In an attempt to be more optimistic in 2023, another following on from the recent posts, but this one for those who we’ve signed that you didn’t expect anything from, but they turned out to be good for us.

Fozzard for me, looked like an old man held together by tape when we signed him and I thought we got a dud, turned out to be great for us and beyond.

Mark Gleeson as well, not technically a signing but he just turned into a really useful player.

Brent grose. Knew hardly anything about him when he signed and he was superb for us.

Joel Monaghan - thought he was just another disgraced Aussie coming over to supplement his retirement fund, ends up with a try scoring record of 1 per game!

Chris Hicks thought he was a make weight turned out to be a fantastic winger.

Taken the liberty of adding Nat Wood in myself. I don’t think anybody expected the return we got from him.

1. Chris Hicks
2. Joel Monaghan
3. Brent Grose
4. Chris Bridge
5. Rob Smyth
6. Gregg Mackey
7. Nat Wood
8. Nick Fozzard
9.
10. Bob Jackson
11. Darren Burns
12. Ben Westwood
13. Sid Domic

one Wigan signed from Wire - Billy McGinty

turned out to be a fantastic signing. He always looked out on his feet / would only do short spells at Wire but stepped up to the next level at Wigan (this is just my opinion as i didnt see him week in / week out at wire though)

and to add to his playing talents - Pineapple ring John

gonna be honest, i'm not seeing the mark gleeson thing.

Darren Burns, Sid Domic and Greg Mackey

Maybe he thought this was the “hair” topic?

Burns is a great shout, he's again another one of them good solid aussie pros

Removed on appeal. In my defence, he looked like a bag of bones with no hope of making the first team and went on to to play for us for a while.

fair play, i can think of 1 or 2 ppl on here who would rage after seeing his name in a [ipositive[/i thread

Michael Monaghan for me, i didn't know F all about him and he didn't do much at 7. But once he moved to 9 he was Superb for us. Same with Chris Hicks, knew nothing about him but he's one of the best wingers i've ever personally seen play for us.

Graham Appoooooo

100% this. When I first saw him with Monas and King in Churchills, Hicks had a belly on him and looked all the ‘just the tag on’ people thought of him…
But wow, he was the best of the 3 and by some margin from the initial season.
He is my lads favourite player because this hatrick at Wembley.