i record and watch every nrl game this season and he will do for me.now because we have an experienced fb we can take a chance with the young lads on pats wing,hopefully one will grab it with both hands.best of a bad job imo.sam has not been making much impact in the last few weeks.

There are some people on here who I dare say call themselves Wigan fans, who do nothing but moan about everything! You all know who they are. The fact is in my opinion, we've signed one of the top 5 full backs in the world to replace one of the top 5 full backs in the world! (Slater, Tomkins, Bowen, Barba & Inglis). If that's not good enough in the current climate, the only alternative is to hire a tardis and go back to 1985 when Wigan signed everybody they felt like!
Bowen is a top signing and will make a few people on here eat their words. Instead of being constantly critical of the club, get behind it. We might still win the double!!

Here's hoping we've signed a John Ferguson (yes Bowen at his best can be mentioned in the same breath as the great man who was also in his 30s when at Wigan) rather than a Michael Withers (fine player but a crock when we got him).

Dave, the reason they are not taking up a further year on his contract is due to the lad they have in reserve who is also an excellent fullback.

They have the pressure if accommodating Thurston in the cap and also potentially lose a very good young fullback if he were to spend another year as a back up. If you think Queensland are letting him go without other motives you are incorrect.

Fully agree with that, did chuckle at the bit in bold though

"The Courier-Mail understands the club's medical reports, coupled with Bowen's training data this season, indicate his reconstructed knees will struggle to cope with another NRL campaign in 2014."

"Despite having outlaid millions to secure Origin quartet Johnathan Thurston, Brent Tate, Matt Scott and James Tamou, it is understood the Cowboys have salary cap room to accommodate Bowen."

From here:

[urlhttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/north-queensland-cowboys-fullback-matt-bowen-playing-for-his-career/story-fni3g8pa-1226672798088[/url

The quotes from Parr would also be incredibly cynical if it was all propaganda as was suggested further back in the thread.

I'm with you. I can still hold IL to account over his limp attitude to contracted players but credit him for signing as good a full back as it was possible to get. In that regard he couldn't have done more. All the bickering about whether he is "marquee" or not is either pedantry or potshots at IL for the sake of it. If someone wants to criticise him there are much more valid grounds than his description of Bowen as "marquee", as you have highlighted with the Powell and pair of Broncos signings.

if you believed everything stats tell you, you wouldn't get in a car. sam tomkins stats probably make for rubbish reading compared to the past season. He shown that hes still able to play at the top for the past 6months no matter what rubbish the media spout over there, they cant afford to keep him and all the players they would like and he's the oldest so hes the first out the door.

Competition time !!

whoop whoop

Are Wigan fans on the whole quite positive or quite negative?

Currently we have a

1 - Bowen has signed" thread

and

2 - Sam has departed" thread

I wonder which will run the longest?

It doesn't matter - the miserable git brigade are posting the same whinging bile on both threads.

Your probably right.

Whats the point in trying to argue Andy?

Whats the bliming point?......................

There isn't.

No game this week has brought them back out again - they went a bit quiet last week when we won at Huddersfield. Lets hope for another couple of wins for general board sanity.

Of course should we win the GF, they'll be whinging that we only won because of the drop in standards etc, etc.............................

Some people on here could win £12m on the Euro Millions Lottery and they still wouldn't be happy because it wasn't a rollover week.