Why? Does he say he'd have stayed if we'd built a team around him?

Like you said to me when I asked for your reference point look it up.

Good luck Tom Johnstone!

A genuinely nice bloke to talk to and a fantastic player in the Wakefield Trinity colours.

Sad that you won’t make it for the World Cup but wish you all the best of luck for the future at Catalan!







As for the major gap left behind we’ve still got some great wingers in Murphy, Taufua and Kershaw.

Don’t flatter yourself.

The difference is I understand why we are where we are whilst you just want to play blame games.

This current situation was bound to happen as finally we have a BOD brave enough to make strategic decisions.

We simply couldn’t carry on as we were. To stand any chance of future success the club needed to be quite literally rebuilt. Without it we were out of SL regardless of how good a team we might have.

That meant something had to give and that until the off field club was sorted we’d struggle. Well we are, it’s a shame because even with a reduced budget the team we put together should be better. The fault for this lays totally with the players and the coaches. I doubt the BOD expected much but they will have expected more than this.

Great plans sometimes fail and that may be the case here, such is life. But let’s be in no doubt, if we hadn’t spent every penny we can spare on the new ground and infrastructure we would be kicked out of SL regardless. To believe anything else is an utter fantasy.

We had to go make or break and this is it. We will either stay up and hopefully rise to greater things or go down and find our level. There was simply no other option imho despite what some seem to think.

No he doesn’t or if he did it’s a white noise only the pimp can hear.

I remember that game and interview very well. Tupou and Broughy had stand out games too. The problem to me was that a whole bunch of the team including BIll, Tom, Tini and Broughy all hit lengthy injury spells together and I don't think we ever saw many of that whole bunch back together in any reasonable shape. It was a thin squad that relied heavily on individual brilliance and off the cuff plays. Tom and Bills fragility going forward from there was a major reason we didn't progress.

Just to help your memory when interviewed and Sky asked why he stayed at a club like Trinity he quite forthrightly stated that he thought he could achieve all he wanted at Wakefield with the team we had. It is unfortunate that we could not improve it from that point but if you ask your controllers they may be able to advise why they missed the opportunity.

Fantastic winger. A match winner that any team would have had in a heartbeat. When fit, best English winger by far. Every time he played on Sky, it felt like Phil Clarke was making a personal plea for Wigan to sign him.

It's a real shame for him that his career has been so dogged by injury and I hope he can avoid it for the rest of his career. Every credit to him though for staying as long as he had. Although MC said that he would never want him to go, we all know that when player's heads are turned by money clubs or Grand Finalists, they go. It's never if. It's when and at what price. For Tom not to go that route says a lot about him as a person. Team player and loyal.

Hope it goes well in France.

If you followed the team anywhere near as closely as you profess you would already know all the answers.

Please enlighten me why we chose the route we did.

I think the thing that ticks me off is that when rumours were flying around then Tom got injured I said to our group this was the last we’d see of him in a Wakey shirt. We’re now paying good wages to a Catalan player and I’m assuming they’re paying for his operation making sure he’s fit for next season, we’ve had our kegs pulled down big style here. He can funk off for me.

First of all, no doubt one of the best all time players I have seen at Wakey and sad we are no longer able to see him play for us again.

Having said that, I tend to see your point regarding his departure. Something has not seemed right how all this has been handled. I will admit I have not heard any details its just a feeling.

However you do say, you assume Catalan are paying his wages, well lets hope they are. Neverthless the way this club has done things in the past it would not suprise me if they are not.

Why would Catalan be paying his wages? His contract with them doesn’t start until 1st December. We are are responsible for his wages & medical bills until that point.

I'm not sure why you always want to blame the club but a lot has changed in Tom's life since that interview. Maybe he's just grown as a person with his family and wants a change as he comes to the end of his career.
Doesn't make him a liar then. Doesn't mean the club let him down. Doesn't mean anything, apart from right now, this is the right decision for him.

No Prince B, I’m saying we’re paying his wages.

I doubt that Tom and Bill "chose" a route that involved getting carried off the Hull FC pitch. Which I think occurred only a couple of weeks after that post match chat you referenced.

Sorry jinge, my fault. Anyhow how you keeping buddy.

First of all theres no doubt tom is quality and i wish him every bit of luck in france hes given us grest moments,but lets not forget we gave him the chance when no one else wanted to..but the situation as narked me, as a team/club we really in the poop i would say favs to go down and its we documented we have no money and dont spend cap but we have a player who is rummored to be one of if not our best earner but he plays what an average of 10 games a season (over last 3 years)but at the first opportunity leaves.now i hope the rummors catalan are paying us not to play him are true becsuse how ever you look at it tom is one of the reasons we will get relegated this year, due to wages been spent on a player not playing and its been for how many seasons now so if hes still taking wage well cheers tom,if he isnt or catalan are paying us then i apoligise,my main and only focus is wakefield trinity though not tom johnstone

I’m good mate, when we get relegated we’ll have to have a SWAG commiseration beer together.

I’m not convinced we are. I have no evidence to back this up but I reckon a sweetener has appeared.

I may be wrong but I thought that until the contract was up an opposition club couldn’t approach our player? We are far from the end of the season yet TJ is signed sealed though not yet delivered.

That last bit is key. Seems very convenient that we retire a player at this point in the season for an op he should be taking in Catalans time.

There are so many things this season across SL that simply don’t stack up and this is one.

There is a deadline in May where clubs can approach a player that is out of contract at the end of the season.

The operation was avoided to give Tom a chance to play again after some rehabilitation according to Tom himself. The injury hasn't improved so he had zero chance of playing either way. Maybe we get an insurance cover now he's officially unavailable through injury rather than sat in the medical room with his fingers crossed?

Fantastic talent great strike rate and if he had a quality centre with him that strike rate would be far higher
When fit probably the best winger in SL
Sadly so unlucky with injuries I hope he plays more but I fear his game time will always be very limited
If he had stayed fit I think he would have been NRL bound

I agree, though I suspect our management are not so soft in the head and have agreed a deal. The catalans chief executive was as the Toulouse game ; I know cos he was in our hotel. He said it was to guage fan support for Toulouse in super league but I wouldn't be surprised if a deal was done that day