Quote DaveO="DaveO"
If Warrington have started to get their act together producing young players you will soon notice that not everyone of them who looks good as a junior will make the transition to the senior squad. Wigan [imay[/i be seeing that with at least one of the current junior half backs who may have been expected to step up rather than us go for Smith.
'"
Oh don't worry I know all about that.
I've been hearing glowing hype from our fans about our young players coming through for years. Jamie Durbin was supposed to be the next Allan Langer, Steve Pickersgill (who was a decent hard working player) was supposed to be as good as Morley at a comparable age when he was in the Academy. And we all know what happened to Kevin Penny.
So yes I have a naturally cynical view to young players coming through, I wait till I see them actually handle Super League and prove themselves before getting excited. Sometimes it's the ones you don't hear so much about that manage to handle the step up - Paul Wood slipped into first team under the radar but he was one that looked the part from the word go...Chris Riley was very much seen as second best to Penny but Super League exposed Penny whereas Riley thrived as a try scorer.
So yes the jury is out on Gareth O'Brien but in his first team appearances so far he has looked confident and settled quickly so I have a feeling he is going to be an SL standard player. Still replacing Briers will be a big ask.