The reaction about Matty leaving from some fans is bewildering to say the least, As I said on twitter anyone would think we’ve just released Gordon Tallis. He is a solid, dependable player who works hard, but I’m seriously not going to lose any sleep over him going to Wakefield. As others have already pointed out we have 6 or 7 players all capable of playing in the back row. If I had a choice of which one of those I would have released it would have been Ashurst (actually if I’m being honest I wouldn’t have signed Weller Hauraki, but that’s a different story)

Couldn't agree more, solid workhorse but we're not short of that type of player. And for the life of me I really can't see why we have signed Hauraki, him and Hock in the same team means more work for judiciary.

I Wish Ashurst the best with Wakey ,
However Andrew Dixon cancels him out as they are almost carbon copies :- Capable tackling back rowers with a reasonable turn of speed & whilst not big or fast enough to create a break are good at supporting one . of the two Dixon is marginally better at it .
Next Season Harris will have at his calling :-
Weller Hauraki
Gareth Hock
Harrison Hansen
Jordan Walne
Andrew Dixon
Tony Puletua
Jason Walton
Steve Rapira
and possibly Will Hope.
9 players who can cover the back row positions . I can imagine Harris not wanting to lose such a hard working player as Ashurst but how far up this list would you really put him ?

People are forgetting about George Griffin too, another of Harris' signings for 2015.

I agree but,with the exception of Hauraki,they're all here at the moment and he's still getting a regular start

Would he be if Hock wasn't banned? No.

That's due to Hock being banned, Hansen being injured recently and Dixon who is still injured. If we had everyone available he wouldn't be playing

But we can name pretty much a full team of second rowers. How many does Iestyn want? I doubt Matty will be the last one to leave and, although it's a shame to see him go, I'm not convinced this is [ithat[/i much of a mistake.

Yes,I totally agree and I don't mind him being released.
Next season, Hock will still be banned at some stage and there'll be other injuries so what we will have is a similar situation but with someone else filling in,and that's fine

So which member of his family are you? You only ever came on here in the past to tell us what a brilliant player he is/that we should be keeping him/extending his contract.

Not related just know a bit about the game around here and local players , in a town like Wigan you get to hear allsorts of stories about transfers etc, Matty Ashurst was someone who Wigan released early on , saints picked him up at about 13 i think before moving onto salford , Wigan wanted him last year but Nobby wouldn't sell without a transfer fee as he was on contract.Harris wanted him to stay on but koukash has already spent up to the cap..that's the truth

“Koukash had already spent the cap”

Since when has Marwan been in charge of recruitment? Harris would have been well aware when he took over what the cap availability was, if he wanted to keep Ashurst I am sure he could have knocked one of Kevin Locke, Ben Jones-Bishop, Michael Dobson, Weller Hauraki, George Griffin and Josh Griffin on the head.