Look at the style of half back that we included when we moved Sam to full back: Paul Deacon.

The game is evolving and so are the roles of half/full back. Full back is now our main point of attack, like it has been in Australia for the last 15 years.

Sam will not be moving from full back.

Dave - what if we had signed him for another 2 or 3 years back in March. He is clearly missing Oz. Next season he may have asked to leave on the basis he wanted to go home. We would be in a worse situation then.

I think you need to respect what IL has done for the club and trust the fact that he will be doing his best to get the best for the club.

What would you do if you took over the running of the club tomorrow?

I saw him at Haydock Park Races the other week and he said that Wigan will definately release him by the end of next year on the condition that he returns to Wigan when he comes back to Super League. I hope it's not true though as much as I want to see you lot lose your best players and come down to the rest of SL's level i'd hate all the best players to head to the NRL.

Anyone considered moving Sam to 6 and playing Russell at fullback? That could work.

This reminds me of myself when I left my last job, "yes I would stay, just pay me some more cash and throw a promotion in", which gave me a better position with the new offer.

agreed. its also unbelievably naive of anyone to imagine that a player looking for his last big contract is going to accept an offer that early in the season. his agent must have been choking on his cornflake when he heard that.

also the quotes regarding our next crop of juniors. Finch is not exactly going to want to just state "sorry guys. better money back home. see ya". he'll want to try and deflect a little of the ire onto the Club. and when you have people like DaveO waiting to lap up the 'bad' news, its an easy play to make.

Lets face it. Good Aussies are increasingly difficult to tie down for more than a couple of years. Who realistically expected him to extend ?

He'd only have done so for big(-ish) money, and I'm increasingly thinking that a hard-headed approach to player payments is the way to go. We took exactly the same attitude with Hanley when he wanted a pay increase non-commensurate with his age and performances level, and we didn't suffer when he left (whereas Leeds still won nothing).

Agreed. we suffered in the pre IL days of throwing all of our cap at marquee players and not having a team/squad to build around them (assuming that they lived up to their billing of course, which didnt happen quite a lot)

This hard-nosed approach could be the best thing to happen for GB International status.
If our better plays get experience down under, and we are forced to blood locals rather than expensive imports, I am certain we will start to unearth talent that would not have previously been given an opportunity.

I believe if we had made an offer earlier which matched what Finch wanted then he would have stayed. However the club waited to see how Finch performed this season, rightly as well because you can imagine the criticism if he had been given say a 3 year deal before the start of the season and then been awful. However this more hardline approach ended up backfiring and in many ways Finch's great form has been the reason why he has ended up going as it made him a wanted man and he had offeres galore. It is just one of those things imo and you cant blame him for wanting to return home nor can you blame the club for wanting to see how Finch performed. I am sure most fans have grown sick of imports being stuck at their clubs on long deals when they are past their best and not performing.

We also must accept that there's a bigger demand than usual Down Under. The NRL has got more cash and cap-space to play with than ever before, whereas we are still stuck in black and white, ration-riddled Britain.

True, in the long run though I think it will actually be good for the game here and for England i.e clubs producing more English players and more English players getting chances. It will certainly be very good for Wigan. If it means less average imports then I am all for it (I still think that clubs will be be to attract 2 or 3 good quality imports if they so desire.)