True. Assume he is a Wigan fan yet his most active forum is this one - strange.

what kind of name is that anyway???
Scottish?

I don't get this business about Finch being average. Finch was the Roosters halfback when they were the dominant team in Aus (during Morley's era) midway through last decade and then he was the Storm halfback and won a Grand Final with them. Now he's signed for the team that finished top of Super League. For an 'average' player he seems to be able to be halfback for a lot of top teams.

When Saints fans say Keiron Cunningham is a great player you get people saying "ah but he never proved himself in the NRL" like the NRL is some gold standard of who is good and who is not. If some English halfback had gone over to the NRL and played as starting halfback for the teams Finch did we'd be revering him as the greatest English halfback of his generation.

I am afraid we are going to find Finch is rather good and he will make Wigan better.

Time will tell at Wigan and we will see. When I've watched him he's not convinced me. I'd be interested to hear Rob's views on Finch as I know he is a keen watcher of the NRL.

Im confident with all three of our signings as Maguire has worked with them all and knows what they can bring to a team, added to the fact that they are coming over in a group which should help them settle in, and coming into a coaching setup that should be fairly recognisable from the storm.

Hoffman is the one i'm really excited about though, seeing as thats our strongest area I believe it was a signing of the "we can't afford to miss this opportunity if he's available" ilk. Finch fills a gap, and Lima as well. Hoffman is coming in to an area where we are extremely strong already.

...Don't be making statements like that Gary you know how much it'll upset the Pie and Stains Trolls...
Apparently we have no youth policy..?

It looks like TS sees that improvements can be found within the squad that he has.
I agree.
Carvell and Solomona can be left looking flat footed from time to time in defence and could possibly be in a position to put longer stints in.
Myler needs more confidence in defence and in organising his team. I would give him spells in hand picked games at hooker ( it has done Burrow, Robinson. Brough, and Leuluai no harm)
Mitchell. Mcarthy and Cooper all need to be stronger in the wrestle rather than being content with simply carrying out a tackle.
These are my main concerns. If some improvements can be found here and the rest of the squad continues to improve then I will be over the moon. I am looking forward to see more of Williams, Evans' , etc.

Not so long ago people were discussing "Warrington buying in talent". Now it looks like Smith is going to bring on some of the young blood and I bet their are people who will be complaining about him not buying in big talent. This year was better than last. if next year is better than this then his "recruitment" policy will have been justified.

Have we? We have bought Josh Perry in to replace Maurie. He's 29. We've also bought Shenton and LMS, both early-mid 20s. But that's it. We have bought one new player for each of the last two seasons (Tony Puletua for 2009, Soliola for 2010 allegedly although he's been missing for most of it!) while dispatching about seven of our experienced players. All the players who have been covering for injuries over the last two seasons have been young guys of 19 and 20 years old. McManus et al have been wise and managed well the transition from an ageing squad to what will probably be the youngest squad in Superleague next year. We will also have a high number of locally produced players in our squad.

With Gidley leaving at the end of this season and having never replaced Talau, we will have no specialist centres next season and unfortunately our youth system hasn't coughed any up. Hence we bought Shenton. Wheeler will likely continue playing at the other centre, assuming he can remain fit, unless that is going to be Meli's last hurrah.

Two props aren't enough, as we have discovered when one has been on long term injury (Maurie). Hence, we've bought both Josh Perry and LMS. Maurie leaves this season. Of course, Cunningham also leaves this season and next we will have a Moore/Roby combo.

No doubt Tony Smith is now starting the same process with Warrington that we began two seasons ago at Saints.

Anyone know when the Evans twins turn 18? I read on the Guardian website they were still 17 few months back, can't remember us ever playing 17 year olds in the first team.

Iestyn Harris must have been close to 17 when he played for us.

Bit before my time that.

Scully played at 16, and i think Mike Cooper was pretty young when he made his debut too. If they're ready play'em!

duffy played at 16