Where one friend goes, the others seem to follow.

George next? Seems unlikely, but then look at the silverware he voluntary surrendered to play for Wire.

Yep, same with Charnley (wasted years at Sale and Wire) However he did manage to win a Challenge Cup with Leigh unexpectedly.

Burgess and Charnley were both fabulous wingers. If they had taken different paths they could have been great wingers. Charnley’s full length of the field try in the CC at Wire was brilliant.

Burgess and Charnley were both fabulous wingers. If they had taken different paths they could have been great wingers. Charnley’s full length of the field try in the CC at Wire was brilliant.

I will particularly never understand the career path Budgie took. In his early days at Wigan, he was one of the best wingers in the country, and looked to have huge future potentially filled with international honours. A number of poor decisions on his part then seemed to bring all that to an end long before it should have.

The downturn in Charnley's fortunes appears to have been his brief stint in Rugby Union. Perhaps they made it worth his while financially, but playing-wise, but he never seemed to hit the same heights on his return.

Great one that also the one against Saints at the DW when the ball bounced in our 10 mtr and he caught it and went through the middle to go the full length,loved that one.

Appreciate Burgess and Charnley are picking up some criticism but would be interesting to know what the clubs stance was at the time.

Whilst they were in the system we also had Davies, Marshall and Manfredi coming through the ranks.

Most clubs have depth charts when looking at development and recruitment/retentions.

I’m guessing that both Charnley and Burgess’ worth and salary demands were compromised probably below market value with us having such depth in the wing position and as such I doubt (don’t know) that we wouldn’t have fought too hard to retain either of them given what we had coming through and the need to invest in other areas of the squad.

I can see this with Charnley. Seem to recall he'd been around the first team a bit longer than Budgie, and while he was regarded as a good first team winger, his defensive shortcomings were well known.

But Budgie had future international written all over him. He had exceptional speed and was scoring tries for fun in his first season. I'd have been surprised if the club hadn't tried to keep him. They seemed to welcome him back from Aus, but that attitude wasn't apparently reciprocated by either the player or his agent. The rest is history.

The Club definatley wanted to keep him, and offered him a much improved deal, not too disimilar to what Rossters offered
He wanted to go

I can’t help wonder if Burgess would make different decisions if he had his time over again. I suspect he probably would but who knows. I honestly thought he’d go on to be one of the best wingers in the world and have multiple England caps to his name.

When Burgess first came on the scene he was the first winger in years, certainly at Wigan, who was happy to take his opposite winger on the outside at every opportunity. I loved watching his faith in his pace to beat the opposition. With right application and dedication he could have been a tremendous player.

Watched a good podcast a couple of years ago with Charnley (Might have been Out Of Your League) and he said he had to go and tell Shaun Wane he'd decided to go to Sale for a new challenge.

We definitely would have kept him otherwise

Or alternatively, they were offering more than Wigan were.

There were limitations to his game, and therefore limitations to what he was worth. We recognised them. Sale didn't (and that proved to be an error).

I don't recall these massive weaknesses you speak of. At the time he was one of the best wingers in the league and was the best we had.

He'd be well clear as Superleagues top try scorer had he not gone to Union.

Didn't have the same pace when he returned but still an excellent winger. I thought he was MOM the day Leigh beat Saints in the semi this year.

Averaged close to a try a game didn't he?