Has Hughes ever played centre...or hooker...

I'm assuming that Rogues, the Purple Aki of Wigan RL will be along shortly to let us know...

We looked at our absolute worst when Hughes was injured. Very under appreciated player, much like Trent Waterhouse. does nothing spectacular but does everything well and never slacks off. Does the little 1% things off the ball that wins you games.

Jack Hughes was Mr Dependable on the right edge in defence I am a little underwhelmed with his attacking prowess and hitting the line hard and bursting through gaps (ala Liam Farrell in the Grand Final).

He was given the number 4 shirt at Wigan when Carmont retired, he played a fair few times at centre (did well against Leeds), but ultimate would just be an athletic strong centre without a passing game.

Yes I recall on here there were some who had Hughes as the better player than Farrell. I must admit it crossed my mind as Farrell ran over Gidley and put Gildart through in the GF.

Sorry to sound like a stuck record but I think the injuries to our props affected the whole scrum, with Hill and Sims doing long spells it meant the back row were plugging gaps leaving little in the tank for attack. I'm really hoping that this view will be supported by what happens this coming season which is definitely "our year" in case anyone was unaware.

Is that recruitment done now then? If Sandow was our marquee player his salary cap value would have been £175k, surely Brown won't be on that?

Still cap space remaining?

I thought the club had stated in the past that Sandow was not classed as a Marquee player... maybe he wasn't on quite the salary most would like to think.

But yes, it's almost certain there is still plenty of cap space to play with after Brown's signing.

Doubt we'll see any movement before the start of the season though. Maybe if there's a second injury crisis later in the season we can utilise that cap space to shore up the threequarters.

The more I look at the squad, the more I like it. Shifted some dead wood, replaced with real competitors in Cooper and Crosby. Savelio looked a handful at Saints and was ok at Cas, and will add more than what Wilde/Philbin could offer at the moment.
The young guys are going to be a bit stronger and battle hardened, Johnson, Wilde, Smith and Livett will be pushing for minutes I suspect.
And I like Brown. He can move the ball well, and with genuine strike options like Currie (in June), Atkins and potentially Penny on that left side, he'all have a few more options than at Widnes with Ah Van and Runciman.
I'm not saying it's our year or any of that nonsense, but the squad has strength and balance.

On the other hand ,it doesn't say a lot about the faith of the club in our academy system when our youngsters are being overlooked or shipped out only for the club to chase academy trained players from other clubs.

There is T.King & G.King,Jack Johnson,Sam Wilde,Joe Philbin,Dec Patton,Morgan Smith,Harvey Livett & Pat Moran who have come through from the academy and have been signed to the first team squad in the last couple of years

Don't think that's a bad return & all of them have potential to be in the starting 17 in the future, I think all of them will get blooded & more minutes in 2017

Give us some examples then?

Well it's doubtful if Wilde & Philbin would have had a sniff last year if we weren't carrying so many injuries throughout the season. Laithwaite & B.Evans have been shunted off to pastures new & didn't the club send a hooker or half back to Salford ? I think it must be accepted that Crosby & Savellio have been signed with a view to playing so where will that leave our young players with an already beefed up starting pack ?

So the overlooked player was Sean Kenny: seriously?