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We all know how successful the youth system is at the moment, and how it has been for many years and many people say it's the best in Superleague. However, at tonight's 2023/24 Scholarship season launch, I saw a stat that said, of the 379 professional players in Superleague, 42 of them have come through the Warriors youth pathway. That equates to 11%, more than any other club in the country.

That's a simply phenomenal statistic

Sutty wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2023 12:19 am We all know how successful the youth system is at the moment, and how it has been for many years and many people say it's the best in Superleague. However, at tonight's 2023/24 Scholarship season launch, I saw a stat that said, of the 379 professional players in Superleague, 42 of them have come through the Warriors youth pathway. That equates to 11%, more than any other club in the country.

That's a simply phenomenal statistic

It definitely is & if you look, not only in Super League, but how many clubs have ex Wigan Warriors players in their playing Squad at home & abroad.

At first I wasn't as impressed by the 11% as I should have been - it's "only" a ninth of the total, I thought.
But then, thinking about it, every team in SL must have half a dozen Aussies, Kiwis and Islanders in their squad.
(We have 7: Field, French, Miski, Cust, Ellis, Isa, Mago.)
Plus the odd Frenchman or ex union player. So if there are 7 per team, that's 84 of the 379, leaving 295 home-produced players in the league.

So excluding imports, our 42 becomes just over 14%, or 1 in 7. There are also players like Alex Walmesley, LMS and James Harrison from lower divisions, which would boost our percentage even further

This means that, on average, the other eleven SL teams produce less than half the number of players we do.

Final point: if you counted only players with a minimum of, say, 20 games played, it may well take us to the 16% to 18% level?

i've seen a facebook post earlier this week where we have taken quite a few guys from Thatto Heath onto our scholarship

one of my old work mates has a long association with them and he often touts them as the best amateur club in the country. He is rightly proud of what they have produced / produce

the plus side for us, is that we are looking a little further afield than the production lines of St Pats, Judes, Orrell etc and in taking so many from Thatto Heath could be a positive if we can get 2-3 of them into the 1st team. I know we regularly have players in our academy who arent from Wigan, but dont think we've ever had so many from one club outside of Wigan previously

I agree iknow the coach of the thatto heath team that we have taken all of these players from and he informed me that these lads and his team are the best in this country so well done our scouts

Suzieb wrote: ↑Thu Sep 07, 2023 10:41 am I agree iknow the coach of the thatto heath team that we have taken all of these players from and he informed me that these lads and his team are the best in this country so well done our scouts

excellent, good to hear

i've just had another look on the facebook post. Obviously nothing nasty on there, but seems a few questioning why they have chosen Wigan and not Saints

i know our gym setup is one of (if not the best) in RL and the envy of many others sports clubs around the country. The club spent a lot of time and effort into getting it right approx 18 - 24 months ago and i dont believe that anyone using it will want for equipment

The rest of the team went to saints

the pieman wrote: ↑Thu Sep 07, 2023 10:52 am

Suzieb wrote: ↑Thu Sep 07, 2023 10:41 am I agree iknow the coach of the thatto heath team that we have taken all of these players from and he informed me that these lads and his team are the best in this country so well done our scouts

excellent, good to hear

i've just had another look on the facebook post. Obviously nothing nasty on there, but seems a few questioning why they have chosen Wigan and not Saints

I know our gym setup is one of (if not the best) in RL and the envy of many others sports clubs around the country. The club spent a lot of time and effort into getting it right approx 18 - 24 months ago and i dont believe that anyone using it will want for equipment

Yep, we've taken on quite a few from Thatto. During the launch event for the Scholarship last Saturday I was speaking to one of the parents of a Thatto lad and he said that the way Wigan made him feel, and in particular the interest that Shane Eccles showed in the players, was the key determining factor behind him choosing Wigan. I'm actually good mates with his dad and grandad and they're both staunch Saints fans, not that I mentioned that on Saturday

Our youth system is absolutely brilliant and there isn't another club in the country that can boast anything even remotely close to our facilities. In fact, speaking to coaching staff who have coached in Australia, they've said that there are equivalent facilities in Oz, but nothing much better.
It was the first night of training for the 2023/24 Scholarship season last night and it's fair to say that it was more than a bit of a shock to the system, what we were putting the lads through, but it's all about educating them and coaching them on the club culture, ethos and standards expected and required to succeed at Wigan Warriors.

There's some great talent coming through.

Please forgive the irrelevant post, but as a kid I remember train-spotting on Wigan North Western station. About 4 times every hour there was an announcement on the tannoy which said:
"The train now standing on platform 7 is for Liverpool. Stopping at Bryn, Garswood, St Helens, Thatto Heath, Prescott, and stations to Liverpool."
1959 to 1963-ish. Does anyone remember?

I remember it well Morley may have been 64/65 for me but I went train spotting on north western and got the train you mention back to bryn or garswood as it was in between where I lived, the good old days waiting for a Britania class to come through if we were lucky