Quote: MattyB "Why is this? They've got away with losing significant numbers of homegrown youngsters season after season despite being successful. We've been less successful but still seeing this happen (with Gildart leaving).
So why is this happening to us and not them? Is it that NRL clubs can't see past our young players? I don't think it's this?
Is it the club being too soft to the point where we almost encourage our young players to leave us for shores new? Well it's been going on for years starting with Sam, then Sarginson....
Is it the fact that the first to leave of this new group was Mossop who has made a success out of it over there? Close mates with Gildart, Bateman, Williams I believe. They see the life he's having over in Sydney and they wanted the same? This seems the most likely scenario I think.
Will the exodus stop for a few seasons now, I'm thinking so cause we've been diluted that much there's not much left worthy of a chance over there these days.'"
it would be interesting to see why other clubs players arent going to the NRL. If you look at the last few years Wigan have lost several to NRL (and RU), Leeds for their period of success lost 1 or 2 that i can recall, but in the main kept the nucleus of the side together, Saints have lost 2 that i can think off (1 NRL and 1 RU) and Wire have had a couple i can think of.
On the other hand we seem to have a conveyor belt of players wanting to go over to Oz / RU to play, and we have even lost 1 player before he has made a 1st team appearance to the NRL
whilst you cant knock the players for wanting to test themselves in the best league in the world, and i would assume getting a better salary than playing at Wigan, you then start to question why it feels like we are the only club losing players on a regular basis. Are we really producing better players than all the other clubs? i would say that we have a fantastic setup as demonstrated with the academy success over the years, but the real success should be how many make regular 1st team players, as opposed to winning academy GF. Does this start with the club as players know they can sign a good long term contract with Wigan, but they know if the NRL comes knocking they will be allowed to leave (with the safety blanket of a return gig at Wigan)? is it purely down to management of contracts etc