Briscoe signs for HKR - offical

[Matthew]

100% agreement

If a player is offered more money elsewhere - and takes it then that's fine. As it means that:

a) the player is not that bothered about playing for Wigan

b) the player has been offered a ridiculous sum ala King and will seriously limit the other players that the team can sign

In the days of the cap - every player has a maximum worth; even players like King and Barrett.

I would much rather see Briscoe go to KR than see us get into a bidding war for him.

[Martin Taylor]

Matthew posted:
I agree that we should be looking for a better option in such a key position.

However the thing that concerns me:

sporting life Rovers, who secured their Super League status with victory over their city rivals on Sunday, are thought to have beaten off late competition from Briscoe's former club Wigan to secure the services of the 24-year-old on a two-year contract.

It sounds like we have left it to the last minute again after failing to make up our mind. Whilst this could be "paper talk" - it doesn't make the prospects for signing another top quality FB look very good...

http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ll_KR.html

The situation with Briscoe has been this: Wigan have always wanted as their number 1 full-back Brett Hodgeson. However, Hodgeson has been asking a king's ransom which Wigan (rightly so in my opinion) could not justify. I was told it was around the 140k mark! Wigan then made far less substantial offers to Briscoe, David Hodgeson and just recently (well before all the speculation on here) Fitzpatrick of Salford! Hull KR have all along offered a much larger salary to Briscoe than Wigan's initial offer, but Wigan decided to make a last ditch effort for Briscoe's signature just recently. (hence all the is he not going to Hull KR after all threads this week) However, that was still not nearly enough to tempt him back, so the deal has been done with Hull KR.
David Hodgeson was made a good offer from the Giants last week. However, with his young family still living in Wigan, he has been keen to link back up with us. Because of this he approached Wigan asking if they could come up with a similar figure to Hudds! However, they declined and offered a figure not even close to the Giants offer, so he signed for Hudds earlier this week.
That just leaves Fitzpatrick, who is looking more likely to be our full-back next season.

I get to speak to a lot of players both at Wigan and other clubs, as well as people involved in the game. The general consensus this season is that Wigan are offering players really low contracts in general and are significantly being out-bid by other clubs!
This could be two things in my opinion:

1 We already have quality players in key positions lined up and contracted for next season, so we are looking at players like Briscoe, Dave Hodgeson and Fitzpatrick as 'bulking up' the squad numbers!

2 We are just not prepared to offer competitive contracts (in relation to other clubs) because of salary cap reasons! (i will not buy into this, knowing how much money should be available to us due to the players leaving this season and the space we already have on the cap)

[phibes]

Martin Taylor posted:

I get to speak to a lot of players both at Wigan and other clubs, as well as people involved in the game. The general consensus this season is that Wigan are offering players really low contracts in general and are significantly being out-bid by other clubs!
This could be two things in my opinion:

1 We already have quality players in key positions lined up and contracted for next season, so we are looking at players like Briscoe, Dave Hodgeson and Fitzpatrick as 'bulking up' the squad numbers!

2 We are just not prepared to offer competitive contracts (in relation to other clubs) because of salary cap reasons! (i will not buy into this, knowing how much money should be available to us due to the players leaving this season and the space we already have on the cap)

I hope we're going for quantity as well as quality (your option 1) but your second option is a bit worrying (and several others have posted to that effect). This is pure speculation but there is a third option - that the club are only offering low contracts because the amount of salary cap allocated to retain junior players will increase next year.

We're not known for our long-term thinking but maybe that will change

[ian.birchall]

GeoffN posted:
[
His salary, perhaps? We should be able to afford better than Briscoe.

Definately do not agree here GeoffN. I remember meeting him in the players bar when he was just on the fringes of the first team when he had stopped a certain Stains try driving the winger into touch when the result was too close to call. He struck me as a very respectful lad who told me that he hoped 'Mr Lindsay' would now offer hiom a contract as he could think of nothing better than playing for Wigan. He was a credit to the club then and he would have been again. We will have to wait and see who, if anyone, we sign as fullback but I certainly do not want any overpriced overaged Aussie again.
NO TO BRETT HODGSON

[ian.birchall]

jaws1 posted:
Dont think we will hear any signings until the new owner is sorted out .I am sure Nobby will have had discussions about his future and any signings that he wants to bring into the club.

The three signings we definately know Nobby was responsible for were Danny Hill, Shane Millard and Mick Withers. I do not understand why that fills anyone with any confidence that we will get better players than those we have let go already.

[lucky 13]

I'm not bothered Briscoe as not been signed we know what he is capable of and to be honest we can sign someone of equal talent the 2 salford lads are as good and offer more in attack .