Not sure what you are getting at with this. Wigan have lost Green and Goulding from last years squad. Goulding wasn't getting a game (Sarginson and Gelling the two centres with Thornley injured almost the entire season) and Green has Williams, Hampshire and Powell all vying to replace him.

Even still, its not as if Wigan only had 1 or 2 good years with youth. Haven't they won the u20 competition something silly like 6 out of 7 years? Given this what reason would you give to suggest, as you do, quality is disappearing year on year from Wigans youth players.

We have brought in Minichello and Pryce who will provide more experience to go with Ellis,Yeaman and Houghton who are all seasoned pros and quality players.We also have a proper H/b pairing for the 1st time in ages that should settle us down a lot,as for the kids...we have brought them in,let them have a taste then take them out..a good example being Logan,made his debut against you in that battering was taken out and brought back at the end and held his own and scored 2 good tries v Leeds,Bowden has improved massively,Hadley is progressing nicely,Abdull didn't look out of place at all until he got took out by Hauraki cheaply,Lancaster scored for fun and we have
Tyson Wilson brothers and Jansin Turget in the wings so we should be ok.Some fans want success today but I can see where we are going and this is a outstanding crop of youngsters who will serve us well.

I meant you have lost experienced 1st teamers over the few yrs and you replace them with young ones but will it finally catch up with you....and are the 3 you mentioned ready to direct your team rd the park........not seen a lot of the 3 mentioned apart from on sky and isn't 1 a hooker and another a full back.Powell is the only proper H/b and he looks better at hooker.

I think he means the players playing alongside our youngsters after I said Hull haven't got enough quality to guide their juniors.

In terms of us Greens a loss but our pack will be much stronger and that young centre pairing have developed ten fold these past few months. Our big hopes in terms of the juniors are Williams and Hampshire. They'll play on the back of a big, experienced pack containing guys like Lockers and McIlorum and a prop rotation of about 7 or 8 first team experienced players who'll give them every chance.

Looking at Salfords and wWakeys squads I would say we are stronger than those 2 and dare I say Leeds Squad as well......Leeds 1-17 is superb but who will fill in for them if injured...they have a lot of unheard of players in that squad.....will they be better prepared than ours?

Hampshire is a 6 and Williams and Powell are 7's traditionally from their time in the academy's but all have played in a few positions in the first team to date.

I've been worrying about losses catching up with us for years but somehow we manage to keep rolling on. We lost Richards and Burgess emerged, we lost Finch and Leuluai and Green and Smith came in, we've lost numerous forwards and others move in to their positions without much fuss.

I think Shaun Wane deserves great credit.

All 3 are H/B. Hampshire may end up at FB, but he has always been a H/B.

In terms of them being ready to lead us round the field only time will tell. But Wigan will still have Smith and O'loughlin to take most of the control of the team. Wigan did win 10 from 15 (9 from 13 in the league) with williams or powell at H/B last season.

looking at hull fc, salford and leeds, all have a strong 1-17, after that its all unkown, fc and leeds blood youngsters last season and before so their back up should be stronger this season

salford and fc are quite capable of making the 8 along with the usual suspects

going to be quite intersting who doesnt, may see a shock?

Most obvious thing to say about these squad lists is that there are certainly no world-beaters about.... Also from those squads listed on here, outside of the 1-17, there is plenty of mediocrity.

Again, being pretty obvious, most supporters will have high hopes for their own sides after seeing these squad lists.... As a Wire fan, I don't see much to suggest that we won't be challenging for trophies - However, similarly, non- Wire fans will rightly see our squad and think we are very beatable too.

As the salary cap was designed to do, we now have a relatively competitive competition, unfortunately because the cap limit hasn't budged for years, the league is also becoming more and more mediocre, standard wise, as the years roll on.

Lomax
Makinson
Turner
Jones
Swift
Burns
Walsh
Masoe
Roby
Amor
LMS
Wilkin
Thompson

Hohaia
Vea
Walmsley
Richards

Wellens
Dawson
Percival
Hewitt
Flanaghan
Greenwood
Savelio
Walker

Charnock
Ashworth
Fozard
Hand
<kids>

We have cap space (or I at least hope so, losing 12 and signing 2!) and there have been a few murmurs of players still to come in - nothing certain but Bryce Gibbs has been mentioned, which would be good just to take pressure off Richards shoulders, and would help with rotations a bit. I think if there weren't more movement to come from us we'd of announced the squad with today's shirt launch...

Initial impression: very inexperienced in the back end but plenty of talent there. Short a pack man but hopefully the rumours are true...

And yet we've just seen England play as well as they have in a tournament for years. So if the quality of the league is down, and the international team is on the rise, then the only conclusion to be drawn is that there are less decent imports coming over.

Isn't that what people wanted?

And fwiw I don't think the quality is down. St Helens 2006 were certainly a better team than 2014. As were Leeds 2007/8. However, whilst the quality of the top couple of sides might be down I personally think the bottom sides are improved. This makes it a better league.

I agree. The league is now more competitive, making for a more level league. However, the quality has been thinned out and is leading to increasingly poor quality of champion.

If we are being brutal, the only way to increase the true 'quality' of the league, under the present salary cap system, would be to cut the size of the top division to a maximum of 10, ideally 8.... Spread the quality among less clubs and obviously you have better sides?

It could even be argued that this latest idea of getting shut of the bottom 4, two thirds of the way through the season, is the next stepping stone to ultimately reducing the top division?

Nope.We want the decent imports.Fact is we do have less imports (a good thing) but most are of an average at best standard where in the past most clubs had at least one if not a few big names who had played rep footie down under and still had a few years to give and add to the quality of the league.

Wigans squad looks like being (after Mossop's arrival and Taylor's exit)-

Bowen
Charnley
Gelling
Sarginson
Burgess
Powell
Smith
Flower
McIlorum
Mossop
J Tomkins
L Farrell
O'Loughlin

Tautai
Patrick
Bateman
Crosby

Williams
Hampshire
Thornley
Manfredi
L Tomkins
Clubb
Pettybourne
Dudson (probably leaving as well)
Greenwood
Sutton
C Farrell
Lever
Gildart
Tierney
Lloyd

Hughes and Burke out on loan.

Some good depth with 6 or 7 lads with at least 15-20 games first team experience outside the first 17. I'd expect the three youngsters (Powell, Williams and Hampshire) to all get chances at stand off.

Greenwood showed last season that he could offer something to Wigan whilst on loan at the Broncos. Sutton was outstanding for such a young prop when he played last season. These two along with C Farrell, Hampshire & Williams will be looking to get bigger mins this season. Think they may struggle to get what they want with players like Pettybourne, Thornley & Clubb (one of our most impressive players last season) already out of your 1-17.

L Tomkins and Lloyd are going to struggle to make an impact.

Wane has got a real job on his hands keeping everyone happy, but we do have real strength in depth. I would think he will look to rotate all season long to ensure the players are rested at the business end of the season.