For those who don't have insta.

'31 again for 2020! Lesgoo @wiganwarriorsrl'

Apologies, it was harsh in hindsight and I didn't mean to aim it solely at you. Have a good Christmas and I hope he proves the majority wrong next season. FWIW I agree we're only getting one year out of him, but that's worth it as long as we use the opportunity to find out more about Smith.

We have to do that with Smith. Not only do we need to look down the track with replacing Hastings but we just need to give the lad a chance because he’s extremely talented. That last bench spot would be left open IMO to look at Smith and Bourouh. They’re both excellent young players and whilst later in the season in play off games and cup games you might want to go with four forwards or Tommy as your interchange hooker, I’d love to see us be brave early in the year and get plenty of minutes in to those two.

Phil Wilko's spoke to Jackson in a 10 min interview. All seems well with Jackson as a Wigan player. PHEW!

And yourself!
He’s hoping Jackson H helps to provide a good 2020!

I had some serious doubts but I never really thought he wouldn’t come.

I made a point somewhere in these 24 pages that I started to not see the point in signing him as we all know as well as him and the club that he will be off for 2021. I don’t really get the “train Smith up” mantra either and whilst I’m happy Smith will get an extra years development part of me queries whether we would have been better off just going with Smith and French at HB and putting the money invested into JH elsewhere like hooker.

If Powell carries on where he left off last year we’re fine at hooker, we’ll have Powell and Tommy rotating which is a good pair and we’ve got Borough and Roden coming through

Don't agree on Powell. If he can show the form he showed 3/4 of the way through, he will be fine. But he faded at the end of the season and offered no threat going forward.

One would hope/assume that training alongside Hastings at a time when he's getting some SL gametime might improve Smith. We also give ourselves the opportunity to take him out of the firing line if he's struggling/takes a knock/we're in a big game. As I wrote earlier, French and Smith have about 3 SL games in the halves between them; starting with one of them in the halves is a risk, never mind going into the season with both of them there as first choice.

Really don’t rate Powell in the slightest...he wouldn’t get a big minutes gig in any other sl side other than us. (If Huddersfield replace leeming)

Me neither and to think many want him as our next captain

I’m hot and cold on Powell. Sometimes he’s fantastic and others he’s bang average with bang average becoming the norm. Equally I worry about Tommy at hooker, I think his day has been and gone, which jointly is why I’m not over joyed at our hookers for 2020 and think we probably could have got away with spending money there.

Grimmy brought up earlier about the risk of French & Smith as starting halves and it is a risk. Don’t get me wrong as much as I don’t see the point in Hastings for a season, I’m also glad Smith gets another season to develop for a starting HB SL position. It will only do him good going forward certainly but if it came to it and we hadn’t have signed Hastings or, as The S*n rumour suggested and he didn’t come, I think we’d have been alright.

At least it gave us something interesting to talk about in the off season

On to the next rumour!

George Burgess offered a lifeline at Souths?