Not sure he’d make a good scrum half!

Burgess has shown his team is based on not letting your mates down, I can’t see how Bateman would fit into this ethos. He reminds me of Joey Barton.

Apparently Bateman is signed and has an immediate release to join.

Me neither but he’s signed. Immiedatley as well.

Ruddy Nora, not a fan

Mixed feelings about us signing Bateman.

He seems to be a spent force and I would prefer for us to play one of our young guns rather than him.

Don't understand the signing considering we got Yates earlier.

Seems that it is just for the remainder of this season, and he will go back to the NRL for 2025. Maybe the Fitzgibbon injury is worse than we thought? Maybe Currie is set for a spell in the centres, given our injury crisis there? Interesting times.

Bateman, has signed for Wite, Firzgibbon I believe is done for the season. The shoulder injury is a concern, he suffered at the Knights with the same shoulder

I’d say it’s more the latter. Fitzy is 2-3 weeks away from what I’ve told. Not sure on the extent on the other injuries but we literally have one fit available centre. We needed to bring someone in.

I quite like Bateman. Hugely experienced. He has that strength that Steve Price described too.

Re Fitzgibbon quite a range of verdicts from 'done for the season' to '2 to 3 weeks'

Fitzgibbon was a guest on last weeks 5live podcast, he said injury wasn't as bad as first thought and will miss 3 weeks.

Bateman can be a liability off the field, and hasn’t been great the last couple of years. However, it’s only until the end of the season and he provides the sort of grit that Burgess is after.

The only thing I’m disappointed in with all these signings is that Burgess himself hasn’t signed up for longer. However, I’m already resigned to the fact that he’s NRL bound after next season. I really hope he can get us over the line before then..,

It’s an interesting one, obviously won a few GFs at Wigan and was ultra competitive but that drive seems to have gone.

Amazing at Wigan in 2014-2018
Amazing at Canberra in 2019
Injured at Canberra in 2020
Terrible at Wigan in 2021
Average at Wigan in 2022
Slightly above average at Wests in 2023
Terrible at Wests this year

Tigers fans want him gone this year judging from twitter.

But coming to England to a club going well and playing for fellow ex Bradford player Burgess will improve him.

My Wire supporting mates would prefer to play Holroyd though.

All chips are in to win that Grand Final.

I guess that's the crux of it - which version of Bateman will we see? I will reserve judgement for now, as I don't watch NRL so haven't seen him in a while, but I can only hope that he manages to provide something beneficial.