Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jul 18, 2021 8:12 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Options aren’t exactly in plentiful supply sadly. I’d like to think we’d be in the mix for Trueman but Wire had a bid of 150k turned down and if we can’t afford Williams, we clearly won’t be in for Trueman.

We could do worse than a trio of Miller, Field and Smith I suppose and if you get your pack strengthened sufficiently, it makes the halfbacks jobs easier. Hopefully the two NRL forwards will help on that score and also help take the pressure off the young forwards and get the improvements from them you’d expect.

Whisper it quietly, but I'm optimistic about our pack for next year. There's a few 'ifs' coming, but if the two new lads play as well as we hope and if Bateman gets back to his best, we'll have a very good pack. Throw in the emergence of KPP and O'Neill and things are looking up. Harvard, Byrne, Smithies and Partington will be better too.

Just typical Wigan that it seems the scales have now drastically tipped towards the pack. Would be good to strengthen at HB and centre too.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jul 18, 2021 8:47 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

Whisper it quietly, but I'm optimistic about our pack for next year. There's a few 'ifs' coming, but if the two new lads play as well as we hope and if Bateman gets back to his best, we'll have a very good pack. Throw in the emergence of KPP and O'Neill and things are looking up. Harvard, Byrne, Smithies and Partington will be better too.

Just typical Wigan that it seems the scales have now drastically tipped towards the pack. Would be good to strengthen at HB and centre too.

I’m certainly far more optimistic than a month/six weeks ago. The two NRL lads look like they could be decent pick ups but it’s the emergence of O’Neill and KPP that really calms the nerves around us potentially dropping off a cliff and falling behind a few teams. Whilst we have talent like that in the academy, we can catch up pretty quickly with a couple of shrewd signings. I’d possibly take the two of them out of the firing line in a few weeks, as players come back but I fully expect those two to push for first 17 spots for the rest of this year and in to next season. In KPP we have a massive point of difference for us in attack and O’Neill looks like he’s been playing first team rugby for a few seasons. He looks a real throw back of a hooker and at the very least he can push Sam Powell on to better form.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:03 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

I’m certainly far more optimistic than a month/six weeks ago. The two NRL lads look like they could be decent pick ups but it’s the emergence of O’Neill and KPP that really calms the nerves around us potentially dropping off a cliff and falling behind a few teams. Whilst we have talent like that in the academy, we can catch up pretty quickly with a couple of shrewd signings. I’d possibly take the two of them out of the firing line in a few weeks, as players come back but I fully expect those two to push for first 17 spots for the rest of this year and in to next season. In KPP we have a massive point of difference for us in attack and O’Neill looks like he’s been playing first team rugby for a few seasons. He looks a real throw back of a hooker and at the very least he can push Sam Powell on to better form.

There's certainly some green shoots coming through.

Slightly OT, but I think it's the perfect time for Bateman to move to 13. You see it across the NRL with established players moving into more pivotal roles. Mitchell moving to FB springs to mind as a recent one. Stags reportedly looking to play HB next season is another. I'm 100% confident Bateman can smash it at 13. If that also means more room for KPP and Smithies playing 2nd row instead of 13, then there's a big upside.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:07 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

There's certainly some green shoots coming through.

Slightly OT, but I think it's the perfect time for Bateman to move to 13. You see it across the NRL with established players moving into more pivotal roles. Mitchell moving to FB springs to mind as a recent one. Stags reportedly looking to play HB next season is another. I'm 100% confident Bateman can smash it at 13. If that also means more room for KPP and Smithies playing 2nd row instead of 13, then there's a big upside.

If Ellis is confirmed I expect him to be playing a lot of time at 13 next year.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:18 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

There's certainly some green shoots coming through.

Slightly OT, but I think it's the perfect time for Bateman to move to 13. You see it across the NRL with established players moving into more pivotal roles. Mitchell moving to FB springs to mind as a recent one. Stags reportedly looking to play HB next season is another. I'm 100% confident Bateman can smash it at 13. If that also means more room for KPP and Smithies playing 2nd row instead of 13, then there's a big upside.

You'd think the stars were ail aligning in that direction, but you never know these days.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:04 am  

Sezer to Leeds confirmed.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:53 am  

Luke Brooks looks like he's on the outer at the Tigers.

I'm sure another NRL side would take a punt on him, but I'd hope we are at least enquiring.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:23 am  

dany1979 wrote:

Sezer to Leeds confirmed.

Decent signing.

Not sure how well he compliments Gale though who never shuts up and loves to be the main man.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:14 am  

Would people be happy with us signing someone fans deem not good enough and the clubs 4th/5th choice or would you rather we pass and hope someone better becomes available further down the line?
You could end up with some crap in your team on long deals taking up cap space which could scupper future recruitment. I think we’d be better signing lads who improve us and if we can’t find anyone just trust our academy.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:32 pm  

CobraCraig wrote:

Would people be happy with us signing someone fans deem not good enough and the clubs 4th/5th choice or would you rather we pass and hope someone better becomes available further down the line?
You could end up with some crap in your team on long deals taking up cap space which could scupper future recruitment. I think we’d be better signing lads who improve us and if we can’t find anyone just trust our academy.

It depends, in one sense fans initial opinion can be wrong.

I don’t remember much fan fare when we signed Paul Deacon, in fact there were a few negative comments….look how that turned out though.

By the same token people seemed quite excited by Matty Johns but he was disappointing overall.

I’m less concerned with what fans think tbh, I’d just like us to get someone who has come to play and prove themselves.