Tbh… as much as I have thrilled to watching Johnstone in a Trinity shirt… and I am grateful for that, the fact he is now moving on means:

1) I don’t care about his fitness or how well he is playing any more
2) he is just another player playing for another club.. a club who I don’t particularly care for… and would happily see lose every game they play.

Loved Wally Lewis in a trinity shirt but hated the Broncos… even when he played for them

There is something about all this that seems strange. Like posted previously on his interview nothing is said about his injury, when or if he will be fit to play. Thats the first thing he should have been asked surely !

If the club said to Catalan , take him now for no fee and pay his wage ,he's yours. If you can get him fit and get some games out of him, good luck to you. I would have no problems with this as I think it would benefit everyone , most of all Tom.

Which suggests that he is injured.

Can't see that either tbh.

IMO forget about money and deals. He's injured I know that as fact and he's unlikely to be match fit at a point where it will help us. I just don't see the point of even attempting to play him whether that be us or Catalan.

If I ran the club Catalan I wouldn't expect to take him now, poor business from them. What I would say is let's do a deal. You will keep your new player safe and we will cover some of the costs till the end of the season. A bit like Ellis, a sort of mini transfer fee by proxy. For Catalan this would mean he won't pick up further injuries whilst they can monitor the one he has now. I'd guess the new contract won't come in force until September and will require a medical before signing off. Should TJ fail Catalan can walk away having only wasted a relatively small amount of cash. Trinity can use that spare cash to pay a fit player.

Interestingly it's funny how all of a sudden Bill gets paid off? That money came from somewhere.

Of course I'm speculating wildly and just for fun, I've no idea if you can actually do that kind of stuff.

Didn’t Tupou medically retire on advice? I’m sure there is a difference and insurance would cover this cost. With only 2/3 months left salary anyway it’s not like a huge payoff. There’s nothing in that imo.

Think we are reading too much into it. I doubt Catalans are paying anything to us for any reason regards TJ between now and end of season. Why would they do that when they just don’t need to.

I assumed that it was a medical insurance pay-out, as he had been told to retire on medical advice. Maybe wrong, usually am

And now Boris has gone! What a week!

Could be right, just seemed nice timing. As I say I'm just having fun.

Paying up Bill's contract isn't new money. We always had that in budget.

If we are the same as football, then being "medically retired" would result in an insurance payout for the remaining contract plus any bonuses/loyalty payments.

Err, no we didn't, unless you mean that the pay out is equivalent to what he would have received until the end of his contract?

If it's a medical insurance pay out then who cares.

That's exactly what I mean.

Not quite the ending we had hoped for Wakefield Trinity @WTrinityRL · 14m Tom Johnstone has undergone surgery this week which rules him out of action for the remainder of the 2022 season. Sadly, that means Tom has played his final game in the Red, White & Blue. Read in full: https://wakefieldtrinity.com/blog/2022/ ... the-season

Not quite the ending we had hoped for Wakefield Trinity @WTrinityRL · 14m Tom Johnstone has undergone surgery this week which rules him out of action for the remainder of the 2022 season. Sadly, that means Tom has played his final game in the Red, White & Blue. Read in full: https://wakefieldtrinity.com/blog/2022/ ... the-season

2015 wasn’t this miserable a season.