How long is he out for?

About 12 week I think, though I knoe someone who spoke to him at the weekend and he said ten

I'll be glad to see him back, as he is a helluva grafter and we need as many bodies as possible for the end of season jamboree but I must confess we're not missing him, or to a lesser extent Westwood, as much as I expected.

I was thinking this, at the start of the season I was thinking about who could slot in when Trent returns to Aus & for when Super Ben retires ( I felt sick as I typed that about Ben) but James Laithwaite, Ben Evans, Ben Currie have all stepped up.

I think Trent's contract finishes this year, so our Back row for next season should be Super Ben & Ben H at 2nd row & Simon Grix at 13, with either James & Ben Currie interchanging . I know Ben Evans is playing Prop right now but could he play in the 2nd row? Plus we have Joe Philbin making his debut this Friday.

Things are looking not bad at all, this is a testament to TS & Mr Moran.

James Laithwaite has been superb this year, and I fully expect him to take over from Waterhouse at seasons end. I'm hoping Philbin can get some minutes over the next few weeks and give him a taster, he was outstanding in the U19's on Friday and deserves a chance to progress.

Two great prospects from our own youth system

I think i read somewhere that 9 of the 19 are homegroen which is outstanding and showing that the yuth system at Warrington has improved massively.
I go with one of the U19 coaches dad's to the Fiddle and they are all raving about Philbin in much the same way they did Currie!

It's funny because I've read in places this season other fans saying how they should "invest in their youth" more and not "buy success like Warrington."

Our U19's are top of the league, the majority of our form players are British and we have a fair few academy products in our squad.

I'd love to see how we get on if we "invested in our youth."

To be fair its been a long road to get to this position. I remember a Paul Cullen quote along the lines of 'we need to load from the top as well as load from the bottom' as the investment in a strong youth system had only just began - we were buying experienced quality players from the NRL and bringing in young established SL players from other clubs. So its hardly surprising we have that reputation. It will probably remain until we see the likes of Currie/Laithwaite/Evansx2 & Philbin etc really pushing for full international honours and/or gaining recognition at SL level with us or other clubs.

The injury situation has obviously helped the situation this year. Without injuries/suspensions to Westwood, Waterhouse, Wood, Harrison, Grix, Myler and the move of Bridge in to the halfs, would we have really seen as much of Laithwaite/Evans/Evans/Currie/O'Brien, Ormsby and now Philbin this year? Monas out should also give an extended run to Dwyer which will give us a real indication of his potential at SL level.

Hopefully we have now reached the point where we will start to see 2/3 young players being tested in the first team every year - including a few more Warringtonions!

My point was we invested in our youth whilst also bringing in high profile players and now the youth are taking over.

Wigan are doing the same now and everyone's going nuts at their "ingenuity."

Indeed, but that investment is not recognised by those outside of the club until players with real quality start coming through the system - which has only just started happening with us. Wigan, Saints Leeds etc have been producing those international quality players for years so have that reputation already.

I think our 'production line' has been steady for a few years and will grow from strength to strength. With Burtonwood, being a relatively new club, growing in size and Woolston rebuilding to a strong position again, we now have those two to put with Latchford, Crosfields and Rylands. Add in Culcheth who are a growing club and it's becoming a decent pool to pick from.

Comparing us to Leeds and Wigan is all well and good, but Leeds (off the top of my head) have over 20 clubs to pick from, and Wigan is circa 15. So, yes, they are in a stronger position in terms of volume, but hopefully we can see the quality of our youngsters matching theirs by the structures that we have in place via John Bastian/Phil Jones etc