Next year maybe, as earlier poster states, if we have someone of equal ability coming in.

This. Hill isn't quite the player he was, but given his age, gradual decline is only to be expected. And yes, we all get frustrated with how many penalties he gives away and how much energy he has wasted on blabbing to referees, but he is still very much worth his place in the side, for another season at least. It's all about succession planning, and hopefully signing Butler and Mulhern has gone a long way to achieving that. Time will tell.

I think it’s an empty rumour but at least it is something to discuss!

I’m led to believe you have signed former Saints prop Luke Thompson for the 2022 season. Maybe this move has been brought forward which means Hill will be granted a release?

That would be some upgrade. Given what he's on in Australia, I suspect he'd need to be a marquee signing for whoever signed him.

Hill is like the Benjamin Button of props. He joined us as the masterful veteran, superb technique, consistent and composed, basically on par with Morley as one of the great front rowers of SL. Now 9 years on he is a promising but hot headed prop who gives away penalties and lets himself get distracted arguing with refs. Maybe in a couple of years time he will be a skinny spotty kid worth a spot in the Academy.

I so want this to be true if only to see the meltdown on a certain other forum! (It would be a decent signing in its own right, obviously).

In the days of Morley ,Carvell & Wood with Cooper emerging from the reserves ,i always though our best front row was Hill , Higham & Wood.

I'd expect Saints to have a "first refusal option" should he come back to the UK

This is a bonkers thread. Chris Hill leaving Wire to be replaced by Luke Thompson.

More than decent. He's a fantastic player, I'd expect him to go back to saints though unless they really upset him so I very much doubt this would happen.

Makes you pine for the days when it was rumoured that Scully was coming back to Wires, signing on New Years Day, as a friend of a friends cousin had done the wrap for the sponsored car....

There are always loads of rumours, some quite bizarre, some believable, but most of them certainly die a death. But if we look at Chris Hill, we do know that his contract ends this year and from April he will be a free agent. He is also our oldest player and will be 34 in November. He has got to the age where he will be diverting a good part of his attention to life after rugby league and perhaps one final contract pay day. Is it so unlikely that he might be tempted back home to Leigh ? And from our point of view we ought to be looking at a suitable replacement. To give ourselves options that ought to be both internal promotion and external recruitment as Hilly will be a hard act to follow.
So there has to be some plans that the club are already progressing because of the April deadline, which means you have to consider the rumour as a possibility. The Luke Thompson one is perhaps less likely for obvious reasons, but the club does have a track record for big name signings, so whilst less likely, I don't think I would dismiss it out of hand.

‘34 in November!’..lol
So what part of the playing 2021 season is he not 33?
You’d make a great politician.
He was only 32 two months ago btw!