Re: Peta Hiku : Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:51 pm  

Matt King's kitten wrote:

Rumours of Anthony Gelling's imminent return to Warrington apparently.

Gelling is already back in the country.

Re: Peta Hiku : Wed Jul 15, 2020 2:08 pm  

Wanderer wrote:

Definitely compassionate grounds. I don't think his partner and son wanted to come over at the time so he asked to be able to return to NZ where he also has a daughter.

I bumped into Peta while he was over here, and he didn't appear to be enthusiastic about being over here. Did a job on the park, but not the right fit for him, nor WRLFC.

Re: Peta Hiku : Wed Jul 15, 2020 3:11 pm  

MorePlaymakersNeeded wrote:

I bumped into Peta while he was over here, and he didn't appear to be enthusiastic about being over here. Did a job on the park, but not the right fit for him, nor WRLFC.

Let's be realistic here. Nobody is swapping the likes of Auckland or Sydney for the joys of Northern England, for anything else but cash.

Is it any surprise if somebody seemed a little lacking in enthusiasm for the lifestyle of Warrington or Wigan if they have been used to Sydney?

It's a job to them, 100%. Obviously, some will embrace the different culture and climate in their own individual ways and some will enjoy it more than others, but ultimately once they have fulfilled their contracts, most will be happy to get away.

Re: Peta Hiku : Wed Jul 15, 2020 5:15 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

Let's be realistic here. Nobody is swapping the likes of Auckland or Sydney for the joys of Northern England, for anything else but cash.

Is it any surprise if somebody seemed a little lacking in enthusiasm for the lifestyle of Warrington or Wigan if they have been used to Sydney?

It's a job to them, 100%. Obviously, some will embrace the different culture and climate in their own individual ways and some will enjoy it more than others, but ultimately once they have fulfilled their contracts, most will be happy to get away.

Correct. But in this case his family weren't coming over, which makes it very difficult from the word go. Hence, he stayed only for a very short time. Usually, our antipodean imports do the full contracted term,some we wish stayed longer, some we wished had never bothered. Hiku's was an unusual case, as my post indicated he didnt look like he wanted to be here, before he'd even got onto the pitch. He did the right thing for him and the club, which was a shame as he was a quality player.

Re: Peta Hiku : Wed Jul 15, 2020 5:49 pm  

Matt King's kitten wrote:

Rumours of Anthony Gelling's imminent return to Warrington apparently.

Been back 2/3 weeks now.

Re: Peta Hiku : Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:04 am  

Due to lockdown/my insomnia I've watched some NRL in the last few weeks.

He's currently had his ar53 handed to him on a plate by his opposite wing/Centre for Cronulla, and it's not for the first time, as I've seen him have a few stinkers. In his defence, he did score a hattrick, the other week, but, from memory, they were "fall over tries".

When he was over a few years back, I never got to see him play, due to holiday and Saturday fixtures (God, I HATE them), but there's obviously a gulf of difference between the NRL and SL's middle 8's, so he was bound to look good, playing against poor SL/Championship players.

The worrying thing for me, is his "reluctance to be here/homesickness" issues, mentioned above. If its happened before, you can guarantee it'd happen again.

It's a big no, from me

Re: Peta Hiku : Sun Jul 19, 2020 8:14 am  

I thought Peta Hiku was outstanding for us. But it would not be good move at this time & we probably can't afford him anyway. No thanks.

Re: Peta Hiku : Sun Jul 19, 2020 10:12 am  

lefty goldblatt wrote:

Due to lockdown/my insomnia I've watched some NRL in the last few weeks.

He's currently had his ar53 handed to him on a plate by his opposite wing/Centre for Cronulla, and it's not for the first time, as I've seen him have a few stinkers. In his defence, he did score a hattrick, the other week, but, from memory, they were "fall over tries".

To be honest, most of the Warriors' side is having it's backside handed to it on a weekly basis- they are not very good. They are a bottom 4 side.

Hiku is better than what we presently have in the centres. Though, admittedly, it's not a particularly high bar that's been set.

Re: Peta Hiku : Sun Jul 19, 2020 3:36 pm  

This morning, NZ Warriors were pants. They're stuck in Australia, which doesn't help, and it makes me wonder if the same will happen to Catalans if and when SL restarts in 2020.

Re: Peta Hiku : Sun Jul 19, 2020 4:41 pm  

MorePlaymakersNeeded wrote:

it makes me wonder if the same will happen to Catalans if and when SL restarts in 2020.

Has there been any word on how Catalan are going to approach the season? I assume that Toronto will continue to base themselves in Manchester but what about our French friends? The talk is that we'll not be playing in front of the public before October at the earliest which means 7 rounds plus potentially 2 Challenge Cup rounds (they've drawn Widnes in the 6th round) before then. Do they relocate to the uk for a minimum of 7 weeks (I'm sure that would go down well with the families), and have to stump up for accomodation and training facilities, or do they have to travel each week? I'm assuming that all the 'neutral' venues will be in the uk.