We have a player who can play like Cuthbertson

[old hooker]

Once again we are comparing a seasoned NRL player to an average SL player.Burke has had plenty opportunities to shine but is nothing special.We need to get away from the mindset that because a player comes from the Wigan area he is special.It is not true and Burke is an honest decent player but will never set the RL world on fire.

[Mike]

It does seem to me that some are a bit carried away with the potential of the currrent batch of junior players.

I've heard it said before that is 1 or 2 players make the step up each season then that is a great success, and in my experience its probably less than that.

However right now it seems that some think 5 or 6 of the current fringe juniors will make the grade and should be being played every week.

Personally I expect 1 or 2 of the current fringe juniors to be at the club in 2 years time as first choice first teamers. The rest may still be on the fringes or have moved on.

I feel the clubs senior player recriutment programme has been failing for the last 3 seasons and that is one of the main causes for our lack of form. In fact, Id say that without the financial problems at Melbourne and then North Wales, the two seasons prior to that would also have been failures. I have concerns the IL's finanacial instincts prevent him from making the sort of recriutment decisions to bring in star quality that previous owners have wanted to make. The finanacial arguments are that if you bring in a star crowds go up, the team does well, crowds stay up and you can therefore afford him. Perhaps recriutment like that is too high-risk for the club right now.

[Dobby]

For whatever reason Burke has never had a proper chance at Wigan. Sometimes your face doesn't fit and there is little you can do to change that. Burke is obviously rated by Hull KR for them to take him and play him week in week, out. The way things are going I am sure the is glad to be there anyway this season.

[TV Warrior]

As someone who watches on the TV I can't really comment on some of the youth players who have only been given snatches of game time here and there but my problem with the forwards is the change in Liam Farrell. Some of his interviews in the winter when he was going on about needing to be more of an enforcer was concerning at the time and that concern was well founded. This isn't something you'd imagine a player decides to do off his own back so I can only assume Wayne has asked him to alter his game. I'd think this can be only for one of two reasons. Either Wayne saw the forward pack was lacking and decided he could trust Farrell with this job or he just wanted to change the way Farrell played. Either way it hasn't worked and has reduced one of the teams most effective players to a liability. Gone are the line breaks, offloads, support runs and tries only to be replaced by needless penalty after needless penalty.