Press conference

[DaveO]

The first relates to Leed's attitude to approaches for their stars.

That is a pretty unequivocal statement about Hethrington about knocking back approaches for players.

".... and I can confirm Leeds Rhinos will not be selling any of our players to NRL clubs."

Not many will be taken in by Hetherington's bravado.
He lost Ellis & Morley to the NRL in their prime.
Morley himself states that he was distracted throughout his final season at Leeds with all the offers coming in from Australia.
He also released Greg Eastwood with two years of his contract left.

Then why say it? Do RL chairmen routinely patronise their clubs fans? Or are they just too thick to realise they are being transparent? Or, heaven forbid, it's a lot simpler than that and they actually mean what they say?

Also did he sell Ellis and Morely or did they leave when their contracts were up? I believe it was the latter. If so he didn't "lose" them and just did what I would like our club to do which is hold players to their contracts and if they leave at the end just accept it will good grace having been able to plan for it while in the meantime having retained their services.

[Shaun1967]

The first relates to Leed's attitude to approaches for their stars.

That is a pretty unequivocal statement about Hethrington about knocking back approaches for players.

".... and I can confirm Leeds Rhinos will not be selling any of our players to NRL clubs."

Not many will be taken in by Hetherington's bravado.
He lost Ellis & Morley to the NRL in their prime.
Morley himself states that he was distracted throughout his final season at Leeds with all the offers coming in from Australia.
He also released Greg Eastwood with two years of his contract left.

Then why say it? Do RL chairmen routinely patronise their clubs fans? Or are they just too thick to realise they are being transparent? Or, heaven forbid, it's a lot simpler than that and they actually mean what they say?

Also did he sell Ellis and Morely or did they leave when their contracts were up? I believe it was the latter. If so he didn't "lose" them and just did what I would like our club to do which is hold players to their contracts and if they leave at the end just accept it will good grace having been able to plan for it while in the meantime having retained their services.

He stood back while "formal offers" were made for Morley whilst still under contract.
He only countered those offers at later stage (page 121 Moz: My Story).
Eastwood was sold less than half way through his contract.
As for why he says these things, I can't answer that any more than you can.

[DaveO]

cause he announced it in 1 press conference with the clubs plans for the future. signing andy powell is a good idea for rugby league in wales as we know il owns scorpions so for a few games he will be playing for them which would attract crowds and plus wc is in oct. 31 is not very old to be a forward (look at steve menzies and peacock)and could be a good signing for us.

The signing of Powell is terrible. Andy Wilson in that article I linked to shows you the reality of it. We are reduced to signing RU players at the end of their careers.

It's no different to the Gareth Thomas thing. He's just another RU player nearing the end of his career who is extending his career with RL.

And so what if he is going to play for the Scorpions? If that is the plan he should sign for them and not us. It's not Wigan's job to prop up Welsh RL (no pun intended).

you unhappy because we let 2 players go nrl who are under long term contract? we are getting money for them. plus fact is sl is now becoming a breeding ground for nrl due to there huge salary cap. end of day hes a businessman who wants make money for the club and himself which in rl you cant do it.

I am pointing out the reality of what happened. Beneath all the positive spin put on it, yesterday was a bad day for Wigan RL.

We lost two players to the NRL who may return one day (far too much is being made of this already IMO, we have seen the last of Hock and there is no guarantee Mossop won't want to stay in Oz whatever he says now), we signed a 31 year old RU forward, signed a coach of dubious character and are expected to believe Faz's five year deal is any different to any other paper thin five year contract.

The the situation with a cashed up NRL me be as it is but you'd think IL had pulled off some kind of masters stroke but the reality just underlines the problems the club and the game faces.

I am also not happy to read IL thinks we can target RU players in future because as Andy Wilson points out they aint going to be players in their prime like Davis and Quinnell were but will be more like Powell. Surely people can see such "captures" from RU for what they are so it seems to offer negative rather than positive publicity to me. If we signed Owen Farrell next week then yes that would be a big deal. Chasing retiree RU players isn't.

[exile in Tiger country]

Wigan Warriors chairman Ian Lenagan welcomes NRL interest

Wigan Warriors chairman Ian Lenagan tells BBC North West Tonight that he qis happy to allow players from his club to ply their trade in Australia's NRL, as he believes they will return to Wigan better players.

England duo Lee Mossop and Gareth Hock have agreed moves to Parramatta Eels at the end of the 2013 Super League season.

Meanwhile, Lenagan has backed new signing Andy Powell, who joined from rugby union outfit Sale Sharks on Tuesday, to make a big impact after switching codes to rugby league.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22271152

Will he be happy when attendances drop because the club has let it's star players go and the standard of rugby has dropped?

[platt-warrior]

Good post God,totally agree.

[DaveO]

Getting a fee for Mossop im happy with as hes easily replaced, invest the money into youth development and space on the cap to improve some of the youth contracts...for me Mossop isnt the best prop at the club.

Another player who now he's leaving suddenly isn't what he was cracked up to be. Who is better then?

Why have the Ell's signed an inferior player?

Selling Hock for a fee is also a very good move we have coped very well without him this season and we have won the Super League and League without him, plus he wont be playing against us anytime son.

Although the situation with Hock getting to the stage it did was controversial in itself it's clear he was finished here so I have no problem with that.

Powell is a luxury prop who will do 20 min spells, at 31 abit old but we all said that about Ben Cross and the few games he did play was a very usefull player.

Luxery prop? He's a retiring Ru player. Should never have been signed.

Neither should Log have been.

I would sooner seethe club on a fine financial footing than when we almost went bust we have very short memories and if we can sell players who WANT TO MOVE ON then we might as well make a profit regardless of contracts in place.

The club is not in a bad financial state and doesn't need the money. Why does anyone see getting a fee for a player as positive when we lost the player? The money can't be used to replace like with like so what is the point of it?

If Tomkins goes so be it... it will be the PLAYER wanting to test himself and what is the point in holding a player tohis contract when he no longer wants to play for you...even Lima last year had one eye on going back to the NRL and as a result his peformance suffered so why not cash in.

Unless the club can retain players it will soon no longer be near the top of the league. I want to see top class players at the club. Not average players and a few £!00K in the bank. This is sport not Monopoly.

If we keep players to contracts we may only have players who become outstanding talents for the duration of their contracts but if we kept them to their deals we would stand a far better chance of success than letting them leave. I also don't accept they will go off into a sulk if we did. Players who seem take it easy are those who's future is already elsewhere. Lima had one eye on the NRL after he was told he could leave.

It's not as if contracts are a life sentence. Had Wigan held Mossop to his contract it would have meant 12 more months playing for Wigan. Is that purgatory?

Instead IL decided to cash in. All that does is send a message we are open for business. Leeds are not according to Hethrington.

[Mike]

I'm pretty much on the same page as God here. I agree with Dave that these annoucements are not a "good" thing for the club, but I'd say we are making the best fist of a situtaion that we are not in control of.

One thing IL has seeming done has disproved that theory that the NRL will not pay transfers for UK players. That is a great precendent to set if the SL becomes a selling competition. Tieing players to long term contracts now at least ensures if we develop a quality player who *wants* to go to the NRL, then we will be compensated for that and maybe be able to coax higher quality RU players who wnat to remain in Europe to RL for a few years.

I'd say SL compared to NRL is like the Dutch football league comared to the premier league. There is nothing we can do *right now* about stopping players wanting to test themselves in a better competition with better rewards. What we can do is work hard to improve the state of the competition so they don't want to do this. Finally, is this the wake-up call the RFL and the clubs need to take some substantive action?

[Kittwazzer]

I agree with God and Mike. Whilst I can also see Dave's point, he is a man who's glass seems perpetually half-empty. That does not mean he doesn't have the right to his point of view.

Only time will tell who is right, maybe everyone to an extent. What I would say is that Mr Lenegan must be the envy of all the other chairmen right now, including Gary bloody Hetherington!

[thegimble]

Mossop IMO wasnt the best prop at Wigan you can trawl through all my previous posts and NOWHERE you will see ive rated Mossop as the best prop we have. I can live with him leaving because we have equall or better props already at the club. Makes great buisness to cash in and improve the contracts of others with the space available.He had his heart set on the NRL even his brother has said "All the hard work has paid off"when the announcement was made, Surely playing for Wigan is the pinnacle.

Nobody on this forum knows the finantial situation of Wigan Rl NOBODY unless the clubs accountant is on here and could shed any light on it.For all we know the club could be breaking even.

Dudson should never had been signed, neither should Ben Flower...Harris was supposed to be a bad appointment yet we are top of the league. Cross was supposed to be rubbish and past it.

Peacock is supposed to be past it yet hes been mentioned as an early man of steel candidate. Age is nothing in this game hell Menzies i would have at the club and hes 40 its how you look after yourself. Im reserving judgement untill he actually plays a game.

Looking at the yougsters and how good they are im confident we will be up at the top on a consistant basis for a number of years its never been this good.

Mossop is not the best prop at the club due to the amount of games he has missed. Same for Prescott good player when fit. Also Mossop's form towards the back end of last season was not fantastic. A point not talked about anymore but our 2 supposedly best props Lima and Mossop form was poor at times. That cost us a GL spot.

When Mossop was missing this season did we miss him did we struggle. I would say yes only against Leeds but we missed a lot of players then. Apart from that the props we have have got on top of every side they faced.

All of a sudden Mossop is on a pedestal for some and on the opposite for some. Truth is he is a decent prop with a prospect of being the best around if he stays fit. But his history tells you he will not.

As for Hock well he had to go and that's a shame another exceptional talent we can not replace we have really struggled for quality in second row since his move to Widnes. That Farrell is nowhere near good enough to replace Hock. Another one quite a few got wrong.

For every player we have lost over the last 2-3 years only Hoffman we have struggled to replace and that started to sort itself out when Hock got sent to Widnes. Though Ginger Faz is no Hoffman yet he has earned the starting spot in the pack.

IL gets a lot more right than wrong. Whilst some on here gets Most things wrong.

[Kittwazzer]

Another point is Mossop's shoulder. I am not convinced it is fully healed, or if it will ever be without serious surgery and a lengthy rest period. Also, his latest injury was the other shoulder, not the one he injured at Wembley. He said so himself!