DaveO wrote:
I always think anyone we sign is virtually guaranteed games come what may.
Romain Navarette only played a handful of games from the bench, Sam Hopkins never started a SL game, Gelling played less tha half the games in his first season.
Your exceptions to the rule (and Gelling isn't anyway) don't prove it. In the current team look at Isa and watch Sarge be first pick.
I bet Hamlin figures very quickly but if he does not, why have we decided to sign someone not ready for the 1st team when we have supposedly got the best academy in the league?
Isa and Sarginson were already established Superleague players when they came to Wigan. This thread is about Hamlin, so the Navarette, Hopkins, Gelling part is relevant in that they weren't guaranteed !st team spots when they first came. Sarginson will be first choice right centre to start and quite rightly as we don't know how Higginsons fitness is, he's barely strung eight games together for the last three years and Worthington isn't ready yet and has another year at U19's level. As for the remark about the academy I do expect to see Jack Wells and Josh progress this year and they're about a year younger than Hamlin.
One of my big hopes for the new Superleague administration is that they make the SL teams run a reserve grade.
Romain Navarette only played a handful of games from the bench, Sam Hopkins never started a SL game, Gelling played less tha half the games in his first season.
Your exceptions to the rule (and Gelling isn't anyway) don't prove it. In the current team look at Isa and watch Sarge be first pick.
I bet Hamlin figures very quickly but if he does not, why have we decided to sign someone not ready for the 1st team when we have supposedly got the best academy in the league?
Isa and Sarginson were already established Superleague players when they came to Wigan. This thread is about Hamlin, so the Navarette, Hopkins, Gelling part is relevant in that they weren't guaranteed !st team spots when they first came. Sarginson will be first choice right centre to start and quite rightly as we don't know how Higginsons fitness is, he's barely strung eight games together for the last three years and Worthington isn't ready yet and has another year at U19's level. As for the remark about the academy I do expect to see Jack Wells and Josh progress this year and they're about a year younger than Hamlin. One of my big hopes for the new Superleague administration is that they make the SL teams run a reserve grade.
And mine, added to that all teams should run with an U19 team. If a quota is brought into play it will force all SL clubs hands.
Winning is down to 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration - Shaun Edwards
DaveO wrote:Your exceptions to the rule (and Gelling isn't anyway) don't prove it. In the current team look at Isa and watch Sarge be first pick.
I bet Hamlin figures very quickly but if he does not, why have we decided to sign someone not ready for the 1st team when we have supposedly got the best academy in the league?
Isa is a little bit subjective isn't it? We know you don't rate him so your view is going to be that he should never be selected and him being selected must only be because Wane signed him.
While Isa hasn't been a superstar I think he's done a decent job compared to our other forwards and given the injuries we had and his versatility it would have been madness for him not to play so many games this year. Who realistically should have been playing instead of him?
Still, didn't he miss out on our biggest game of the year? Despite being a Wane signing he didn't play in the World Club Challenge.
Gelling also doesn't prove the rule. He was signed and barely featured as Goulding was preferred ahead of him. Gelling only got his chance when Goulding got injured and was allowed to leave. Since then he's been hit and miss but we've never really had any other options at centre who are good enough.
There are very few players we sign who never get games. We even played that joke of a Welsh RU prop we signed when he clearly wasn't up to it. I also don't think Isa is a subjective call. He's an average player and figures regularly. The fact Gelling made the centre spot after Goulding left is a fine example of the problem. We signed a centre and so we stuck with him despite his failings. It's as if the club never wants to admit it made a mistake.
Wasn't he a no. 8 in RU? I am not sure what he was though prop is the position he played for us certainly on his debut. We still played him for 5 games though! In the same era we played that other master stroke of a signing Lauaki.
He wasn't a union prop but did play prop for us too big and slow to play any other position, a poor man's Scott Quinell who was a union back rower but played prop for us
