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I take issue with the notion that seems to be prevalent on this forum that Wigan has a long history of releasing young players who later come back to haunt us.

Apart from the fact that we have always had many more players coming up through the ranks than most clubs, there are very few who I believe we would want back.

And before anyone says Sean Long, he was got rid of for 'off the field' reasons.Good player over the years, I admit, but remember we did get Lee Hansen in return (ahem..)

Seriously though, whilst Briscoe and Robinson are decent players, I honestly don't think that they're of the standard that we want if we want to be anything like a force in the game again.For every Briscoe there's a Bibey, for every Robinson there's a Cardiss or a Smyth.

We've got it right far,far more often than we've got it wrong

but isn't it s**t when we get it wrong

Well yeah, but who would you cite as evidence ??

I think there is some truth in both arguments. There is no doubting though that we no longer secure as many outstanding players as we once did, particularly from outside the Wigan & Leigh Service Area.

It is wrong for people to list every player now playing elsewhere. Each case has to be looked at individually. For example from those listed; the Long move was a disaster. He was readily identified as being very special and a bad knee injury saw him shown the exit far too early for a woeful plyer. Rob Smyth, a fantastic youngster, according to my schoolboy contacts, second only to Joe Lydon in pace at those age groups. Had a good intro to his Wigan career then a succession of injuries caused his career to downturn. Briscoe, quality player who simply had to move because the fullback at Wigan was so much better (Rads) Daryl Cardiss was actually an outstanding talent who did not listen to his coach and decided to control his own destiny.

Sean Long was nearly ten years ago as well. Not a bad strike rate really, and like I say, he was 'released' for non rugby reasons

Like you said Briscoe had to go really simply because Radlinksi was so dominant, but i'd still love to have him back.
And I know he wasnt really homegrown, but I wish that David Hodgson was still here, much prefer him to Vaeliki or Brown.

But the bottom line is that with the salary cap, etc, you have to take risks, letting an unproven player leave seems like a small one, I suppose we've just got to trust the managements judgement and hope that they don't let the right ones go. but its a difficult job as its hard to judge how people will turn out.

I think the secret is getting the 'decade players' to come through. By that I mean the players who will provide the backbon to your team for up to a decade and thus provide continuity and allow a slow, steady turnover in playing staff. We always had that but as SL approached we lot it to some extent. Faz and Rads were the last two such players O'Loughlin is likely to become one but we need several. Internal and outside forces saw a sudden surge in turnover of such players and for a variety of reasons we never got the full decade out of several. Phil Clarke, Jason Robinson and Henry Pul are some examples.

Briscoe isn't even starting for Hull these days..Motu Tony plays at fullback.

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We didn't release Sean Briscoe because we already had a fullback, we released his because he wouldn't fit under the salary cap. Then when Lam was injured we offered him a one year deal but it was too late and he was off.

Similar with Robinson, we were 'told' he was released because there was no room under the cap and then we sign Moran.

We released Paul Johnson who is playing superb at Bradford, a lot stronger an option than our centres now and could be a useful option with our forward injuries.

We released David Hodgeson because he struggled when we rushed him back from a ruptured achilles tendon. We replace him with Vaealiki, having suffered the exact same injury, wise call?

Wild and Aspinwall, many will argue are not 'Wigan quality' but what is Wigan quality these days? We are in 2006, not 1992. We could have done with both of these players this season.

So whilst some decisions to release players may have been the right thing to do some clearly have been bad calls.