This I agree with totally. Something is going wrong in the development.

I also have spoken out about the dropping of young players when we lose a game, but we don't drop the favourites no matter what their form is. e.g.) Having Dean play for Castleford whilst we put Matautia in the halves (and still lose by the way) is not right. It sends a terrible message to young players. Same again goes for Green being dropped but Dudson with a continually weak stats performance being kept in the side.

We’re trying to grow plants in a broken greenhouse, blaming the plants, chucking them away and doing exactly the same thing again expecting different results.

Then who do you turn to when all these old fogies run out of steam? It isn't just a Wire problem . Apart from a very few ,clubs in-house player development is abysmal & will continue to dwindle in the future. Unless school led player development is put in place our game will soon be no more than a memory .

And we can't depend on a steady stream of usually overrated Aussies ,over here for their last pay days because they can't get games in the NRL ,but can look quite good against many of our homegrown players.

Very much with you on this. If you go through all the Super League clubs they seem to want to ensure they get their full quota of overseas players at all times.

The number of quota players needs to be reduced gradually, until clubs are only allowed to play a maximum of 2 in their match day 17 man squad.

Clubs will then have to nurture and PLAY their own young talent then.

I think this is probably the correct analysis. We got Longstaff when he was dropped from the Wigan Scholarship back in 2019. He is an ex England Youth player and has consistently shown promise during his development. But he doesn't have a big physique and when he played for us he was routinely pushed back when he took the ball up. Yes he is quick, and he is at his best 'poaching' tries. So if there is a break, he will be on the shoulder of the player, and if the ball is loose near the opposition line he always seems to be close at hand. So he catches the eye and it's easy to miss what happens during the gruelling tackling / making yards aspects of the game. But he has plenty of time to develop with a series of teams and coaches. He had a couple of games for Newcastle in 2021 and10 games for Hull in 2022. He started twice with Salford this year, then dropped down to 18th man. I don't think he has played for them since early May.

I can't see how anyone can come to the conclusion that our coaching department has been lacking wrt Longstaff. It's simply a case of a player not quite making the grade. Its unfortunate for both the player and also all the coaches that have spent long hours with him, but its an all too frequent occurrence at youth level.

I'd be interested to hear your views on Conor Wrench & his potential.

Hill wasn't bad last night was he! Bit old they say. Dudson/Kasiano for another year sounds exciting? What could have been!

I thought that myself, best player on the park.

Also think I heard that he has played every game of the season. I might be wrong, but I don’t think we have a single prop/loose that has played every game.

With the benefit of hindsight, that 2 year deal shouldn’t have been a sticking point.

Benefit of hindsight really does sway thoughts. I thought Hill looked tired before he left & D.Clark looked as though injuries were catching up with him (this time last year). Mulhern was always a work horse though.
The grass is always greener elsewhere.
Ratchford still kicking goals & throwing some lovely passes but many still think he's past it.
It's not easy making real decisions & attempting to predict the future.

Mikaele

We’ve just got to hope he picks up where he left off. I’d assume being in the 21 for an NRL side he’ll still be fighting fit. He was a cracking foil for Vaughan. Good news.

Will be good to see if he can add some punch and direction up the middle for the rest of the year?
Could be the extra umph we need to get us going again, although the last 2 games shown a massive improvement in effort and energy. Keep that effort up and put Williams, Nicholson and Ashton back in the mix and it's a different ball game. I think we've hit a turning point and will swing back in to the Win column

Abe Froman is a reliable source, so Mikaele will be back ASAP.