Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:16 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

At the end of the day there is the simple fact that we are now weaker in a number of key positions compared to last season and the season before that.

The reasons for this + the rights and wrongs regarding it have been discussed to death but simply put if you continue to lose top draw players and replace them with less talented individuals then your going to experience a dip.

We are now weaker @ Centre, Scrum Half, 2nd row and arguably, with the loss of Lima, Prop as well.

Add on top of the above we moved backwards at hooker when Piggy left and Tomkins is probably in his last season means there has and continues to be a systematic decline in the standard of players at WRLFC.

I don't claim to know how to fix it or also claim to be any more astute than IL but i do know that the above decline is glaring obvious and that's it's worrying/upsetting a lot of Wigan fans.

It seems a far cry for IL calling for a new Wigan dynasty after we won the super league.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:21 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

At the end of the day there is the simple fact that we are now weaker in a number of key positions compared to last season and the season before that.



We are now weaker @ Centre, Scrum Half, 2nd row and arguably, with the loss of Lima, Prop as well..

With Leuluai out for two months and Finch hobbling his way through the playoffs we are in a better scrum half position right now! Although when they clicked they really did click.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:35 pm  

We in my opinion really need to recruit some quality. We need to bring in the right type of player and I expect we will only find them in the NRL.

Players will become available but not yet, so I think we will need to be patient and hope for a mid season addition at best.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:46 pm  

sybutwhy? wrote:

With Leuluai out for two months and Finch hobbling his way through the playoffs we are in a better scrum half position right now! Although when they clicked they really did click.

We've lost the best #7 in the comp who had an excellent injury record during his time at the club.

It's not all doom and gloom however as i do rate Green and think he'll bring a tough running game that we've needed for a while. He will fit in well with Sam as he's another strike player and we needed more of this type of threat last season.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:54 pm  

I think this should be renamed the Rumours Signings and Departures thread.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:38 pm  

jonh wrote:

We in my opinion really need to recruit some quality. We need to bring in the right type of player and I expect we will only find them in the NRL.

Players will become available but not yet, so I think we will need to be patient and hope for a mid season addition at best.

The days of signing top class from the NRL are long gone. Unless the cap is scrapped or doubled we will continue to slip towards a semi pro game

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:27 pm  

jonh wrote:

We in my opinion really need to recruit some quality. We need to bring in the right type of player and I expect we will only find them in the NRL.

Players will become available but not yet, so I think we will need to be patient and hope for a mid season addition at best.

Didn't IL recently state that he would no longer make signings from the NRL?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:08 am  

If IFL said he would no longer sign players from the NRL then we have the wrong man in charge of our club. Thankfully I doubt he ever said that and thus would no longer worry should the right player become available that we would not try to sign him because he plays in the best Rugby Comp in the world.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:12 am  

jonh wrote:

If IFL said he would no longer sign players from the NRL then we have the wrong man in charge of our club. Thankfully I doubt he ever said that and thus would no longer worry should the right player become available that we would not try to sign him because he plays in the best Rugby Comp in the world.

Agreed, however I think it's more a case of; we can no longer sign decent players from the NRL due to salary cap increase etc.

Total shame really, people talk about a 'Wigan team full of Wiganers' which on paper sounds good when in reality all of our best teams over the years featured players from Auz and NZ, not just Wiganers.
Over the years so much has been learnt from overseas competitors, pity if that's a thing of the past.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Jan 25, 2013 11:20 am  

forget top NRL players coming to superleague, their new proposed cap of AUS $5.7m for 2013 which equates to an average of £151,000 per player for a 25 man squad compared to £66,000 per player in SL......... Just goes to show how far we are behind in promoting the game in the UK and how it is perceived by the general public at large