We did for depth reasons, whether you think Wrench is ready or not.

If he was on the books of St Helens, Leeds or Wigan he would be playing regular Ist team football.

Wire have been far too conservative in blooding their young talent.

Newman, Welsby and Dodd are playing in Super League in a starting 13 position.

By playing their junior players early, it allows Salary Cap room for other players in their teams, which is an issue at Warrington.

I don't disagree with your point in the main, we are generally slow to blood younger players and you are correct if you can have a couple of well performing 20 year olds in the 17, it does make the salary cap easier to manage.

Age shouldn't be the consideration in the players you mention though - quality should. Welsby and Newman I would say were well ahead of Wrench in terms of potential and ability when they came in to the team, both looked first team ready from the start, Wrench hasn't in my view.

The Warrington example I would use is Ben Currie, he was a regular in the 17 when he was 19, but looked the part straight away.

I think our problems in youth development aren't down to not blooding players early enough, its getting the quality of player throught the system which has been the issue.

Spot on this thewlis and longstaff look most ready for us. Wrench wasn't great for his first few appearances, so he is likely to take a bit longer.

I liked the look of Riley Dean when price made wholesale changes (which didn't work) the week before the cup semi against Salford, the trouble is Williams and Widdop need game time to develop their partnership and throwing Dean on behind what at the minute is a failing pack is sort of throwing him to the wolves. I'd like to see if he can take Widdop shirt next year but we have to be able to give him some space to work in first.

Yes, Thewlis had his breakthrough year last year at 18 - I would have been more than happy for him to have been first choice winger this year, was a little disapointed he went for Ashton to be honest, but I've been proven wrong - Ashton has had a good start to the year.

Dean needs a chance, Powell seems to talk him up a little more than Price did, hopefully he gets a chance at some point. Would be a ballsy decision for Powell to run with Thewlis & Dean as first choice next year, with Ratchford sticking around to provide support.

It`s all a matter of opinion with regards players. I think that Conor Wrench is ready for 1st team football and his game at Wigan last year showed off his talent to every one.

By signing Matautia the passage to the 1st team at Wire for Wrench, has effectively been blocked, since Matautia was brought here by Powell.

A young Ben Currie was omitted from our 17 man squad for one of our Grand Final games but a young Jack Welsby scored the winning try for Saints.

If Welsby had been on Warrington`s books do you honestly think we would have played him in a Grand Final as a teenager?

Sam Wilde and dec patton started the 2016 grand final for us (nobody go look at the bench for that, it'll give you nightmares)

just re matautia and wrench, if we're picking games, wrench was all at sea defending against matautia in that sky game at the back end of last year at wheldon road.

At one stage of the game he struggled I agree, but he still scored the conclusive try in the game which sealed the victory.

And that's the point for me, most players struggle, don't 'blame' it on youth AND if you bed in your youngsters in a strong set up, rather than in a reserve outing a la Salford the other year, (although to be fair the youngsters did better than the rested 'stars'), then that would be a better system IMO and give us a clearer indication of where they stand.

Seems to work at Saints, Leeds and Wigan and as a forum we all seem to be clamouring for Ashton Thewlis Wrench and Longstaff....it's the future, but the future should be starting now IMO as it's not these lads letting the side down

I can't disagree on Saints promoting youth, however Welsby got his shot in 2020 because of Percival hardly playing, the same opportunity hasn't happened for Wrench and didn't happen for Currie, we had a bench of Morley, Carvell, Monaghan & Cooper (wow) that night with Grix and Westwood in the back row. Tough gig for him to get in.

Welsby hasn't had a settled position in the Saints line up till 2022, before that he was covering pretty much every position in the back line, so he got plenty of opportunities. If Coote was fit, Coote played full back, Welsby's versatility meant he was a good option as a bench player.

Wrench played 7 games last year, most of them after we had announced the signing of Mata'utia - no way would anyone have considered at that point that Wrench should have been our starting centre in 2022.

Weren't we down to 12 men when that started to happen though?

I think you've answered the issue that we have here "we had a bench of Morley, Carvell, Monaghan & Cooper (wow)" can't wait to see tonight's bench/team sheet. if only we had a squad of that quality now, but we haven't so we need to decide how best to use our time. IMO that includes progressing youngsters talents as part of FULLY assessing the squad which will become Powell's own next year and working out how we rebalance our set up and spend..

The flipside of blooding youngsters at the sharp end rather than on-loan here there and everywhere is they'll make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes will cost you matches. You take it on the chin knowing it's a tough but valuable lesson for them and if they are good enough they'll bounce back and learn.

Wigan, Saints and Leeds have all learnt and profited from that.

No-one ever improved by being wrapped in cotton wool, cosseted, shielded from the harshness of life and indulged.

Spot on MIAW.

Fans are by and large a fickle bunch, but if we could buy into the process and see progress that could be satisfying whilst in transition. Look at all the build up/knock down that seemed to happen to Smith at Wigan, and I've no idea whether he's on form or not, but bet he's on Cloud 9 this morning and he'll probably take that into his next game.

Unfortunately there is no “one size fits all” as to when to introduce a young player into the team. You also have to consider what is in the longer term best interests of the player, confidence is a fragile thing and throwing a youngster into a regularly losing team gives the other players a ready made scapegoat (a phenomenon just as much ia part of real life as on forums) and a vicious spiral of decline can follow.