You and Charlie rarely watch our reserves.

One of you might tell us last game you saw him play.

Opinions are fine but I prefer evidence Charlie and like I said I have been sent and viewed every Barrow game this season (not from 5 years ago when a player was a junior) so am basing my views on that, plus he's still only 21 something which people forget so in Rugby League terms as a forward he's still only a baby.
At the end of the day it will be the Rugby side of the operation (head coach and football director) that will decide on a players future with the evidence available to them not from a forum like this.

Charlie, you should know by now that no criticism of a player is permitted on this forum. Anybody who has ever pulled on a Leigh shirt is the best thing since sliced bread and is a secret world-beater...except Brown of course. It's a pity its not 250-a-side, then we could play all of them at once.

And, if the board want to sign an unproven youngster on a 25 year contract that is up to them, they never get anything wrong, apparently.

I actually thought Briscoe was doing very well on his odd appearance for the first team and hopefully a year of playing more often at this level will stand him in good stead. Nothing spectacular, but solid in defence and happy to do the hard yards.

I'd add Haggerty and even Ridyard to the list with Higson of players who improve after spells elsewhere, be it Barrow, Swinton or even the Miners.

I agree about Haggy and Riddy , you could add Sarsfield to the list after his Huddersfield and Swinton appearances , and probably plenty more that slip the mind , we all have opinions on players we don't think will make it at Leigh , the thing is do we want to improve or stay static ?Our current reserves are top of their League , but will they all make the first team ?In an ideal world it would be great , but we are in a Professional Sport , I rate a couple of the reserves very highly , but feel we must still cast our net out wide .A few weeks ago , I saw a young lad play for the Deanery in Wigan , he played the opposition off the pitch , he has a long way to go yet , but I will watch him again .

A few years ago at Hilton Park I watched our reserves play , in my company was a young kid , I asked him would he like to play for Leigh ?He nodded and said yes , his name was Tommy Makinson in my opinion the best young winger in the Country at the moment .

Shame about Alex Brown, closest he's come to playing since Barrow was as 18th man when we played Halifax at home. Oddly he's continued to train with the 1st team though so maybe Paul hasn't completely given up on him.

I didn't know Craig was only 21. I can see the opinions from both sides but the one thing against Craig is his size. If he is still growing then fine but for me he just isn't big enough.

I was going to mention Riddy after he left Warrington to go back to the Miners and then coming to Leyth. Not a bad story that

Hi Mapleyther, I don't think it's about not being able to criticise, more that folk offer a counter opinion in defence of a a player that may have been criticised. I "try" not to criticise publicly and prefer the discussion with my mates down the pub or on the terrace pre match. That doesn't go to say I think it's wrong, it's just my opinion.

If 100 of us picked what we believe to be our strongest 17 today my guess would be that we would have at least 25 if not more different teams. If we were asked to pick Englands strongest 17 we would probably get 95 different teams. If we were asked who the best full back was in the world, many would say, Slater, some would say Inglis. I would say Hayne. We all have our favourites and see aspects of a player we like and others we don't. Because of this we cannot form a considered opinion whether we like it or not because it comes back to taste.

This why we are RL typists and the coaches are the coaches.

This doesn't mean we don't know what we are talking about and cannot offer reasoned arguments and opinions and have a good old debate on here. We all talk poo, some of us talk more of it than others on differing subjects

We all know what they say about opinions don't we

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and a right to argue that opinion if people dont like that then they shouldn't come on a public forum, also some people prefer an opinion backed up by evidence and some just rely on memory and hearsay, both can be flawed but I prefer the former if others prefer the latter that is up to them.

As for Tommy Makinson he was on our scholarship scheme but when the RFL wouldn't allow us to run a full scholarship/academy system Saints snapped him up.

Very true Fred , anyone who knows me will tell you I never spicy food , last night at a Dinner I was given a mild spicy dish , im still recovering from it now , which proves , never alter your choices or opinions .Minestrone for me from now on .