The signing of Australian forward Morgan McWhirter is an exciting one for Widnes, even if he does arrive as a relative unknown.
Playing for Limoux Grizzlies in the French Super XIII, McWhirter will link up with the Vikings once they are eliminated from the play-offs, and counts Mackay Cutters and Sunshine Coast Falcons among his former clubs.
The reality is the first time most fans will have heard of or seen him will have been when the club shared his signing announcement and highlights reel.
👀 Take a look at what our new recruit has to offer…#VikingsForevermore pic.twitter.com/tVwo0wwPbf
— Widnes Vikings (@WidnesRL) April 29, 2025
But in many ways, that makes it an exciting signing and one to anticipate.
He fits in with Allan Coleman’s priority to recruit players for not just the rest of this season but the next one too.
It may be too that another Australian signing is needed in the coming weeks to keep McWhirter company.
Frustration over Lannon exit
The signing of McWhirter was announced by Widnes shortly after the club confirmed the departure of Ryan Lannon.
The exit of Lannon has been met with frustration, even more so with him immediately pitching up at Oldham, surely a rival for reaching the play-offs.
Clubs are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to player recruitment and contracts with the current set-up in rugby league, which appears to put all the power in the hands of the players.
NEW: Sign up for WidnesRugby+ and support coverage of Widnes rugby league
From 1st May, players can talk to any other club for next season. Prior to that, clubs must declare whether they intend to re-engage the player for the following campaign.
Last season, Widnes saw the hasty exits of Kieran Dixon and Ant Walker after both players had been told they would be surplus to requirements for 2025, instead being allowed to leave to take up 18-month deals elsewhere rather than sit out the remaining few months of their Widnes contracts.
Player power leaves clubs stuck
The current situation means you can sign a player on a one-year deal, and come February or March, his agent is already asking about the following year. That then forces clubs to consider or make a decision on a player that has only played a handful of matches.
It’s an odd situation where it seems future years are deemed more important than the one fans are currently paying for, and it is something that simply doesn’t need to be the case for part-time players. Some players will be dependent on the money they earn through rugby, but largely it is something that supplements a more secure full-time job.
There is no other sport that affords part-time players such advance negotiation. In football, players have deals until the end of the season and then they are free to talk to whoever they want for the following one. I’ve seen it work like that with full-time professional players in basketball and ice hockey.
There’s no real reason why part-time rugby league clubs should be put through this strain, and fans are being shortchanged. You announce a squad for 2025, but half way through, lose key figures of it because they’ve signed elsewhere for 2026. It’s nonsense.
There isn’t a huge player pool and there’s enough clubs to go round. If Player X saw out his deal at Widnes, it’s extremely unlikely that come October, he wouldn’t be able to find a deal elsewhere even if that was when he started talking to clubs.
There needs to be reform, and hopefully Widnes are a club that will be involved in leading those discussions, especially with the current situation surrounding Super League and NRL Europe. Widnes are unlikely to be thought of in those discussions, so instead they should be looking at how best they can lead and direct the semi-professional competition that remains.
Should Widnes have done more to block Lannon exit?
As for Lannon, the situation appears to be a little different. It’s worth noting that he ended up at Widnes having left Halifax under a similar cloud midway through last season.
He had been missing from the club, for training or matches, for the past few weeks, allegedly providing the club with excuses for his absence that transpired to be at best inaccurate, and at worst, blatant lies.
So having penned an 18 month deal to join Widnes until the end of 2025, he now leaves that six months from the end, to join Oldham until the end of this season.
It is a frustrating situation for fans particularly. A decent player, a regular starter until recently, has left and gone to a rival club for free.
Questions are asked over whether the club could have done more. But getting a fee simply isn’t realistic – similarly, when Widnes allowed the exit of Cameron Brown earlier in the campaign and he then pitched up at Whitehaven, which perhaps contradicted the reasons for which a release was granted.
In Super League, the salary cap means sitting on a player isn’t wise. That’s not so much an issue in the Championship, where the bottom line of the issue is actually having the finance to be able to pay a player who doesn’t want to play.
Clearly Widnes don’t have the finance to pay a player and force him to sit in the stands. However, if he has been in breach of contract (which he presumably would be if he is refusing to attend matches and training), maybe the club could have been tougher in sitting on his contract for a while, even if it meant fining a few weeks wages and forcing him to sit out at least for a few weeks before winding up at Oldham.
They may have already done that with what’s happened over the past few weeks, but it is still a tough one for fans to swallow. The arrival of McWhirter is a boost, but if he had been an addition to what was already there, it would have been even better.
NEW: Sign up for WidnesRugby+ from just ÂŁ5 per month
