Harris and Deacon seemed to have us playing well, TL has been bought as player and then moving to coaching. I would think it is safe to assume he will be filling similar roles to the aforementioned. Plus if he plays, he's not matty smith?

But no-one can know what any coach would think about the prospect of coaching Wigan, not just those in Australia. We can only speculate on [ipotential[/i targets.

You do realise that we run an Under 23's team too?

You mean a reserves team? The ones that have about 5 games a year?

Or 16 games!

[urlhttp://www.hullfc.com/team/under-23s/fixtures[/url

You've got to strike a balance. Hull have 8 in the squad yes (although Feka was only really kept because we want him for a community development role and he wasn't quite ready to hang up his boots), and that is on the high side. On the other hand 8 members of the cup final winning side were Hull lads, and our squad is packed with academy products. As it stands our overseas total for next year sits at 6.

Wigan's model of having almost a full team of local talent is very noble, but if the players aren't good enough, then what is it achieving? It helps neither Wigan or the national team. An aspiring young player will learn more by playing along side a Mark Minichiello or Sika Manu than they would just being chucked in alongside his mates from the under 19's.