joe burgess

[platt-warrior]

It may be that Joe will not play any full NRL games next season.It my be deemed he is one for the future And play in the Toyota cup etc.

[Kittwazzer]

Disagree with the suggestions that Shaun Edwards signed for Wigan because of the money. He had ambitions in Rugby League and wanted to achieve those with Wigan. Money was always available in Union. I was at school with John Carleton and at one point several top league clubs, Wigan included, invited him to write his own contract.
I dropped on him one night and asked him if he would be switching codes. He told me quite openly that he couldn't afford it.
Make no mistake, RU becoming professional made no difference whatsoever to the stars of the game!

[DaveO]

Disagree with the suggestions that Shaun Edwards signed for Wigan because of the money. He had ambitions in Rugby League and wanted to achieve those with Wigan. Money was always available in Union. I was at school with John Carleton and at one point several top league clubs, Wigan included, invited him to write his own contract.

The point being made was Wigan paid up to secure his signature. They didn't just pay him a record signing on fee out of charity.

It was a good illustration of the clubs ambition to secure the best even though at 17 it had no idea if it would pan out OK.

Today the analogy would be be a large contract offered to a player such as Hampshire for example.

I believe for young players a large contract might be enough to put NRL clubs off as I do not believe they are going to offer Sam T type wages for inexperienced players. They would be putting them ahead of far better players in their sides as they all don't earn Sam T wages and I can't see them doing that.

I believe Wigan have to decide if players of Hampshires potential are worth the punt of a large contract as they did when they splashed the cash for Edwards. Sticking to a wage structure with a lower wage for younger players who are all paid the same will mean the standard of player you get will drop to whatever that buys you.

[cpwigan]

Whatever the cumulative reasons for Shaun Edwards signing for Wigan were. The money had to be right which is understandable given how his fathers career ended so abruptly.

Today? I doubt we would have seen Shaun Edwards in league or if we did it would have been a fleeting career as he would have gone to Union.

IIRC, Shaun was actually a dual code international albeit at the time he only played Union as it meant missing school.

[Owd Codger]

Whatever the cumulative reasons for Shaun Edwards signing for Wigan were. The money had to be right which is understandable given how his fathers career ended so abruptly.

Today? I doubt we would have seen Shaun Edwards in league or if we did it would have been a fleeting career as he would have gone to Union.

IIRC, Shaun was actually a dual code international albeit at the time he only played Union as it meant missing school.

Correct, cpwigan.

And the money in Union was nothing like in League prior to 1996 when Union went fully professional and introduced stronger League structures and European competitions.

How many top players from Union like Jim Sullivan, Billy Boston, David Watkins, Lewis Jones, Tom Van Vollenhoven, Jonathan Davies etc, etc now come into our game like they did before 1996?

The answer is none with more now going the other way and make no mistake about it, if Union at the time was like it is now, Edwards and others like Lydon etc would have defected without any hesitation or sense of loyalty to our game.

[cpwigan]

Hardly any WW. League would have been like it was from mid 70s to 1982.