As a result Agnew moved on, but not far. He signed for two more seasons in the same division but with Middlesbrough. From there it was a return to Scotland, indeed to Kilmarnock, again for two years. And at home he seemed to recover form or perhaps mature. He not only marshalled the defence but scored goals, with international recognition following. He won one cap in 1907 and two more in 1908, at which point English interest revived. In 1908 he was signed by Sunderland. 

Agnew remained on Wearside for two season but without particular success, returning just short of his thirtieth birthday to Falkirk to play first for the town club itself and then, after a knee injury, for a final season before The Great War as an amateur with East Stirling. He and Maggie, and their five children then moved to Glasgow, where he worked in insurance for the Prudential and turned his sporting attention to bowls. He won the Scottish Rink Championship in 1926 and bowled for Scotland in 1928. He even died on the bowling green, at an open tournament in Moffat he had already won twice. The year was 1936 and he was just fifty-six years of age.

Willie Agnew was buried in Cathcart but his grave is either unmarked or is one of the several, indeed too many, headstones in the cemetery that have toppled and simply left where they lie. It is something the authorities might do well to rectify.