Is this person by any chance the groundsman, or the guy in the shop, or maybe the guy who cleans the seats in the north stand?

Sounds very simplistic; if I say so myself.

Might be simplistic, jd, but the fella's right...we need to be producing more young talent, than the odd one or two.

The last PROPER wave of talent coming through was nearly 20 years ago (Penny, Harris, Hilton, Roper, Sculthorpe, Wainwright), THAT'S A LONG TIME AGO. We had a mini flurish a few years back, but only Harrison has really kicked on....Blythe and Cooper flatter to deceive at times, Penny has been and gone, Riley has spent a bit of time 'out in the wilderness' and as for Mitchell and McCarthy, they need to buck their ideas up, or it's stagnating career for both of them.

Mitchell and McCarthy have done nothing of note yet.

Mitchell is still living on the reputation of THAT try THREE years ago

McCarthy is the Emporors New Clothes. Loads rave about him, but I just don't see it

I agree.

Arguably, it was our recruitment tactics to that wave of talent that ended up with us in the financial doodoo.

It is true that the first team is somewhat baron in terms of warrington youth. I I think riley, cooper and harrison are the only worthy ones (in that order)

But I cannot imagine someone close to the warrington youth set up only mentioning GOB (already played for first team), rhys( played many of times for wire) and his brother it sounds like it is something an outsider who has just read this board occassionally would say. No mention of burke or peasnell or currie or anyone. We have a grand final competition youth team and many of those (I feel) would be endorsed by someone close to the team.

I don't think it's anything to do with the lack of quality players at youth level. I think it is more down to coaching. The service area set up has recently brought in under 12 players into the system this year which is good as they get quality coaching earlier. I have done coaching badges and they are not worth a carrot. They tell you about child protection, health and safety, how to fill in a session plan but they do not tell you what skills each child should have at a certain age and how the game changes and how to coach aspects of the game. There are some really good coaches at club level but most coaches are the father of one of the kids who have great enthusiasm and puts a lot of effort in but can't identify simple things like if a kid only steps off one foot or never passes to his right. It is the standard of coaches that let's the system down.
How difficult would it be for a wire player to adopt a junior team between the age of under 8 to under 12. With a squad of 25 that would easily cover all of the junior teams in Warrington and if they turned up at a training session every couple of weeks and watched the odd game. They could then pass on info to the coaches for them to implement.
Sorry rant over

I think Mike Cooper has really kicked on this year, in previous years he seemed to be just about strutting about, puffing his chest out thinking he's 10 men (which he probably is to be fair lol) but he's come on leaps and bounds this season

Coops has come on leaps and bounds, impressed with him and...i think the word is TRUST, i trust him to do a good job now.

cooper has everything he needs to be a top forward..... every season i think that this is the season he is going to deliver...... this season he has really started showing that he can be that man.

im not sure he is a prop though.

maybe this new '13' role is made for a player like cooper

His brother looks half decent too.

Hopefully Jack Cooper, Ryan Shaw, Ben Currie, James Laithwaite, Ben Evans and others will break through soon. Yes we have an ageing squad but I'm confident we do have talent coming through that can be promoted.

James Laithwaite is especially a player I've been impressed with recently, he could push for the Loose Forward role.

While I agree we have some outstanding players coming through the youth, I just get the feeling they will get overlooked as always due to us buying in overaged stars looking for the money. Look at saints how they bring in the youth and some of them we should have spotted such as Dixon and their u20s player of the year walker both from warington. Also watch out for mellor at Wigan nxt season another one we let go. I'm sure fans would rather see local talant in the primrose and blue.

From the looks of his Twitter account, Jack Cooper is leaving us, he tweeted last weekLast training session with Warrington tonight,I will miss the place and all the lads but time for me to move on.'"