At the end of the day you got him for virtually nothing when bradford had a 15 minutes of fame chairman in charge who knew nothing except bradford were penniless ....You ve done ok with that deal for sure.

I don’t think we’ll have an issue with him wanting to come back tbh. It may stretch to the three years but I’m pretty sure he’ll have spoke about the length of his stay over there with his daughter and the rest of his family.

I have no grumbles with the way the deal is set up. If the club hadn’t got him signed up for his return there would’ve been even more grumbles about the situation. It’s a risky move in a way but do I think we’ll be getting a ‘marquee player’ back in the shape of a 27 year old NRL experienced John Bateman? Yes I think we will. I can see him coming back in the 13 shirt and with the captains armband.

You can envisage a time when Wigan wouldn't need/want a 27-year-old John Bateman?

That's more optimism than you've ever shown previously.

I honestly can see John coming back sooner.

If he's going over there without his daughter, when the real-life kicks in and he sees her upset on Skype etc, no rugby in the world could keep him from feeling terrible. This alone might make him twice twice about spending so long in-between regular contact with her.

The RL Mole has come out and said, Canbera have paid 250,000 dollars for Bateman, just sort of £150,000.

Great bit of business by wigan for someone with only a year left on his deal.

Well done IL.

Since when have we got excited about losing our best players in exchange for a decent fee? Not since before the salary cap id imagine. As a fan, id rather have Bateman for another year than the money.

I’m not so sure. My understanding is that the predetermined transfer fee written into Bateman’s contract was £300,000 so Canberra have only paid half of it. That sets a precedent for when other players have NRL Clauses and the clubs come knocking.

I only hope IL accepted it because he got him to sign for us when he comes back.

Thought the same thing when i read it.

Amen to that haha

Bateman hasn't signed a deal to return to Wigan.

According to Ian Leneghan & Kris Radlinski he has

According to John Bateman, he hasn't signed anything!