Do the more numerous poor performances he served up for Wigan not give you any hints? Or are we about to start rewriting history?

DaveO I honestly think you would moan if we signed jesus, citing him having 3 days off with injury Though we do have a bad track record with signing injured players that doesn't mean new wigan policy should be to sign only new players with no bruises.

There may be a few clubs in SL with a better centre than Gells or Sarge but not many. I don't think there is a SL club with 3 centre options better than gilly, gells and sarge. The whole of the Wigan club owes a big season to the fans for sticking with them through the past 2 years. We also owe them some patience considering previous success in spite of ridiculous runs of bad luck with regards to injuries, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that they really do but their bodies on the line, especially considering how many must have gone beyond usually pain barriers due to the people we were missing.

Wigan may have played a safe option here, if Gells is 50/50 and then sarge signs elsewhere then we are left with 1 starting centre and a prospect. If the past 2 years have taught us anything is the importance of strength in depth. There may be many squads who can match us 13v13 but I don't think anybody can match us for a full squad.

I'm ok with wigan playing it safe with signings so long as we see something more on the pitch.

he is terrible

Which particular ones do you recall?
Didn't Sarginson replace Mead at the Titans?

His Grand Final wasn’t just one kick to the corner though was it? He was sensational that night in all aspects of his play.

Let’s not judge him on one good game though. He has some limitations of course but he also has a lot of strengths. I can’t think off too many realistic options who we could bring in that could cover fullback, wing, centre and stand off as well as Sarginson could.

Does he fill me with excitement as a first choice centre? Probably not but as a utility option, I think it’s a cracking piece of business.

He was playing the centre role to perfection at that point. He’d got that frustrating step back in to the defence and away from his winger out of his game and he’d developed a cracking flick pass. After that season though he was shifted around a little and again developed those bad habits. He’s best at fullback for me but I’ve always fancied him more as a right centre (which is where you’d guess he’ll play going forward) because that natural step to his right will bring his winger in to play more often over on that side.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Gelling going forward. If he goes then clearly Sarginson has been signed to replace him.

If he has been signed on similar terms as he was on in 2014, and if no fee has been paid for his services then it will be a reasonable bit of business.

If Tony Gelling leaves, it should be in exchange for a transfer fee.

mead went on to bigger and better hardly in the same league sarge

I just can’t see the NZ Warriors taking Gelling on. Looking at their squad they have 4 or 5 options already.

I’d be amazed even further if they were prepared to pay for him.

I think some people’s expectations of who we can and can’t sign are unrealistic. Unlike the previous owner IL is abiding by the salary cap which is devalued year on year. Looking at our squad many of us, including me field we need a utility back. It looks like KR & SW felt the same. In reality who else can we sign that firstly we can fit under the cap and secondly wants to come?

Gone are the days of being able to have a squad with internationals in every position, no quality antipodean with a clean record will move from the NRL to SL, even the ‘bad boys’ command marquee wage. Sarg imo is on the better side of average and still has the potential to be challenging for England again.

Well in response to your first question since it was 2016 none specifically, I am not blessed with total recall (!) and YouTube tends not to have highlights of errors to assist the memory, but these stats tell me my opinion of him is not a figment my my imagination

In his last season with us Sarge made 44 errors, (second highest in the entire SL and 12 more than Charnely who was 2nd in this at Wigan) and he gave away 20 penalties (joint second highest at Wigan, Tautai top on 21) for a return for just four tries. That is poor by any standards. So unless you think he made all those errors in one game the answer to your first question is that my recollection he was poor in most of them is correct.

As to replacing Mead, according to t'internet Mead left to join Brisbane so I have no idea if he was signed to replace him as in the Titans signed Sarge so they could offload Mead or if for some equally insane reason they thought he was good enough to do so just because Mead left. If he was any good they'd have kept him.

In his last season with us Dan Sarginson has a hell of a GF and posted the following stats.

530 Carries (most in SL)
48 Offloads (3rd highest in SL)
3561 metres made (6th highest in SL)

Escare
Davies (Manfredi)
Gildart
Sarginson
Burgess
Williams
Tomkins

Speed to burn!!

IIRC he had the knack of providing a pass to his winger that helped Burgess look really good. That is more than either Gelling or Bateman can manage.