How about Ian Sibbit? Good player for us but I was surprised when Melbourne signed him. Don't really recall how he went in the NRL but he didn't seem quite the same player when he came back.

Sibbitt was rubbish and maintained that level at a baffled Melbourne and thereafter.

There is only one player we've released in the last 15 years that I've gone "Damn I think that's a mistake" and that was out of our hands.

That player is Peter Hiku.

That was one of the most surreal episodes in my rugby league lifetime. I don't know what Sibbit's agent was getting paid but he was certainly earning it. I wonder how many times Sibbitt hung up the phone and checked it wasn't April 1st before he started dancing round the garden.

Little known fact - Melbourne's then head of recruitment was sacked the following year when he thought he'd signed young protege Ieystn Harris and some fella called Keith turned up in Australia with a green duck in a nappy.

Was he related to Peta Hiku (who scored 10 tries in 11 games for us in 2017) ?

Andy Gregory was the "missing piece" in Wigan's jigsaw. Had he stayed with us, WE may have been a dominant force. The pack was better than Wigan's , and we'd already added Joe Ropati to our ranks, and we had been turning them over at the time. Our loss was a massive gain for them

His replacement, the superb Keith Holden, only lasted a year, until he stepped onto a Swinton landmine

This was a few years before my time, but as I understood it he wanted to leave Widnes and join Wigan but Widnes would not sell him directly to Wigan.

Interesting someone raised Billy McGinty. I don’t think he played any better for them than us but he did benefit from the “Wigan profile” at that time if you wanted to be noticed for international duty it certainly helped if you played for them.
The pineapple king!

Looking back, we used to supply Wigan with quite a few quality players back in the 80's - Brian Case, Neil Courtney and Ian Potter were all very good forwards, who had great careers with both us and them. Also, Phil Ford was another top player who we sold to them, though I don't think he hung around at Wigan too long (wasn't he part of the Hanley transfer from Bradford to Wigan?).

The McGinty deal was an odd one, as he was always in Mike Gregory's shadow here at Wire and only when Mike began to have injury issues, did McGinty get a real go in our side.

Another odd one was when they took Martin Crompton off us - decent enough lad, but nowhere near the quality that Wigan had in their side back then.

I remember that, and also David Myers (RIP), both of whom seemed strange signings for them. Myers was no better than our other wingers at the time - Des Drummond, Mark Forster, Rob Myler, Neil Kenyon (also RIP) - and couldn't hold down a place.

Myers ran in quite a lot of tries for them, but who wouldn't have at the time?

Didn't we sign Myers from Widnes (when they were a good side) and then he got cold feet and decided joining us wasn't for him, but we refused to let him go back and so he basically spent a spell with us in limbo, until Wigan came in and signed him?

He never really stayed too long at Wigan either, if memory serves. Was one of those players whose reputation as a young player never matched with the career he ended up having.

A bit like Basil Richards, the next Ellery Hanley....

Rubbish is a touch strong, ratticus, but I know what you mean.

The best description I can give him, is "Johnny on the spot" kind of player, where he ALWAYS seemed to be in the right place at the right time (never a bad thing). The spade work had been done for him by Briers or Langer, and all he had to do was fall over the line with the ball. Melbourne's recruitment team must have seen who's scoring what, and jumped in,without watching him, before anyone else got him.

As for McGinty. Hilarious. He couldn't get a regular place on our bench.
The fore mentioned Bas Richards was ahead of him in the pecking order.. Wigann had an injury crisis, so Monie bought him. Within 5 months, he's playing Test Match rugby. Mind you, if you put a NORWEB jersey on an English made hatstand, it got upgraded to a GB one.

This was a really strange signing. Somehow, Melbourne must have signed him, when they were really after Toa Kohe-Love.

Wigan bulked McGinty up and when he went on tour to auss had a great tour in fact a total different player that played for us,..when he turned out for wire it was at LF 2nd row and the odd game at centre..pretty sure he played prop on tour...think Wigan got the better days out of him

Andy Gregory didn’t need improve for his move to Wigan. His best rugby was always at Widnes.