sergeant pepper wrote: Does a team not need different types of people? The kind who'll keep moral up Vs the kind with mean competitive streak etc?
Whatever type of person Hastings is, it seems that Wests have decided their team doesn't need him. And whether Wigan felt they needed him or not, their team has done much better since he left.
From some of the stories I've heard, I think you're being generous to him. But hey, they're only stories. Lots of different people might be lying.
What I would add is that professional players need to get real. We've all had to work with people we didn't like or considered to be disruptive. It's just part of life, and you have to be grown up. But when you've got an apparent scenario like that at Wests - where Bateman, who seems to get on okay with others - won't sign unless Hastings has gone, turning down a massive contract in the process, that sounds to me like there's a real problem.
sergeant pepper wrote:Objectively, what is it that Singleton brings to the table? His stats aren't that impressive. Plus, he's always a sound bet for a good penalty, or a few weeks in the stands too. Granted he's experienced &, I can't judge his impact off the field, but I'm not sure if that experience transfers to the 80mins of actual rugby.
I've always thought that Cooper is the player we hopped Singo would be for us. Experienced operator, as good on the field as off it. A guy that in situations like Magic weekend (where we struggled 1st 20 imo) is going to win collisions and get yards etc.
The usual posts about Singleton are that he "does all of the things that go unnoticed" - a metric that I still find hilarious and ironic. And for some reason it counterweights all of the stuff that does go noticed, i.e. all of the above.
Wigg'n wrote:The usual posts about Singleton are that he "does all of the things that go unnoticed" - a metric that I still find hilarious and ironic. And for some reason it counterweights all of the stuff that does go noticed, i.e. all of the above.
Stuff like that always makes me chuckle. People want stats, until the stats point to a different narrative than the one they want to push. Then it's all about his elbows and knees and how he's uncomfortable to tackle i.e something that can't be measured.
I'll stand by my comment that, out of our 6 or so front line props, Singleton is the bottom of the list.
The thing with Bateman is the fact that his girlfriend is Australian. I've often wondered long-term what would happen as clearly she wants to go back to Australia to live. I note that she is there now commenting on how nice it is to see some sun (I presume she knows that we are in Autumn coming up to Winter and that Australia has had record rainfalls in their Autumn/Winter)
The fact that they have a child further compounds the problems. Could Bateman do a James Graham and move over there permanently, but then there is the issue of his daughter. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens long-term
Stu M wrote:The thing with Bateman is the fact that his girlfriend is Australian. I've often wondered long-term what would happen as clearly she wants to go back to Australia to live. I note that she is there now commenting on how nice it is to see some sun (I presume she knows that we are in Autumn coming up to Winter and that Australia has had record rainfalls in their Autumn/Winter)
The fact that they have a child further compounds the problems. Could Bateman do a James Graham and move over there permanently, but then there is the issue of his daughter. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens long-term
To be honest, I just don't know if we need that hassle.
You can maybe tolerate a player whose head is on the other side of the world if he's the best in the business, but a distracted John Bateman is clearly not the John Bateman of two years ago. With luck, we'll get someone in who's solidly focussed on wanting to play for Wigan.
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