Inglis

Quote: sally cinnamon "The Inglis signing was always going to be a risk, similar to Luther Burrell.

We knew he'd retired, and had gone through mental health challenges in recent years. There were never any guarantees that he was going to be physically fit, nor that he would be in the right place for it mentally. It would be completely reasonable for him to sign for us in good faith and come over looking forward to restarting his career and then find when he was over here that he wasn't in the right place for it, and either call time on his career altogether or say he is in the right place to restart his career but being the other side of the world from his family is the wrong thing so ask to be released to return to the NRL. If any of this happens, it would not be a surprise because this was factored into the downside risk that we took when we signed him....so we should do the right thing by him and facilitate a move if necessary. If at some point in the season, we hear "parted terms by mutual consent" I wouldn't hold it against him even if he then straight away signs for an NRL club.

The reason for this sort of signing, is the upside that it brings if it comes off, if he gets fit and settles. We saw this when we brought Langer out of retirement and he dominated SL and reached State of Origin level again whilst playing for us - Inglis is the same calibre player who could have a Langer type impact. That might be a 1 in 5 shot but it's worth taking shots if we want to separate ourselves from the others at the top. Les Boyd was also a gamble - given his disciplinary record in Aus, he could have come over and eye gouged or committed GBH on the field and been banned for life and everyone would have said, how stupid were Warrington not to know what they were getting. Again it was a gamble that we took which paid off. Sandow was a gamble that didn't pay off (other than about 6 weeks of stellar form), but we always knew how it could end with him.

Unfortunately the Inglis signing will bring out the worst in a certain unpleasant section of our fan base - the type that hassled Matt Rodwell in the car park in front of his family. It ticks all the boxes for Wire fan tabloid populism. Aged over 30 - check. Australian - check. Coming out of retirement - check. Has a physique that tends to the rounder side - check. Signed by an Aussie coach - check. Team losing - check. Popular young players in his position (King or Ashton) - check. It is literally the tabloid writers dream, its like one of those Daily Mail stories about family of refugees claiming £60k a year benefit leapfrogs injured British squaddie for a council house.

When Inglis starts playing for us, you will hear these phrases on this forum

First time I ever stopped reading you post after the first sentence.
All’s not lost, though. It’ll be quiet in work for me and I have a bag of OOD butter-kiss to take with me the missus won’t eat.