Depends on what they (Field & French) want to do with their careers

a. Be small fish in a big pond but on very decent money
or
b. Be club legends and multiple cup/championship winners in an 'inferior' league on less money (albeit it still more than most can dream of earning) but with more medals to look back on when they retire

I know what I would pick and I wish them well when they go back to the NRL

As much as the NRL is awash with money and a salary cap three times higher than ours, I’m not sure they would get more money over there than here. There is an arrogance to these Aussie clubs that would likely think either should be happy enough with squad player money and a spot fighting for a match day 17 place. I’d hazard a guess both would need to take a pay cut to go back.

I get the impression not many in Australia are even aware that SL has a marquee player rule.

I would agree with you I would be amazed if either found a deal that comes anywhere near what they must be on now, sometimes the grass isn't greener on the other side.

I don’t think Field would due to the endless numbers of top class fullbacks they have over there and seem to be able to produce year in year out.

If French continues to go well in the 5/8th role they will pay big money as they are struggling for depth across the NRL in comparison with most other positions.

The Aussies salary cap continues to grow but the playing personnel remains similar = more money going to the same players.

It was ever thus. The more money there is, the more everyone wants. It's human nature.

It would be the same over here if we raised our own salary cap, though it might keep a few more players in the British game, instead of seeing them automatically head overseas (or to Union) for the bigger payday.

Talk of the NRL expanding by a club or two in the near future. Perth & Christchurch mentioned, so there is that. Let's hope so.

I've always wondered why they don't expand to Hobart in Tasmania

We should expand to Tasmania given that many of our countrymen resided there in the penal colony.

New sides mean more of our young players being targetted

Interesting note from the head of RL commercial that there are apparently 20 marquee players in SL. Seems very high to me - wouldn't have thought many clubs could afford them.

I’m not surprised, if you have a federation trained player on more than 100k (which every team will have bar maybe London) you might aswell set them as marquee to save £50k on the cap.

Made no sense when the likes of Saints claimed to not have marquee players, just gets you more value out of the cap.

Exactly
And even if the club doesn't spend up to the cap you would still claim it for the 1/2/3 players that eat up most of your cap whether they choose to use that Space or not

Surely this is against the spirit of the game (heard that somewhere else)

Well, there's that, but also, they are Aussies, after all. Australia is home, with friends and family. Can't blame them for getting homesick in time. As posters have said, neither owe us anything, considering their achievements at Wigan. I think French's departure from Parra was not the happiest, and quite simply, he is a much better player now that the one who first arrived in England. And he wasn't too shabby then!

Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler were both calling for Field and French to get NRL gigs next year hopefully we can stagger their departures so we dont lose both at once if they do go home

Looks like the most likely scenario currently is French leaves at the end of this year and Field at the end of next. Both will have done around 5 years at Wigan in their prime - we can have no complaints.

If this is the last year they play together at Wigan then hopefully they both stay fit and the fans enjoy it as much as possible.

From what I’ve been told from someone I know at Wigan is that French is as good as gone but there is zero interest in field from the nrl

When you think, a few years back, we were all saying, oh, if only we could hang on to just one of them, and we've managed to hang on them both, it's great really. So we can look forward to watching them both this year, and if Bevan gets a swan-song in the NRL, good luck him. As I've said before, he's definitely a much better player now than the guy who left Parramatta.

You also told us that Thompson would never sign for Wigan! I rest my case mi lud.

Maybe Thompson the inside man

French owes us nothing, if he goes I’m sure he goes with everyone’s best wishes.

The last “favour” he can do for us though is make a call on his future early.

We as fans don’t need to know but the club need to know so they can do business early to replace him.

We don’t have a player who can step up to fill the void he will leave and I don’t think there is anyone in SL who is able to fill the gap. I wouldn’t mind Tyrone May or Mikey Lewis but both have got 2 years at KR and they are not a selling club so we will need to go to the NRL and probably have to pay marquee money so the more time we have the better.

Looking at the off contract NRL players the style of half we need and whom is available is limited. Given Smith is such a high quality organiser we need a strike 6.

Daine Laurie looks the best bet or someone like Anthony Milford if you are wanting to roll the dice and in reality neither of those should command marquee money.

Let's not beat around the bush; French is all but irreplaceable in real terms. There's no one in world rugby who we could realistically get who is a like for like replacement. We got lucky getting French when we did. He's one of the very rare Antipodean signings who could have flourished in the NRL. Usually when we get this type of player it's because of circumstances outside of rugby but, in his case, it was more a matter of timing. As others have said, he owes us nothing. We got several of his best years and it's very rare we in Superleague can say that!

So where does that leave us? Well, as I see it, we have 2 options. We either offer him whatever it takes to stay (outbidding the NRL may not be easy but Mike Danson could, of course, do it if he so desired) or we make up for the loss by adding quality elsewhere which is what we've been doing. It will be interesting to see how we go with something approaching a full team as we seem to be strong even when down on troops. It's worth remembering that we won the WCC minus Thompson, Harvard, Walters, Nsemba and pretty much without an interchange hooker and losing Cooper and Byrne during the match!

Jack Farrimond seems to be the future at half so it's all about integrating him into the team, putting the right quality around him and building a partnership with Harry. Do that properly and the loss of French, if that's what happens, can be accounted for.

What about Welsby Jon?