Morgan Smithies set for NRL move as Wigan Warriors forward heads down under

[MrAlex]

Smithies gone...friend in Sydney say's it's been on all their platforms this morning (apart from Wigan's).

[Exiled Wiganer]

I wish him well. I may be out of step, but isn’t he simply an effective work horse. How many tries does he score, or create and how many clean breaks? He might have developed into a ball playing 13, but he might not. I think the club has shown since Peet took over that it knows exactly what it’s doing. If Thompson gets the 13 jersey that will be a massive massive step up.

[nathan_rugby]

I wish him well. I may be out of step, but isn’t he simply an effective work horse. How many tries does he score, or create and how many clean breaks? He might have developed into a ball playing 13, but he might not. I think the club has shown since Peet took over that it knows exactly what it’s doing. If Thompson gets the 13 jersey that will be a massive massive step up.

He is, but who does it better?

Morgan Knowles did the same at Saints during their recent reign of 4 grand finals in a row and he got in the dream team 4 years running.

[Dreamteam]

Cam smith Asiata Garcia bell just a few who are better for me. He’s a workhorse but not in the same league as an Asiata or smith.

[Charriots Offiah]

It's a team game and everybody has their job. The wheel cannot turn unless all the cogs do their bit effectively. By the way, he was tremendous in the GF.

[nathan_rugby]

Cam smith Asiata Garcia bell just a few who are better for me. He’s a workhorse but not in the same league as an Asiata or smith.

Irrelevant really. It’s not always possible to have the best player in every position.

It’s about having a group of players that are greater than the sum of their parts and aligned to the team strategy and tactics.

At Wigan Smithies does exactly what we need him to do.

[Exiled Wiganer]

I would be happy if he stayed, and agree that a team needs hard workers, which was his role. I wish him well, but am not losing any sleep over his leaving us. I think KPP is a bigger loss, but am looking forward to seeing what Walters can do. I will be beyond astonished if Owen Farrell signs, as that would represent a risk we do not need to take, and nor does he - he can make a fortune running round fatties.

[Mike]

That’s if the player earns any money from his image rights himself so Farrell would not be able to earn money from endorsing products or whatever as clubs just don’t allow any players to do so because of that daft rule.

The sport and possibly the club would try and milk the publicity. How willing he’d be to be doing the PR for free when if he was in RU he’d get paid I have no idea but if that’s the plan I think they will have miscalculated. Within the game he would just be seen as coming for a last pay day like an older Aussie player. Outside of it, it might raise a few eyebrows. For about five minutes.

Salary cap dispensation would offset that. He won't count on the cap at all if reports were correct a few years ago. There's no risk to the club at all if our new owner is happy to bankroll this.

Salary cap dispensation would offset what? Owen Farrell being allowed to earn money off his image rights?

Way to go to piss off the rest of the team. Player with zero senior RL experience is allowed to earn a fortune off endorsements yet the rest of the team cannot do so.

The New Talent rule is the salary counts £0 on the cap in year one and 50% in year two then it finishes.

They could of course pay him a fortune in year one via image rights or just salary but why anyone would think it was a good idea when there is no guarantee he will make a go of it and worth pushing the boat out like that I have no idea.

He doesn't have to "make a go of it" . A one year deal deal ticks all the boxes for me. We get publicity for the sport, we make a statement about our new spending power, we attract new attention to the club which should be useful in attracting new sponsors for us and TV opportunities for the game. If he's too far off the pace (which I don't think he would be TBH - he's clearly a very accomplished rubgy player) he can be on the bench or "injured" half the time. You don't need to win every game to win the GF, there's plenty of opportunity here and almost no downside.

[Mike]

Salary cap dispensation would offset what? Owen Farrell being allowed to earn money off his image rights?

Way to go to piss off the rest of the team. Player with zero senior RL experience is allowed to earn a fortune off endorsements yet the rest of the team cannot do so.

The New Talent rule is the salary counts £0 on the cap in year one and 50% in year two then it finishes.

They could of course pay him a fortune in year one via image rights or just salary but why anyone would think it was a good idea when there is no guarantee he will make a go of it and worth pushing the boat out like that I have no idea.

I thought image rights counted on the cap in the UK

They do. If Owen does come to Wigan it won’t be for the money.

They do, but he gets 100% dispensation from salary cap. It would be down to the wording and legal arguements about whether that applies to image rights as well or not I suppose.

[Dreamteam]

Cam smith Asiata Garcia bell just a few who are better for me. He’s a workhorse but not in the same league as an Asiata or smith.

Irrelevant really. It’s not always possible to have the best player in every position.

It’s about having a group of players that are greater than the sum of their parts and aligned to the team strategy and tactics.

At Wigan Smithies does exactly what we need him to do.

Not really because he’ll be much easier to replace hence why Brad will move into that role