No shock to anyone.

Good luck to the lad in his NRL career. Disappointing to lose him so young but was always on the cards.

Says he gave us enough notice to secure a replacement wonder if that’s Thompson or someone coming in.

Time will tell I guess.

Hard not to be gutted.

So annoying that we spend so much time developing these players and finally when they grow into big strong SL talents they go.

Played 100 odd games for us and maybe the first 60 of them he was light weight and didn’t do much going forward (although still a good player).

Now his game is finally gone to the next level, he’s put on a lot of size and he’s now off.

Frustrating as losing players to the NRL is what’s stopped us from winning consistent GF like Saints and Leeds. Seems to happen a lot more to us that them.

Although this is where we are on the pecking order,,,, similar to how Salford fans would have left when Dupree left so I understand.

Now we have Danson and money doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue I’d rather us have kept him until the end of his contract.

But on Morgan himself, good luck to him! He’ll be great over there and it’ll be a cracking life experience.

He had a brilliant season and was unbelievable at the end of the year really wanted to go out on a high.

Such a shame as he had Wigan captain written all over him.

Good luck to the lad. He’s been superb for us and has gone out the right way. It’s frustrating to lose another to the NRL but we’ll survive. Longer term you’d like to think we can try and stem these exits but it’s not easy given the state of the game here.

When I think of preparing for Castleford away on a Thursday night instead of playing the Broncos at Suncorp…..

Yeah, it sort of sums up the challenges you face. It does feel like other clubs don’t get hit as hard but we’ll see if that continues. The only way a lad like Welsby doesn’t end up there is if he is a total home bird and doesn’t like the thought of living away from home. The same goes for Havard, Dodd etc and in time lads like Delaney and Nsemba. We bicker with Saints fans on here but the two clubs are the benchmark and Aussie clubs will have eyes on players from those two clubs, more so than any other club.

Another thing not to underestimate when players seek opportunities down under (aside from rugby reasons) is the absolute $h17 show that this country is at the minute, and likely will be for the next decade. I know one thing for certain, if one of my kids was considering a move in their relevant profession to Australia and the opportunity presented itself, I'd be strongly encouraging them to take it.

He's been excellent this season and I think he'll thrive in the role he's played at Wigan, but whether they can develop any more out of his game remains to be seen. He's pretty limited in the carry but you can stick him through the middle and know you're going to get a massive defensive shift out of him, whether that's enough to succeed over there though I'm not sure. Good luck to him.

He will be sorely missed. He has progressed really well since Peet and his team took over in 202.
For me he was the best LF in SL by a country mile. A couple of years ago Knowles was probably the best “13” in the competition but he’s a good but a very one dimensional player and I’d take Smithies over him every day of the week.
His passing game has for me become a significant part of his role within the club and unless we find a suitable replacement it may mean a potential style of play next season. Maybe O’Neil is given the 13 shirt if the Farrell prove to be just rumours.
Personally i wouldn’t have Thompson anywhere near the 13 role as that would just be a third prop and for me a lazy option.

For me Smithies can leave with his head held high and I wish him every success in the nrl. I think that a few opposition fans will be in for a surprise when Smithies becomes the next Brit to be a success in the nrl competition.

Annoying isn't it. I think we can put Leeds out of that because they haven't really developed any top class players in a generation, and you could argue the last ones (i.e. Hardaker and Watkins) did get their chance in the NRL.

Saints are more puzzling though. I think there's an element of Wigan being better at developing players who are 'NRL ready' at an earlier stage of their career. As good as this latest Saints team have been, most of their home grown stars' top form has come slightly later than Bateman, Williams, Smithies etc.

Thinking of their players who you think were of the right level, Lomax, Makinson & probably even Walmsley probably weren't as attractive when they were 23/24 compared to some of ours. Thompson was, but then he got his chance. Lees might've been, but then had his bad injury. Percival's injury record probably counted against him too.

You can't push these kids to be the best they can be and then be surprised when they see a better opportunity for themselves. Going to happen more and more given the finance available over there, and as you've already alluded to it will be Wigan and Saints worst hit by it as they do the most work to develop them.

Lomax and Makinson were definitely good enough at the age Smithies is now although you can equally see why they might not have been wanted, Makinson was pretty slight back then and Lomax had been through some injury problems. Joe Burgess was much bigger lad at a similar age (maybe younger) and you'd think he would have been more built for the increased physicality over there.

I do think Saints will see a lot more interest in this current and future generation of young players. Welsby, Dodd, Delaney all tremendous prospects (feels weird calling Welsby a prospect given all he's achieved) and by all accounts a very good set of youngsters waiting in the wings to be brought in over the next couple of years.

How can he leave? I thought the woman off the other site has asked him 50 times and told him he's not allowed to leave.

To be fair I think it's as much about perception as it is ability. Take Lomax, there's no doubt that he's been a brilliant player, but I'd say that's only become obvious when he was well into his career. In retrospect there were plenty of decent players at saints under Cunningham (when Lomax was in his min twenties) but you'd have been hard pressed to find anyone at the time saying that NRL clubs would be waiting in the wings.

Agree about Welsby and Delaney. Massive season for Dodd coming up.

Good luck to Morgan, we move on. The most frustrating part to me is seeing players go to the NRL when they are still under contract.

I wish him all the luck in the world over there - he's turned into a great player and it'll be a massive loss for Wigan.

I do struggle however to understand players being allowed to leave mid-contract, particularly if the financial issues perhaps aren't as significant as they were with Danson coming in. Doesn't it send a bad message to any other players who have NRL ambitions? What is wrong with asking players to fulfil the commitment they've made?