Not sure whether to be surprised or not with that one

Along with Gelling.

Micky Mac has signed for Catalans and Gelling Just wants to stay in New Zealand.

Shame to see both leave but especially Micky Mac. It looks like salary cap pressure has cost us Micky Mac which is a real shame when we could all name 4 or 5 players we’d want to be married bed on ahead of a guy like him.

Not so surprised about Gelling, think everyone knew he was going (disappointed still), but in a bit of shock about McIllorum. Thought he looked good at the World Cup, like he was getting ready to do a full season.

He seemed to play with more attacking freedom for Ireland which I doubt he’d have got here but I’m still really frustrated to see him move on. When he’s at the top of his game he’s a fearsome player and he intimidates opposition players.

He’d have been my third choice to move on from Powell, Leuluai and him but you don’t always get what you want sadly.

Another one who can come back, when are we going to stop this milarky from appending again, and good luck to Gelling one of the wife's favorites says it will not be the same without him.

Should Anthony Gelling wish to return to the UK in the future then Wigan will have the first option to re-sign him.

Stupid decision to release MM. How it can be salary cap pressure God knows because I can't see a load of quality players close to being as good as him in their respective positions dotted around the Wigan team and certainly not at hooker. If it is salary cap pressure then our cap is being woefully mismanaged.

Powell is average and scares no opposition teams, Ganson is just not ready and TL is the one close to the end of his career. Lenegan saying we are OK at hooker because we have these three is a total joke. He also says several clubs were interested in MM because of his world cup performances so why weren't Wigan looking forward to him turning out for us in 2018? I can guarantee you none were in for any of Powell, Ganson or TL.

The reason that clause was inserted into Gellings contract was to stop him doing a Joel Moon!!

To be honest with you, looking through my window at the weather we're currently enduring, and knowing that it's unlikely to change any time soon (if ever), it really doesn't surprise me that some players find the prospect of Southern France very enticing. Not that I'm happy about it on this occasion.

As for Gells ... if this means he's gone to NZ without a club, then he is seriously endangering his career. But he came to us with a rep for being a wayward lad, and there was always a chance that this side of his character would reappear.

That’s the key point for me.

If several clubs were interested then that tells its own tale. On the other hand I presume we’ve had no interest in Leuluai or Powell and clearly none in the likes of Nuuausala or Tautai so we’re sat here making do.

Phil Wilkinson says we were very close to the cap with Micky Mac but we do now have some room so it surprises me a little that he’s been let go. Micky Mac has already hinted it was Wigan who told him he was leaving and not the other way round.

The ideal scenario now is that Ganson bangs the door down and becomes the creative hooker many have been crying out for but I’d have rather seen him do that in tandem with a tough nugget of a hooker like Micky Mac.

I put a thread on your forum a week or so back asking about McIlorum and it was deleted.

Not too bothered with Gelling. But the release of McIlorum further weakens the pack for me. I only posted the other day that we need an 'enforcer' in there, a big prop probably. I am led to believe that McIlorum is a bit of an 'hard case' - that on it's own would have intimidated some opposition forwards. Old players like Brian McTigue certainly did that with his reputation.

If this is due to 'salary cap' then even my poor maths could do better as whom ever is doing the sums at the club is not doing very well.

The eve of a new season and further weakening ?

Probably because we have a rumours thread at the top of the board and it was already being discussed widely in there.

I guess I'm in the small minority who think that Gelling is a bigger loss than MM. For me, we have three decent (if not amazing) options to replace MM. And we've managed fine without him for lengthy periods in the past. We can't say the same for Gelling.

I agree with you Moto,Gelling was average at best last season but he was clearly playing injured for the most of it.I had him down for a big season.

At last, an announcement