SLS wrote:
He's absolutely screwed Wigan. If what the Aussies are saying is right and they first made contact with him back in Feb following the WCC, then Burgess made the decision to jump after he'd made three SL appearances and 1 WCC appearance for the 'famous' cherry and white. Four matches. Not even interested in seeing his debut season out before thinking of the future ! Sydney took one game to see him and want him, recognising his talent. Wigan had him through their youth and let him go into his debut season, in full glare of the public eye, on less money than a full time shelf stacker. Well done to Wigan's talent recognition and evaluation grouping, great job. They've likely cost the club in the region of 300K. Burgess, meanwhile, has shown no thought for the club that developed him at all. As someone above has said. So much for your ancient and loyal BS.
Here's my post on the Wigan forum.
btw only one person has said he was on £8K per year, and I don't believe that's true. He had a couple of contract increases in his time at Wigan.
First of all I'm a BIG Joe Burgess fan and didn't (don't) want him to go. I would have advised him to stay at Wigan for three years and then move if he wanted, but would the offer still be there (a bird in the hand etc)
However let's look at the hard facts.
Burgess was still only 19 years of age when all this began and had two years of his contract still to run. Negotiations were ongoing from early last season when he hadn't yet established himself as a first team player. He had a fantastic season and negotiations continued.
Should Wigan have matched or got close to his Aussie offer? If I had been Lenagan / Radlinski I would have offered a lower initial contract with year by year increases over a four year period but with caveats (tries scored, games played, England games etc) They may have done this, I don't know.
What would fans be saying if he had signed a long term deal and then suffered a Kevin Penny, Shaun Ainscough Gary Wheeler, Jamie Foster type drop in form.
There is no easy solution especially as Wigan do have a wage structure that they work to. If they broke that for Burgess would the likes of Gildart, Williams, Hampshire, Sutton want similar deals. I honestly don't think there's an easy answer or one that's right or wrong.
Good luck to him I really do wish him well and am sorry he's going but it opens the door for someone else. I remember speaking to him at the end of season dinner in 2013 when he said "I want Pat Richards shirt next season"
Now go and do yourself and your family proud in Aus.