I enjoyed his time here, sad when he left, glad he is not coming back... Move on.

I made no secret of the fact that I’m a big fan of Gelling. He’s big, strong and very athletic and chews up the ground from his own half and can be very unpredictable with the ball. Yes he was prone to the odd brain fart but they became fewer as his experience grew.
I agree though that there are better centres out there but I’m not sure how many of them are realistic targets for us. As others have said, I’ll reserve judgment until we know how our squad looks next season. Good luck to Gells, top bloke.

Good post. Hopefully the club have something in the pipeline for the centre position, for example Josh Morris.

I very much doubt we will end us with a SOO representative and Aussie International, but here's hoping

Former SOO, former Aus representative. 31 years of age. Wouldn't be out of the blue to sign a former origin player would it?

At 31 the Morris lads still have 2 or 3 good seasons in them at SL level. I’ve watched plenty of NRL this season and both are still contributing a lot to their team’s performance.
I posted a list of 10 NRL players out of contract for 2019. Maybe we’ll see one at Wigan?

I think both brothers would rip up SL if they head over seas. Josh Morris who's a centre, would be a great addition to our squad.

Hayne would be a true marquee, but with pending rape charge court case hanging over his head from his time in the US, who knows what the future holds for him.

Seems an odd character to me does Hayne. All the talent in the world but his decision to try American Football probably prevented him from becoming one of the RL greats. At this stage in his career and as you say with the Court case, I can’t help wondering if he’d bother coming over even if we wanted him.

He seems to like an adventure and a challenge, NRL, NFL, Fiji RU, maybe super league would tick another box. BUT... who knows with him. All we can do is speculate.

Seems odd to me as well. While his girlfriend [iwas[/i in a car accident I don't think she was in as serious a condition as some are suggesting. I saw tweets from him saying she was bruised and shaken up and was on the mend before he actually left and there was no suggestion other than she would make a full recovery. So that reason for going was always a temporary one and one where Wigan could have easily given him compassionate leave for while his GF got better. I am sure I recall comment from the club saying his return to NZ was temporary when he first went. I am also certain that he eventually then said that wasn't the only reason he said he wanted to return to NZ but that he wanted to be near his family which was the real reason the move was supposed to be permanent. The move back had to be viewed by Wigan as permanent or otherwise there was no need to release him from his contract and going to the lengths of signing another player.

This may seem a bit harsh but he's basically got out of his Wigan contract on a pretence. I have no idea if he asked Wigan if he could come back but given the club signed Sarge even if he did I am guessing they won't have wanted to spend any spare salary cap space on him. I am not in favour of signing ex players back anyway and never rated him (was the same project player the day he left as he was when he arrived) so he's no loss so I am not bothered he's not rejoined Wigan. It's the contractual side that bothers me. Get the club to release you on compassionate grounds and then join a rival club a few months later? The club has had enough trouble holding players to contracts as it is without this sort of thing.

You are quite right about contracts DaveO. As many have said in the past, it's a pity we are not more like Leeds.

indeed. one thing for sure is that Wigan players over the last few seasons have had some cracking agents working for them!

i'd even go as far to say that there is clearly something amiss at wigan, players leaving left right and centre, the coach announcing his departure mid-season too, it can't all be just a mere coincidence. I hope it is, but I fear we are in for some repercussions soon - hope its not Salary Cap related. i've no idea it is, i just have a bad feeling and I've been proclaiming so on here for a while much to everyone's amusement!

but a club with such a high turnover can't seriously be doing that badly with their finances. back to Gells, I wish him well, but like we have agreed, its not just a matter of signing a returning player here. the lad has done us out of a transfer fee basically as will go on a free surely now? I don't think i'd like to have him back as a result. if the story is true that we had first refusal, then I feel we have made the right choice. i'm sure he'll bag a try or two against us!

Girlfriend was pretty beaten up from the crash, was far more than bruising, he posted the pics of her for all to see on his twitter account. Needless to say of course he wanted to be close to her during this time.
While over there he realised how much he missed home, the life etc. Wanted to be back home; which is more than understandable, his time at Wigan wasn't short, he was over with us for a good spell. Since then he's landed no more of a supporting role at NZW, wouldn't be surprised if he was told he wasn't needed for next season.
So in an attempt to have a career in RL, he probably took what he could to keep playing and earning; a contract with Widnes.
I don't see anything funny here or anything untoward.

Agreed. Also no doubt we would’ve re-signed him if we wanted him. I’m sure his agent would’ve touted him to all SL and NRL clubs.

this is my point, if he wanted to be "back home" with his GF last year and then he later extended it to be for family reasons, why is his home now back in the UK?!!

I agree he hasn't managed to get a club over there in his time there, but he left us for family reasons and now those family reasons don't appear to be an issue again. he got out of a contract, basically which we all know is happening too often now - as a result wigan have lost a player and earned no money from it.

as has been mentioned above, if he just wanted compassionate leave to attend to the recovery of his GF then wigan would and should have permitted it without him having to leave us, surely?!

you may not see anything untoward, but I see another injustice on the part of the wigan club at the hands of players, whether intentional or not.