I haven't seen Irwin play - but he's thought of very highly at the club.  My concern would be throwing him in at 17 against a team like Saints who will play with lots of intensity.

Burgess played Lindop at a similar age away in France, so he isn`t scared of selecting players when they are so young, if he considers that they are good enough and can cope with the associated game pressure.

If he has the talent Irwin should be ok ,there were a lot of young lads who went into a very intense situation in 1939.
I see Leyland is out in the cold again.

Saints did it against Wigan last week with Whitby. Maybe that's what we need to do from time to time instead of giving 35 year old Stef Ratchford a new deal and playing him.

When we signed Leyland, Burgess said: "Oli is a great young player who we were keen to bring to Warrington. I'm excited to see him develop with us next year." So how is being at Widnes helping him to develop with us? He is still very new to our club, so surely it would be better for him to be with our group, learning our systems and forging better relationships with our other half-backs, rather than being up the road? You have to wonder what's going on. With Williams and Hayes both out injured, how is a kid like Irwin getting into the squad ahead of Leyland? What must that be doing to Leyland's confidence? It would be nice if the WG could ask these type of questions on behalf of the fans, instead of just acting as the club's mouthpiece.

The WG interviews are about as incisive as a junior reporter from the North Korean Gazette interviewing Kim Jong Un - and they have the temerity to ask you to pay to read them!

As I say, I haven't seen the kid play, just a comment really in terms of his size - Whitby is a year further on in terms of his physical development in a full time environment - which makes a difference.


I would always prefer a good youn'un to play than someone set to retire, the circumstances just have to be right otherwise it can be counterproductive. Maybe the cuircumstances are right, he plays and he blows us away - lets hope as from what I'm hearing there are question marks about Hayes.


Lindop had the size already, so less of an issue with him.

I thought young Whitby did everything that was asked of him & the touchline goal must have done his confidence a world of good.
Sometimes a young player can benefit a team especially when opposition coaches haven't done any groundwork on the new kid on the block.

I will ask again because nobody ever seems to answer (or know!) but where the feck is Hayes? 

I'm sure that I read that he'd suffered further setbacks in his recovery.

I want to know where Wrench is also. The club have been very quiet on both. Am i right in thinking they've both been out for over a year now? 

Nothing against you personally but this kind of post really annoys me. I see this kind of post a lot oh we can?t play x,y or z against this or that team. Why not, it?s the best way to learn imo. We will learn nothing from him playing against Salford reserves etc. He as been selected for the Lancashire Academy Squad so is clearly highly thought of. He was in last week?s 21 and agin in this one, I hope it?s not just for experience around the first team learning how to order coffee.