A tru saint .

1st post and not on your own web site. get a life.

You have only joined as you won last night

Shouldn't be a problem for us.

We have much better u20's side and have done for a few years now. We have a Charnley for your Foster, a Sam Tomkins for your Lomax and a Lee Mossop for your Matty Ashurst and that will continue and bear it's fruit rolling forward.

Saints were great last night and the 2 young halfbacks are going great but we'll be back and with our youth set up, the rise of the Aussie salary cap and therefore less top draw overseas players coming over were in a great position to move forward.

With SW's history of coaching Wigan's youth teams I'm sure he'll introduce quite a few of them them into the first team over a period starting 2012.
I would also be very surprised if he used more then one or two at the most into the first team for any one game.

mellor and crosby look like the two who are being primed, logan tomkins might get a few games aswell

I can understand people's doubts watching him yesterday. He looks decent enough but he's not that big yet has no great pace and is passing looked ok but not outstanding.

Hate to say it but looks a bit of a Mark Smith to me. A good lad that people want to be better then they are.

The lads I have high hopes for are Russell, King, Powell, Mellor, Crosby, Hughes and Burke. I've heard good things about the lot and they didn't dissapoint.

Wane will blood some younger players probably because he will have to but I think he would want to do so anyway.

The trick is getting the balance right. It was wrong this season with only Charnley breaking through but we can't chuck in five or six either. I like the idea of Russell at full back so Sam can go to six with the younger half backs being groomed for Finches departure. That is nice long term planning.

So the number mentioned by NickyKiss at the start of the thread seems about right. I don't get a chance to watch the under 20's but NK seems to know what he is talking about so I will look out for those names.

I don't get to many games either tbh but it's an area I'm very interested in and follow people comments and reports closely.

Rouges would probably be our man to give the best views.

Going off what I've seen guys like Russell, King and Crosby could be special. It's sometimes about these lads being in the right place at the right time though and we may see some lads come through you wouldn't expect and vice versa.

If S Wane gets the job it will be interesting to see what he does regarding introducing young players,this may show if he had a conflict with Madge regarding the make up of the team.
The case everyone is allways talking about is the split of fans regarding Sam Tomkins over which posistion he should play,if Wane (if he gets the job) switches Sam to standoff this may mean that such a difference of opinion existed. But as everyone knows there can only be one boss.
Next season though I think could be exiting times if a couple of young players are introduced,we must not forget that the u/20s have been very successful over the last few years. If we left the most promising ones in the u/20s for another year they may start to look elsewere.

There is no guarantee that great juniors will become great seniors. None. Even the most talented youngster must overcome myriad potential hurdles before replicating his form consistently at a higher level.

For instance - he may not physically mature; he may be waylaid by the temptations of drink and/or the high-life; he may find the demands of professional life too costly; he may lose interest; he may lack the requisite mental toughness and there is always the ever-looming possibility of serious injury.

This is the reason so many "great" junior sides have fallen by the wayside over the years. I remember many claiming Warrington's academy (containing not just Harris and Sculthorpe but a host of other promising kids) would go on to dominate the game. It never happened. Ditto the Hull academy which featured an outstanding Dean Busby. And let's not forget the Wigan kids who swept all before them only to end up in one great diaspora.

I'm not saying the current crop of Wigan kids won't do well. But let's exercise a touch of caution before etching the club's name on the trophy two years in advance.

Its impossible to tell who will come through from the academy every year. Obviously coaches will have their plans but it all depends on other players forms and injurys. The young players are what make our SQUAD great and with a good solid first 20 players, we can easily rely on players like Mellor/King/Crosby etc to come through the ranks depending on form and injury. Next year we are two players short of a class team when you write it down and look. A centre and a Halfback.

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Josh Charnley
3.
4. George Carmont
5. Pat Richards
6. Brett Finch
7.
8. Stuart Fielden
9. Thomas Leuluai
10. Jeff Lima
11. Harrison Hansen
12. Joel Tomkins
13. Sean O'Loughlin

14. Michael McIlorum
15. Gaz Hock
16. Lee Mossop
17. Paul Prescott

18. Darrell Goulding
19. Liam Farrell
20. Chris Tuson
21. Stef Marsh
22. Dom Crosby
23. Logan Tomkins
24. Joe Mellor
25. Jack Hughes
26. Ryan King
27. Matty Russell
28. Sam Powell

With rumoured signings of:

29. Gareth Thomas
30. Ben Flower
31. Gil Dudson
32. Epalahame Lauaki

Hopefully with some visa miracle the signing of Todd Carney will come off. As Rogues has pointed out in another thread there is a serious lack of good centres availble so IMO we need to throw some decent money at someone. I get the feeling though if the Lauaki signing is true then JT will be stuck in the centres for another season