There’s definitely an element of that I’m sure. I’m probably too hard on him but I always sensed we had a lad who just coasted a little bit but even doing that, he was a good player for us and did a great job at such a young age. I can’t say I’m convinced he’d be in the condition he is now had he stayed here just through naturally shedding puppy fat but maybe I’m cynical. He knew he’d be moving to the NRL for that 2019 season prior to us starting our season in 2018 and it was no coincidence he got himself in much better shape for that last season with us.

That ship has sailed with Sutton anyway. He did a good job for us so fair play and he’s turning in to a top player now and I’m happy to see it. I don’t think we’ll ever see him back in superleague from the noises he makes but I look forward to seeing how he gets on for England.

Agreed. He has improved every aspect of his game, and looks a top forward these days.

Are you joking?

Don't you know that props can only do one of either tackle or make meters? It's IMPOSSIBLE to do both.

Kind regards,
Adrian Lam and Shaun Wane

In fairness when you take in to consideration the way they’re counting them metres, Ethan Havard has been doing that most weeks since he came in to the first team.

And Canberra were down to one bench player after about 20mins. Great by Sutton but due to circumstances he had to do a lot more than usual.

Wane: 'I like props who find the floor quickly'.

Only feels like five minutes ago I was being berated for questioning the validity of the Brad Singleton love in late last season.

I'm delighted Wigan didn't sign a world class prop in the off-season as it would completely transform your team.

Spot on sadly (for us anyway)

Singleton added to the side (it was hard not too), but at the same time we didn't need a Singleton level player. We needed the player Burgess was supposed to be.

DaveO got shot down on this thread, but he was right that's IL decision not to invest the GB money on another prop could be an error. I realise that some of the cash might have gone to keeping French and Hastings, but tbh, I'd rather have one of those + a topline prop than those two and our current front row.

After that it's criminal we've got Club and Clarke on the books. Nothing you can do about it mid season, or whilst they are under contract but they never should have renewed/signed.

As much as I wanted and still want Clubb and Clarke to go, they’re both under contract. It’s not easy to just release them as there’s fees involved.

I’m happy with Singleton, I think teams need props like him that are just solid in defence and attack. Don’t really do anything special but don’t do a lot wrong either, pretty much like Kyle Amor at Saints or Jason Clark at Warrington.

Do I think we need a [itop class prop?[/i Without a shadow of a doubt, I can’t really fathom why we didn’t sign one in the off season but we do have a tendency to make in season signings. Perhaps a IL is waiting for the prop to become available, the last thing we need to do is another prop signing rush job ala George Burgess. It might hurt us in the short term but I’d rather we sign the [iright[/i prop than the [iwrong [/iprop.

I have got to disagree with regard to his conditioning, Sutty was in top shape in his final season at Wigan. It is not the Australians who should be praised for his transformation but Lee Blundell. Maybe the Warriors should recruit Lee?

I don't think we can justify losing the 2020 Man of Steel or 2021's best attacking player if they're willing to sign for us. Plus we don't know how long ahead they knew for sure that GB was coming off the books. It may well not have left enough time to identify and negotiate with a top prop, then you risk losing one of French/Hastings in the meantime whilst you scour the market. I'm hoping with another year under their belts our young forwards might hold their own better.

I said in another comment that he got himself so much fitter in that last season, ahead of him going to Australia. He looks very different to that now though. Yes he was in better condition but not like he looked at the weekend. He doesn’t look like he’s carrying an ounce of fat anymore.

Whoever was responsible for the turnaround though, I think the motivation was the NRL. He would obviously have been negotiating with clubs going in to that 2018 season and all of a sudden he shapes up. It benefited Wigan in that last season anyway.

I tend to agree with you about Hastings. When we found out that he wanted to stay, then it was always the right decision to sign him up. I'd say the same for 2022 too btw.

It might be controversial, but I don't feel the same about French. I love the guy and he's probably our most entraining player, but I don't think he's as key for us as what Hastings is or what a top prop would be. When you then factor in the signing of Field, who Lam described as French with better hands (loose translation) & Zak as backup we could have let him go.

Ideally we'd have lost Clubb, Clarke and Burgess and had room for everything.

Fair enough. I felt like French was our only chance of scoring at times last season

Definitely. I'm 99% sure this is the reason. It's not IL "not willing to spend the cash" as DaveO crudely tried to allude. If there's not a decent prop available then I'd rather we wait until there is.

In the meantime we need to make our props do some hard work with the ball until we get our outside backs from injury or a big prop signing and then they can go back to getting carried up the field like they have been in the last however many years.