Quote cadoo="cadoo"It's infuriating to see players leave before their contracts are up and the club not taking any sort of 'hard-fist' approach & even allowing the club that have snapped up the player to announce the signing before we've announced his departure/mid-way through our season. People will spout the keeping a player against his will/contracts not worth the paper etc etc but that's total BS. Lima has a contract with the club. We don't have to let him go. He certainly doesn't look like he doesn't enjoy it here. I'd have made it as awkward as possible for Madge to get Lima - demand compensation/player swap/wait till we have a replacement etc '"
Exactly and if contracts are not worth the paper they are written on how come we are supposed to have a watertight one with Sam T?
Quote cadooI don't blame Madge for moving for Lima. If you can get a player of that quality why not - we did with Finch and Hoffman along with Lima in the first place. '"
Madge has been unethical. Would he like us to induce one of his contracted players out to break his contract early?
Quote cadooHe's going to take some replacing. He's our pack leader IMO. Statistically I think he's the best prop forward in Super League. He does the basics so well, so consistent, well disciplined and makes over 100+ metres a game & is a big game player too (Lance Todd trophy winner). Replacing a player of that quality with Eric Lauaki or Gil Dudson wont be good enough IMO. Not only would we lose quality, but we would also be losing depth in the side.
So far we could end up having to replace our best prop forward, our two halfbacks and our best centre since Renouf in Carmont.
Ouch.'"
These are all the reasons why IL has screwed up completely here by not enforcing the contract. As others have said Lima hardly looks upset at being here. Given he only had another year to go even if Lima spat the dummy out he would have been an ideal player to make an example of. Unlike Joel who had years left to run on his deal Lima with only 12 months left could have sat on the sidelines for a season if that meant players, agents and coaches go the message Wigan isn't a soft touch when it comes to contracts, which under IL it clearly is.