It is obviously true, Dan has spoken on the other forum.

Best 13 in the comp, still at the start of his career but highly experienced. He'd arguably be next inline to be skipper too.

If anyone was worth "silly money" for a couple of years it was Smithies.

You'd suspect money isn't the issue - signing with an Australian agent was an indication that NRL is simply an itch he wants to scratch. We'll see what happens but Thompson is looking like a direct replacement (although Wigan have historically announced this type of thing all at once).

Yeah, in the balance of being fair there's always more than money. What we've seen however (with Thompson and Williams) is that money talks.

We've probably offered him a good contract, I've no doubt about that. Everyone has their price however and with a super cashed up owner, we should have got him to name his price for the next 2 years. Get some success at Wigan, earn a packet and go as a 25 year old better player.

Sounds nice, but he's good enough for the NRL already. He's probably thinking that he improves more quickly over there anyway, which you can't argue with if he's playing every week.

It's very disappointing if he's going as soon as next year, but then again it was clear as soon as he got an Aussie agent that he would be going in the not too distant future. At least we can say that we're well stocked to deal with his departure.

Am I missing something with Smithies,to me he is just a hard working tackling machine. I'd probably put him in the same bracket as a Mick Cassidy type of player but not someone who will take the NRL by storm. I've nothing against him, I just don't understand all the hype...unless I really have missed something!

I agree. I’d love him to stay, he’s workrate is immense and he’s becoming a real leader in the squad.

However I won’t be devastated if he goes, he’s not in the Tomkins, Williams, Bateman bracket. More in the Sutton, Sarginson type.

With our squad for next year I don’t think we’d miss him THAT much.

I’m not sure he’s leaving though.

I'd liken Smithies to a younger version of Micky Mac for us. He is not going to stand out in the stats charts for anything other than the amount of tackling he does but there are no stats for what he brings. He looks like the team leader when it comes to the effort areas. He leads our line speed, constantly pressures the opposition in all areas of the field and brings aggression and intensity in everything that he does. I think he's improving the skill elements of his game as well and I would have him down as a big loss tbh. I wouldn't put him in the braket of a Sam Tomkins or George Williams loss but I'd rank his loss above guys like Sarginson, Sutton and Mossop without any shadow of a doubt.

Fingers crossed there is nothing in it. I've seen nobody who is usually in the know suggest it's a definite, so I'm hopeful.

I'd say that Smithies has had a better Wigan career than what Williams had. William's played in a better side (probably) and obviously they play in different positions and that means they have different impacts on games. I'd put Smithies on par with him tho. I think he's that good.

I'm hoping he stays and haven't heard anything anything that suggests he isn't staying. As a club we usually have a Yin & Yang approach to players leaving whereby bad news is negated by something good. Maybe we will know more in this final signing that everyone seems to be talking about, or possibly hear something after the semi final / GF

0Fans will soon forget Smithies one Radley is announced in an announcement

Even with a couple of departures it's hard to see where another signing fits in, even if it's this rumoured game changing signing

No disrespect to Ian Lenagan and I say this as somebody who thinks Lenagan is a legend of this club but I hope that won’t have to be the approach going forward. There will always be exits you’d like to avoid but there has been more than enough good news to not have to have that approach of trying to dull down the noise from any bad news.

Absolutely humongous loss if he goes.

His tackling, his marker tackles, his work rate, aggression, attitude.

If Smithies were to go then O'Neill would be a possible option at 13, which would make sense as he has been spelling there recently. That would also fit Leeming in to 9 as well without dropping O'Neill who deserves a place in the team on his performances.