I agree that they were good for you. But to say you wouldn't swap them for anybody in the world means you're either A) Stupid(which I doubt) or B) Quite young. The strength of Wigan RL is the mercurial O'Loughlin, wonderboy Sam Tomkins and a hell of a coach.

Great summary. I used to really dislike Tomkins for one, but has won me over and I can now fully appreciate what a player he is. It's good for RL that Wigan are back, watching Leeds dick Saints in finals was getting a bit boring. Nice to see another team do it.

To be fair though, it's not as if expansion out of the heartlands hasn't been attempted on a number of occasions during the last 30 years, and has almost never succeeded.

There are other ways. You could reintroduce a Club GB or Club Aus or Club NZ, or whatever you want to call it, to operate outside the salary cap. Or you could discount a percentage of your home grown talent's wage from the cap, allowing you to spend more on the players who deserve more. You could also consider something really radical - like raising the cap in line with inflation. That may help a little.

As I said before, doing nothing is not an option. And waiting for the game to expand so far beyond the M62 corridor that suddenly we've got extra cash pourig in from everywhere equates, in my book, with doing nothing.

Expansion is vital. Sometimes (well mostly) it fails but sometimes its a success I think Catalans are a success even if last season was terrible their attendances are ok and they're solvent.

Crusaders looks like a failure but that's because of how much Wales is into its RU did you see the crowd at the Fiji game on Children in Need?!

I think we should take things slower Cumbria and Midlands or Further down Cheshire like the Crewe area. Maybe staffordshire like Stoke and then move further down. The problem is they are going too far too fast and people are expecting results too fast.

I don't want to give up on Crusaders but they're in financial difficulty and so they surely can't have a licence after Widnes didn't for the same thing. Shame tbh

I don't disagree with any of that, but the point I was making is that we can't afford to wait until we've created some nationwide Rugby League paradise before we make keeping our stars the next priority. There's no reason why we can't try and do both at the same time, and anyone who says otherwise is living in a fantasy world.

I agree 100% Cruncher (and the previous post about expansion) BUT I seriously doubt anything will happen over here the, RFL haven't got the foresight to do anything and even if they did I suspect some narrow minded club chairmen will block it anyway. If anything does change it will more likely, I think, come from Australia - they will develop/introduce something and the RFL will copy it (although probably in some diluted, half-d way they usually do).

There have been many serious and well thought out options discussed on this board about SC and the game in general (like home developed players counting less on the cap in some way etc) but sadly I suspect none of them will ever see the light of day. If the Sc can't even be allowed to increase in line with inflation then we really are struggling.

Unfortunately, I think you're right.

The latest example of this kind of thinking manifests itself in the attitude: "RU's got a lot more money than us. We'll never compete with them anyway, so there's no point doing anything."

Unbelievable. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

Out of interest what deal was Fielden on exactly and what is he on now?

Well it was stated that two players were taking up 25% of Wigans salary cap. (believed to be Fielden & Feka)
That equated to £400K p.a. between them.

If that's true, it's no wonder there was no room for Feka in the new era.

That much money is obscene for a 20-minute player.

It was stated by IFL at either a shareholders meeting or at one of the first fans forums, although he did not mention names.

There can't have been a higher paid frontrow in SL at the time. I can understand the reason for Stuart's salary but Feka even before joining us was never a world beater and should have never have justified a salary like that.

To say Maurice's decision making was going off the boil would be understatement. I always felt there was air of desperation around the club to regain our former glory's in Lindsay's final years. The only problem was we were going about in completely the wrong way.

I'm very much in favour of expanding the game far and wide, but to do so successfully we need many more quality players than we currently have so that the expanded product is good, both in the quality on offer at the new teams plus the competitive games between new and old sides.

So if that is taken as a given then we certainly can't afford to let players depart for union, whether they're an Inglis type marquee player or even the lads that went to Sale from us recently. No doubt they could have performed in Super League, even if not with us, so it is very much a loss to the game.

Fielden was signed in desperation as we were heading for Batley / Dewsbury the season after!!

Feka - can't understand why he would ever be on that kind of salary??

Now if you had said Barrett..........

Pat Richards, top try scorer and man of steel, has that got nothing to do with playing outside Carmont then? I am not saying Inglis isnt world class, I am saying that we won the grand final with these 2 centres so no, I wouldnt want a new centre, id rather stick to what we know we can trust.