Back on topic some of the top pundits and commentators are giving him some major wraps and are shocked we have secured him.

Sounds like they expected him to have a big future in the NRL and are surprised he has made the move to SL.

Very rare that you don’t hear a bad word said about a player by the pundits/media down under when they come here but I can’t think of anything but positive comments I’ve seen. The Manly fans are pretty much the same as well. In fact the only negative comments I’ve seen were about 90% of people on a thread on Total RL who were saying we’ve signed a nobody, a bargain basement player, a lad who a Championship club would usually sign etc etc. They’ve not seen him play like but it’s not an anti Wigan thing, honestly!

You know, just because you've some refereeing yourself, that doesn't mean you need to jump in and defend referees every time they're criticised. They make mistakes too. More than many professionals, I'd say.

Plus, it wasn't really the World Club Challenge, was it.

Sorry you're quite right. He didn't hit him in the head (or it should have been ignored? God knows) and/or the ref forgot where he was and what he was doing.

Refs have counted to 7 before

George Fairbairn from Kelso, Steve Hampson from Vulcan, Mark Preston from Fylde and Green Vigo from Saldana Tigers.

Just a sample of the many unknown Union players who were successful signings by Wigan.

Sadly, with Union going fully professional, those days have gone!

And failed to hear the hooter, even though everyone else in the stadium did.

Yeah, they're faultless.

Worryingly common that one, as is 6 on the 20m restarts.

Not so much at SL level but definitely on Championship and below.

Cade Cust is currently joint favourite for Man of Steel with Mitchell Pearce 12-1 with Sky bet.

The more I read about Cust the more optimistic I am about him. I don’t watch a lot of NRL and had never heard of him. Being realistic I doubt he’ll be here for more than 2 seasons, hopefully we’ll get a good couple of years from him before he heads back home.

It's certainly encouraging. I've never seen so much blanket praise from the media and fans alike.

Hopefully, he has a similar impact on the league as what Hastings did.

On another note & looking more long term, I wouldn't be too upset if we rotated our 6 every few years. If Smith is the long term option that we all hope he is @7, then would it be a bad thing to bring in a new 6 every 2 or 3 years to mix things up?

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... y-22187620?

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... y-22187620?