Yeah, so failure then.

Even Michael Worrincy stuck it out longer.

Our guys leave and then return whereas your guys just want to leave. Rats and sinking ships spring to mind.

Very surprised he is coming back so soon. I know he has been playing reserve grade mostly but I thought he would have stayed for least another year.

But it shows that going to the NRL when you are young is not a bad thing as you can always come back.

I never understand people saying this? If he did fail in the NRL, so what, he will come back to Super League where he is undoubtedly one of the best wingers in the competition. Him not setting the NRL on fire has zero bearing on his ability to come back and tear it up in Super League next year. Does anyone now call Sandow an NRL failure, because for the last 3 years or so thats what he's been, an absolute NRL failure, but he is fantastic in Super League. Fantastic signing by the club and I'm glad we didn't sign Carney now as I'd much rather have Burgess back on the wing.

Great news as far as I am concerned.

Budgie showed he was mature beyond his years when he played for us and the way he linked with Faz often giving him a perfect pass inside despite running flat out marks him out as a natural RL player.

A bit surprised he has come back so soon. I thought despite not making the first team he'd stick it out for the experience of not just playing there but for the lifestyle.

Whatever, he was a pleasure to watch and assuming he plays outside of Gildart we will have pace to burn on that side of the pitch. Should provide plenty of entertainment!

This is where the clubs decisions to allow players to go to Australia and on terms that allow a return is working well, the setup must be good enough to encourage a player back (it's not all about money) and we get the benefit of a more rounded player coming back.

Some won't come back, but so far so good, we have players who are returning having had the benefit and experience of the NRL setup.

That doesn't apply here. Budgie was out of contract. The club didn't "allow" him to leave, they had no say in the matter and he just left. Sorted it all out for himself (with no doubt an agents help).



Though Sam looks to be finding his pre-NRL form the rest of the returnees have hardly set the world on fire. I don't like this scheme at all because in my view the club more or less automatically re-signs players rather than looking whether we need them or if there aren't better players available. I'd go as far as saying at the start IL would have signed a potential returnee with one leg to prove a point as in my view the whole first dibs on returning players was a PR exercise to try and lessen the blow of them leaving in the first place.

We have yet to see a player make a go of it in the NRL or stick it out living down-under so until we do and a player returns having seen their NRL contract out and at the top of their game I don't think there is much substance to this idea.

Fantastic news! Knew he would be back one day but not this soon.

He's good mates with Gildart and Williams so hopefully they'll cotton on to the grass not always being greener on the other side.

Unless you're a freak I think any player should make sure they've got 4 or 5 years at the back of them in first team rugby before they go.

Not so, really. Second only to JT in try assists in his last NRL season. Sure, he fell out with the Eels coach, but that's another matter.

The difference being that if he had have stuck it out, grafted in NSW Cup or whatever he may have got a chance - he was never, ever going to walk into the first grade side.

Not being able to get into the 2nd bottom side of the NRL and instead deciding to take the easy option and return to Wigan for mega bucks is probably somewhat galling for your other youth players.

If a player wants to leave for any club (eg. Hardaker) that's totally fine - but its appalling that they are back within Super League a year or two - and if Hardaker does the same, you can refer back to this post.

You can add Mossop, Flanagan and Cooper to that list

Don't forget Saints have got Tele Tubby Owens and Les Dawson. Great signing for Wigan well done to all concerned.

I always thought that it was two or three years too soon for Burgess to go to Aus and The Roosters in particular. They had Daniel Touou and Shaun Kenny-Dowall in the side, with Latrell Mitchell also coming through their system. All those three would walk into any Superleague team.
I'll be really pleased to see him back at Wigan, his try scoring to game ratio was up there with the best in the Superleague era and he us still very young, a great move by Wigan IMO.

I don't see what the issue is though? He is better than any of our current youth players. He wasn't getting a game and we needed a winger after Charnley leaves. He is IMO the best winger we could've signed to replace Charnley realistically. Why is it so bad that players might want to come back?

He was truly atrocious in defence. He was dropped to reserve grade on multiple occasions over the last couple of years. And was overweight and out of shape. Not to mention the last 2 years in a row his kicking % was less than 70%. And he scored a total of 5 tries in two seasons.
However, now he looks great, and I would love him to be playing for us. Which is my point, Super League isn't NRL, and just because a player does't succeed in the NRL doesn't mean he won't be brilliant in the Super League.