Would like to see how he went at hooker personally, in my opinion he would make an excellent 9, good skills, great work ethic and pretty intelligent player. He would be a project though and I am unsure he would be willing to come back under that premise. Certainly would not want him back as a specialist backrow as, despite rating him we have a wealth of good back row players and several others to come through in the not too distant.

I wouldn't make it a priority signing at all, but if we could sign him/fit him with the cap/he's available I would. I really rate the lad as a player, great work ethic, versatile, disciplined and is also a very intelligent player too, which separates him from a few here we currently have. I realise we're well stocked in back row forwards, but I remember people on this board not too long ago saying that Ryan Hoffman was a luxury signing - I don't think he has been! With having a very young team, Joel Tomkins moving to centre, he has proven to be a very important signing with just Harrison Hansen, Liam Farrell and Chris Tuson alongside him. Personally I think the situation with back rowers will change next season. I don't believe Ryan Hoffman will stay here another year - especially with Madge leaving - and I think we're likely to see Joel Tomkins move to centre. Gareth Hock gets thrown in the mix, but Madge has publicly stated that he's looking to play him at prop. That then leaves Liam Farrell, Chris Tuson and Harrison Hansen. It doesn't look as strong then! We've reaped the rewards of having fierce competitions for places and players that have versatility. On the right wage and on the right contract Mark Flanagan could add to that for me. Don't get me wrong, I agree with everyone on this board who says we shouldn't make this a priority signing, but if we can add him to the squad, with room to strengthen other areas, I see no problem in bringing over a young, talented, British player with NRL experience to the side.

No, he will want a decent salary and we are still well off for second row forwards even if Hoffman goes home at the end of the year.
Jack Hughes is a much better option.

Are you being sarcastic or are you on a completely different planet?

First of all Flanagan one of the best players in the NRL? He cant even get into the Tigers first team at the minute!!

As for Hoffman being crap.... I assume your post is sarcastic based on this comment because he is the best back rower in Super League.

If you are not being sarcastic I have officially given up hope on the sanity of most Wigan fans when it comes to desperately wanting all our players to be English.

have you actually watched the last few games!!!!
every try that has been scored against us was due to a break between hoffman and finch, both of them falling off tackle, and other than that try at leeds what has he really done in attack.
over rated aussie,
i know he is australian so apparently he is above critisim and to some people on here they seem to have rose tinted glasses on them,
personally id drop him and get a kid in, id rather have a british lad trying and missing tackles than an australian being paid mega bucks missing them.

I wouldn't have Joel Tomkins in the England side right now, no way will he ever be world class. Sam may be world class one day, but not Joel. The swear filter should kick in when the term 'world class' is used, it's thrown about far too liberally.

he is better than tuson, definitely.

flanagan has everything tuson has but has a set of hands equivalent to a half back. he was like an accurate version of hock regards his offloads. now maybe hock coming back will mean no need for an offloading second row but id be looking at hock being a prop if i were coach.

I can't say I'm bothered about us signing him. We already have an abundance of backrowers. Plus his recent time in the NRL will have no doubt increased the salary he'll be looking to obtain, so it's a no for me. We've other are's that I'd like us to recruit for personally. Good signing for Widnes if they can get him.

Agreed, and in his two years at Wigan he only had two a few decent games, the rest of the time he was distinctly average.

he was only just breaking through when we left and at the time it was all doom and gloom that we were losing the best prospect we'd had in recent memory.

Turns out we won the title the next year without him, doesnt change how good he is though, just because we did well without him.

Far better than Tuson IMO

Have you actually watched any NRL games this season? flannagan can't get a look in at Wests, even when they've had back rowers out injured.

He's a decent player, but to say he's better than Hoffman is ridiculous. I'm not a Wigan fan but I would have thought that Hoffman, Farrell, Tomkins and Hansen are all better than Flannagan. From the games I've seen, Hansen seems to have improved massively

i think hoffman is playing well below what he was hyped up to be and i would prefer flanagan to be playing there instead of him, him and farrell over hoffman any day for me