going to be substantial.

Any rumours as to his thoughts on going or staying?

Sent you a PM Phuzzy.
I think it will be very difficult to retain him. Hope I’m wrong.
Obviously we’ve got Farrimond coming through but I think that Smith is probably the most influential player in SL and 2025 maybe too early for Farrimond.

I hope it can be resolved. The best 7 in Superleague currently and absolutely crucial to the way we play.

Couldn’t agree more.

I think the only way Harry Smith is retained is if we assign him marquee status (and even then it may not be enough). He has a partner here so a lot may depend on how attached they are to home and Harry's career ambitions.

Wigan are in a fortunate position whereby the owner can potentially fund three marquee players but its tough when you have more than three players in the squad that can potentially warrant that status. Long term planning would be tricky with this I imagine as it isn't always clear whether a player will develop to that level. Remember Harry Smith has only really been discussed as a possible marquee over the last 6-12 months - 2023 has been his real break out year both domestically and internationally. He didn't start in the first few games in 2022 and struggled in 2021. Its only now that he's come into the marquee conversation.

If we're now in a position where we've allocated all three marquee spots to Field, French and Thompson then something has to give. I don't know that Thompson is marquee but you'd imagine the vast majority of Wigan fans would prefer Field, French and Smith to be the three.

The nightmare scenario is all three of Field, French and Smith leave at the end of 2024. Field and French are the box office players but Smith gives them the platform. I would say enjoy it while we can.

i've seen a couple of comments re our use of the marquee spots, and Thompson being one (home grown). from my understanding that isnt possible, although he could be federation trained

the marquee rule changes to home grown (club trained), Federation and Non-Federation, so assumptions of Thompson, Field and French i dont believe can be correct

i would say but with no club knowledge to back this up
1. Home Grown - Farrell - could then be used on Smith (if it isnt already)
2. Federation - Thompson
3. Non Federation - French or Field

whilst we dont have to have marquee players, if the club wants to benefit from the salary cap reductions it does make sense to declare players are marquee, if we are going to spend up to / over the cap

purely as an example Farrell is currently on £200k and Smith on £100k, so Farrell declared as marquee, so counts as £50k on the cap under club trained (hit to Cap = £150k Farrell £50k / Smith £100k)
we bump Smith up to £300k and declare him as Marquee, so only £50k counts, we then need to work out the effect on the cap as Farrell would then count as £200k v Smith £100k (hit to cap = £250k Smith £50k / Farrell £200k)

the cap / marquee is dynamic, so can be changed as long as we declare the changes and are under the cap limit with dispensations etc

It would be interesting to know which NRL have made the offer. If you look at the top 12 teams in the NRL, I can’t see a team where Smith would be a regular scrum half. Maybe Canberra. If the money is similar, would you rather be in a losing side like Wests or St George or a winning team like Wigan? Also, what would being in a bottom NRL team do to his England prospects?

Harry Smith is in the last 4 for Golden Boot. He’s a good chance of winning it too I’d say given England were the only unbeaten team.

Raising his profile more.

So funny seeing opposition fans have gone from saying he’s rubbish to now buzzing about a rumour of NRL interest

The third marquee player has to be federation trained (i.e. trained by a member club of the European Federation) but not necessarily home grown (i.e. developed through the club's own academy).

It’s not ideal. I also noticed KPP bigging up Junior Nsemba and talking about NRL interest in him in an interview with the Aussie media. It’s going to be tough stopping the drain anytime soon unfortunately. We’re going to need the academy to keep doing its thing.

It really would be a crying shame of Wigan lost Smith he's finally showing the form from when he was a kid and it's frightening to think how good he can become let's hope he stays

Very much doubt this would be part of the consideration considering how dead international rugby league is.

I think he would be very poorly advised to go before 2026/7.

I don’t see him having the physicality at the moment to cope with the NRL.

His ability to control and read the game is certainly good enough now but I think a few more years would work best for him.

The physical side of his game has improved massively but it’s still a long way off NRL standards yet in my opinion.

It’s frustrating the international game granted but it’s not dead for any English players. Hopefully Samoa get over here in 2024 (but Smith will be here next year anyway so that’s irrelevant to his decision) but then players have an Ashes tour and a World Cup to aim for and I can pretty much guarantee every single English player will be desperate to be part of those events.

I don’t think playing for a bottom of the table NRL side overly impacts your chances mind, as long as you’re going ok yourself.

Getting somewhat annoying this, the only thing that could stop us doing what Saints did over the past few seasons is the NRL continually forcing us to rebuild our team