Quote The Riddler="The Riddler"That's a very interesting post.
I've been lucky enough to watch every Scholarship match (bar London away this year) for the last two years and agree with most of what you say. You're slightly off about the Wigan defeat though. It was last year's victory over them that brought their two year unbeaten run to an end.
The under 19s will be much stronger in 2019 and I would be disappointed if they didn't challenge for the title in 2020.
Your list of U16s likely to sign wasn't far off the mark.
You've accidentally listed Joe Roper twice though, where I presume you meant to write Joe Barnes in as the SH.
Joe Kohe-Love (C / SO) and Alex Pendlebury (P) are the other two signed.
Joe Roper hasn't been signed and I don't think it's my place to go into detail as I've only heard the story third hand.
You'll have also now seen that a player has been signed from each of Leeds and Huddersfield and it's no coincidence I include these two items in the same paragraph. Warrington made approaches for most, if not all, of what might be regarded as the highest regarded players in the age group and there may well be one more from our friends up the A49. Although this might be regarded as a statement of intent and an indication of ambition, the club must be extremely careful not to alienate their own scholarship players, and families, in attempting to recruit from other clubs.'"
Yes, Joe Barnes - I am a bit sleep deprived atm.
Anyway, it will be an interesting year for the 2019 U19's. I am looking forward to seeing Burgess and Doro paired up, and intrigued to see whether Edge or Thewliss gets the FB role. Perhaps Edge will move back to centre.
The better terms / preferential treatment given to some of the imports has certainly caused problems in the very recent past and players have left because of it. I suppose its a difficult line for the club to tread in that they want the best prospects but wish to avoid causing division within a group of players that are being taught to play as a team. Better terms at senior level occur all the time of course, but by then the individual has developed and its primarily 'pay according to results'. Despite their plentiful supply of juniors, Wigan are certainly pulling in plenty of juniors from across the country. It would be interesting to know their policy.
