Great news!

I'm just wondering how long it'll be before we hear the drone of "Wigan must be cheating the salary cap again" diatribe from over 'thill and elsewhere.
Any bets?

What an exciting prospect for next season tied in with the Hastings signing. Presumably this will ignite season ticket sales. On paper I can't see any team being dominant but the top should be ultra competitive, I certainly hope so.
This will be the first season in a long while where we will see a number of top class NRL players in SL.

I do think the "second row is comfortably the best in the league" comment rather blinkered, but time will tell.

Well, people were mocking Radlinski's "most destructive prop in Superleague" comment and, whilst it may well have been hyperbole, he is very destructive but only in short bursts. It's not really true to say he couldn't get in the Cas team as it was more a case of other options giving Powell what he was looking for in terms of minutes and, more latterly, because there'd been a fallout with the coach and club. Few question his impact or the quality of his work when he was on though. Check out the Cas board for evidence of this. The general consensus early in the season was he was a first 4 prop as long as he was teamed with others who could play long minutes.

And therein lies the conundrum. It all depends on how we intend to use him. We have props capable of playing good stints in Flower and Partington and I think Bullock was moving in the right direction too prior to his injury but George Burgess is most definitely an impact prop. However Clarke is still young for a prop and maybe the coaching team see some improvements to be made in his engine. We'll see, I guess but, alongside Burgess, he definitely has the tools to give us the go forward we've been missing these last few years.

Whose do you rate as better?

This signing and the Hastings signing are top class signings. The Burgess one is the most high profile one since Barrett in my opinion.

It also puts the other three signings in perspective. They are what I would call all now "bonus" signings that add depth to the squad. When Clarke and Bibby were signed they were greeted with not a great deal of enthusiasm as they were signings of players who were considered middle of the road standard who were not even first choice picks for their current sides. The standard of player we have become too used to seeing recruited at Wigan and this was not helped by Rads going completely over the top with his description of Clarke as one of the most destructive forwards in the league or whatever it was he said along those lines which did not go down well.

Now we have Burgess, Flower and Clarke as our main prop forwards in 2010 which reads so much better then Clubb, FLower and Clarke. It does make the two year deal for Clubb look odd especially as some of the younger props look to be developing well. I am even more convinced we should have let Clubb go with the arrival of Burgess and the young players coming through.

I also put French in the "bonus" category. The rumour of his signing was greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm possibly because we have forgotten what it is like to recruit anyone from the NRL but it was also over the top in my opinion and put too much expectation on the player to be the second coming of Trent Barrett with lot of people saying he's a 6 when he has not played there much at all. Now perhaps he can be seen as an exciting prospect and Lam can decide best where to use him.

All in all our recruitment has gone from considered rubbish and cheapskate with class players like S Tomkins and Bateman not replaced to on a par with or better than anyone else in SL. I had totally lost faith in IL and Rads to recruit anyone any good and the Edwards fiasco was a low point for the pair of them but they have certainly turned that around.

I was seriously considering cancelling the auto-renew of the season ticket this time but it will be going through now. I bet I am not the only one doing the same so if IL wants proof it's class players that put bums on seats I reckon he is going to have the evidence soon enough.

I simply don't see anything about your second row that sets them apart from the other top teams.

Ps I'm an admirer of O'Loughlin (apart from his tendency to tackle as though the opposition is 6" taller than reality) but he must be on his last legs and surely too early to call Smithies. Farrell...well he's no Bateman.

I’ve been down on our side this year but never the backrow. It’s the only area I think we trump any club in. Name me a better starting backrow then Greenwood, Farrell and O’Loughlin and I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t agree. The issue has been we’ve not had them together enough (hardly ever) but hopefully that will change. The likes of Isa and Smithies (he’s going to be a supreme player) only add good quality depth.

Bateman is the better player but not by much. Farrell is consistently good and very underrated. One of the first names on the team sheet for me.

I’ve never seen a player as underrated as Farrell in all honesty. He’s an absolute machine of a backrower but seems to steer clear of the Sky boys exaggerated billing afforded to some other players.

Then tell me whose you think is better then we can debate it. It's alright saying you can't see what sets a current England International, a former international (and arguably the most underrated 2nd row in the comp) and the current England and Great Britain captain who is almost universally accepted as the best back rower in Superleague on his day, apart from anyone else. Give me your better back 3 and I'll happily tell you.

Patrick Ah Van

Slipped my mind