All those teams are bristling with quality ,if money was no option you would be like a kid in a candy shop, as there is going to be plenty of toing and froing in the coming weeks/months ,and we may yet pick ourselves up a bargain .

I'd be more than happy with Russell Packer at Wests...prob won't cost as much as AF and in a World Cup year would surely be busting a gut to make the NZ squad again

We are at the opposite end of the spectrum to "money no object", sale rail only, unfortunately.

Need another Tanginoa....

So we can play him at prop

Shaun Johnson now being offered around SL.

Definitely not on the bargain rail which appears to be the limit of our ambitions

George Williams available too.

Maybe not for us!

Very good player who has been in and out of form in recent years. Can imagine if he’s coming over here it’d be to Warrington if Widdop is still rumoured to be leaving.

Watched NRL 360 the other day, Widdop has been apparently offered to most NRL clubs but with no takers. Think he wants to move back with him having a young family over there. Also said George Williams wants to come home with Warrington very interested if they can ship Widdop out.

Can't imagine anything better than being a RL pro good enough to ply my trade in Oz, it staggers me that after 2 years or less most of em want to come back to play over here!

Williams should just try get nearer Sydney. What a life

I Can imagine it’s like going to another planet playing NRL, with the media exposure, talk shows, comedy shows etc. I suppose everyone’s
Experience is different over there ie how family settles. I can imagine with the wages a lot of players will be earning over there the lifestyle will be unreal. Tough competition to play in mind!

Jesus! You’d be snatching their hands off if there was a chance to get Williams, looked class at Canberra.

He might be better staying in Canberra if he stays in the NRL. It's not a bad city in some nice countryside and probably doesn't have the pressures of the Sydney rugby league goldfish bowl and fewer of it's temptations,
Homesickness is a tough one made even worse by the pandemic, relatives can't come out to see him he couldn't have a visit home in the off season so there is that feeling of isolation, however he is in a team environment seeing blokes everyday. If a partner is over with him it is probably more difficult for her, but I would hope that any NRL club hoping to recruit overseas players has a support structure to help in these circumstances, ( Do we have one at Trinity ???)

My eldest daughter emigrated to Australia in January 2013, she got a job and went out on her own. Luckily a work colleague and his family took her under their wing and helped her settle. She's been 'home' twice since then but loves it in Australia, has become an Aussie citizen and met married an Aussie. The only time she's ever missed 'home' was in February when she had a bit of a difficult birth of our granddaughter and she could have done with her mum around her. For my daughter ' it worked' but it doesn't work for everyone so I do have some sympathy for George Williams. It's me and the wife who are getting 'homesick' for Australia having been a few times, but not being able to see 'in the flesh' our granddaughter who will be at least a year old before we can get out there is a killer. God Bless Skype !!

There speaks someone who's probably never lived in Australia?

I do get that in career terms the NRL is the place to be so for an RL player it's a bit different.

However, living in Australia is not and never was what it's cracked up to be.

Did you know that just under 70% of the British people who went to Australia under the assisted passage schemes of the fifties and sixties returned to the UK within five years, five weeks in some cases! Why, because it was nothing like the ads, filthy hot, dangerous, no NHS or welfare, no relatives, no friends, no seasons, over Americanised, the list goes on

People see Aus these days either on holiday or on TV travel shows and they think that's how it really is, it isn't. Being lonely, skint, and miserable in the sun, despite what you may believe, is just as bad as in the cold.

Most people are a product of their upbringing and although some can break the bonds most can't and become homesick very quickly. Ever wondered why fifth-generation Irish and Italian immigrants still call themselves Irish or Italian Americans.

So there you go, take it from one who knows. Why Aussies seem to manage it so much better the other way I'm not sure but in a way, some are just coming home on probation.

A lot of players don`t like the media pressure that comes with being a player in the NRL and I don`t blame them, the media are like flies around crap in AUS, ready to jump on anything you do, over here players on a national basis are pretty much anonymous in most cases and left to get on with there life without living under a microscope, I know which one I would prefer.

It is crazy when you watch these NRL programmes and they dissect into what’s going on in the clubs, coaches, players lives, gets pretty personal. Was watching then analyse Ricky Stuart and Josh Hodgson’s relationship, goes way too far. Just watch the interview Andrew Johns does with Phil Gould regarding his ecstasy taking, yes it’s illegal, yes it’s not good but how Gould goes on you’d think he’d done something far more sinister, just droning on and on and on over the same stuff. The media exposure over there makes even our football premier league media look tame.

Paul Kent is the one that gets me Pat, he has zero morals IMO and he will do anything for a story regardless of the toes he steps on, he does it over and over.

Williams partner is pregnant apparently and the pandemic has restricted a lot of family contact. I can imagine homesickness is very likely in such circumstances. It's been hard enough on people living here.

He has lived in Oz and I never heard the end of it!!

Don't get him started again!

Looks like he came back though

Ye exactly. I love the Matty Johns shoW and Fletch and Hindy, find them very funny.

Yeah, my biggest mistake

Back in the sharks team as a sub this week. Start shopping elsewhere if we are actually intending to replace Tangata.