Youngsters...Thoughts please

[Kol]

Why do we sell good youngsters so quickly...Ok when they initially come on to the First Team they make mistakes, silly knock on's, out of position etc. But, why on Earth dont we give them a decent amount of time to mature? These Wigan youngsters really want to play for Wigan. Instead what do we do? buy oldtimers that have had their day, pay them a stupid amount of money and hope for the best.

Look at Hargreves as just one example.

Thoughts?

[shawcross da warrior]

because you cant keep everyone, ian lenegan pointed it out on boots n all last week...

if you have a kris radlinski at full back its near on impossible for someone like briscoe to dislodge them...

its sad but unfortunatly true that you cant keep every youngster...

[the-Bowtun-Warrior]

if you have a kris radlinski at full back its near on impossible for someone like briscoe to dislodge them...

its sad but unfortunatly true that you cant keep every youngster...

we wouldn't mind that situation now! would mean we had some good players then!

[DaveO]

Look at Hargreves as just one example.

Thoughts?

If we'd kept him then one of Prescott or O'Carroll would have gone that season.

You also can't run a team of kids and contracts being what they are, positions in the 1st team only come up for grabs every two or three years. So unless a youngster is prepared to wait and can see a chance of a slot becoming open when a contract does lapse they may want to leave anyway.

It's a juggling act of getting the balance between youth and experience right.

It also helps if your coach would give young players a chance against sides like Cas instead of playing 1st team regulars out of position.

Dave

[jaws1]

Dont know why we have a reserve side when you have a coach who is reluctant to play them in the 1st team squad who would sooner buy in from Australia .Especially this season when there is no relegation the chance to play young players is begging .But on the other foot we have a certain fan base who want instant success and winning trophies .Leeds have a good youth policy and have kept faith in it .Sam Tomkins scores 5 tries on his debut and cant even make the subs bench for me he would be on the wing ,Edwards,Radlinksi,Jason Robinson [signed as a stand off]learned their trade there.
How do we know what the youngsters can do until you put them against SL opposition.They have not let us down in the past Betts had them playing as did agent Millward.
I would sooner go and watch a team of youngsters trying their guts than a side bereft of speed and ideas.
Bottom line is do we want trophies or play the young guns mine would be the latter.

[cpwigan]

Creating and maintaining a successful team takes real forward planning and steady progression in terms of player turnover with minimal upheval. Hence, a player produced by the club has a major advantage over a new signing from elsewhere because he is familiar with the routines / expectations of the club and the teammates / systems of play that he is coming into.

The key factor is stability in key positions. If you have outstanding key players they should make it easier for any newcomers. Botica on the wing, Eastmond at fullback. Players are allowed to develop steadily without huge demands being placed on them.

Long, Martyn/Pryce, KC, Wellens or Burrow, McGuire, Sinfield, Webb prove my point. Leeds were happy to give 5 year contracts to Burrow/McGuire. I doubt they would do so for a coach.

You have to narry your first team with your youth development process. So if you have a 21 year old scrum half who is the best in the world and on a 5 year contract you do not need to fight for the next talented junior scrum half. If you have a centre who is 28 and has 3 years left at the top then you should at that time be signing the best young centres you can find. You only want to be changing 2 players at the most each season. It is that stability,player stability that is more important than coach stability.

Sometimes if you do get competition for a position you may decide to release the older player early to free up the position and bring the new player through when it suits the team.

If a club produces 2 world class stand offs at the same time tht is a disaster,particularly if you have invested heavily in both. 1 will always leave and time/effort/money wasted.

The one random that no great planning can anticipate is injuries, career ending ones.

Overseas players, you might ear mark a player/players 1 or 2 years ahead of when you need them.

[cpwigan]

The position we are in needed a more radical plan. We blood X youngster more rapidly because if we do not we have no progression/no planning and will either have to buy in several players or blood too many youngsters at once.

Goulding HAS to develop as a Wigan RL centre. We signed 3; Goulding, Gleeson and Walker. Only 1 came through. That is okay. Carmont, great but he has 2 years left, 3 would be wonderful. When we replace Carmont, the opposite side centre has to be established/dominant. If in 2 years time we have to buy 2 centre at the same time the change/pressure will be too great.

[warrior till i die]

well in 2 years (maybe 3) we will possibly have a certain Ian Thornley in the centres who is a beast!

The position where we have the best players coming through is definately second row; with mossop and davies to name two.

We also have very good half backs coming through in Tomkins and Joe Mellor. In a few years don't be surprised if this is our half back partnership.

We also have 2 excellent wingers coming through in Stanton and Ainscough; both of these could become very good wigan players.

I think we're struggling to produce full backs. Your opinion CP? I think this is very rare with wigan!

Ooooo and also look out by someone with the name of Farrell becoming an excellent wigan loose forward!

The thing which the coaches need to do is decided when to put them in the first team, in about 5 years I can see the team being a team full of wiganers again!

At hooker we also have the 3rd Tomkins, who is also a very good player!

Richards
Stanton
Goulding
Thornley
Ainscough
Tomkins
Mellor
O'Carroll
McIllorum
Prescott
O'Loughlin
Hansen
Farrell

Then a bench including any of... mossop, J tomkins, l tomkins, davies. Obviously our team will contain the odd overseas player but if we can keep the players above, we will have a very exciting team.

I wouldn't be surprised if our team looked something like that in a few years, sooner rather than later with the number of overseas players being reduced.

[thomo]

I want us to produce a proper prop forward who has some size on them - like a big kid who has some bulk - Prescott and O'Carroll are very hard working kids but do not have the size yet to make an impact and we seem to be able to only slim down players

But then again I have an obsession with size and think biggest is best.

Don't think their are any more big young props coming through is there?

[DaveO]

I think we're struggling to produce full backs. Your opinion CP? I think this is very rare with wigan!

Hampson (signed from Vulcan RU), Radlinski, Brisco and Ashton(:o) all started RL careers at Wigan. Ashton and Briscoe left of course but Rads and Hampson held the slot for many years between them.

I think we have done OK in the past but have no clue if there is one in the U21's ready to step up. It was due to be Ashton of course but we all know what happened there.

Dave