What did you think of his performances in the reserves?

Genuine question.

We lose a good young'un like Flanagan, yet some are keen that we sign Bailey for another year. I know who'd i'd rather keep. If Noble or Lenegan aren't speaking to him then what's the guy to do? Some things never change...

Perhaps.

He is the more senior of the young 2nd rows I have mentioned hence why he got his chance in the first team; however that is not to say that he has the most potential out of them.

At the time we needed to fill the gap left by our best 2nd rower being banned. It was not a time to blood a rookie, hence why Mossop was brought back from his loan and Flanagan was brought into the team.

He has done a job for us at the back end of the season and is a great prospect.
But be totally honest with yourself, would you have offered him a contract extension before his first team debut?

The few time I had watched him before he came into the first team he was playing very well, tackling hard and making good metres. I don't go to every reserve match, but someone must have seen his potential to give
him a chance in the first team.

How would you rate him against Chris Gerrard, he seems to be somewhat of the forgotten man after captaining England Academy a couple of years ago, has he failed to make the step up to reserves?

So we have no idea as a club how a player will adapt to 1st team rugby, keep him around the place / on loan for 2.5 years, and finally give him a chance against Saints, Leeds and in the semi final and he acquits himself well. We then proceed to pick him before other prospects even though he is leaving at the end of the season.

Why is anyone surprised?

Watched him play a couple of weeks back against saints, he's a great guy, but doesn't seem to be progresing aswell as I thought he would, but there's time he's only young so time will tell.

I made the same point a short time ago that young players could/should get a chance at this sort of age but apparently it is all different now and never happens according to some on here. Making débuts as Farrell and Edwards did at that age are a thing of the past apparently.

Richard Owen from Cas who impressed people at the game on Sunday in this thread rlhttps://forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?t is only 18.

Dave

Owen is 19.

I'd never deny that he's got talent, but I never really thought him big enough for the back row or fast enough for stand off, and this seems to have been the conventional wisdom among those I usually watch the reserves with.

He's been better in the last few weeks than I ever thought he would, but, though I'm not a fan of Nobby and am fairly cool about IL at present (mainly over the coaching thing), if I was to slag them off on the strength of this, I'd be being clever with hindsight.

When it was first announced that he was going to Aus, there wasn't much fuss, so I'm guessing that quite a few others felt the same way.

The fact of the matter is they were playing SL for their clubs as teenagers and Flanagan and Tomkins were not. That is the most pertinent point.

I have no idea if Owen at Cas has ever played at NL1 level for Cas but he made his first team début at 17 I think and was playing in a play off game at 18 on Sunday.

Who knows where Hayne played his RL before making his début and holding down a regular place as a teenager in 1st grade but he was a regular player as a teenager.

I am sure you can go to most SL teams and find other players who are regular 1st 17 players as teenagers.

Flanagan clearly thinks he had been overlooked and who can blame him at age 21 only getting games with the first team.

Dave

According to the ever reliable Wikipedia he is 18, birthday Nov 25 so he will be 19 this year. Doesn't matter he's still a teenager who has been given the opportunity of 1st team footy sooner than we have been doing so with our young players recently.

Dave

Players like Hayne, Falou and Inglis are special cases they are freaks genetically, for some reason we are not getting these in the English game. Also note generally the younger lads that do come through early are usually outside backs.

Dave you cannot give all the young players a chance! If we had played Flanigan, who would have missed out likely Tomkins or Mossop, its part and parcell of the modern game that young players will move on, the key is keeping the ones who have the best long term prospects, in my opinion we have done that, especially if Farrell signs for future seasons.

Players will always have to wait for there chance, Flanigan is no different. most who watch the resrves and clearly the coaches too stated he had not been a top performer at that level to justify selection, in that respect he only has himself to blame.

Each player has to be handled as an individual case year on year physically SL players get bigger and stronger it is only natural that younger players will struggle to get through due to simply issue of development and the poor standard of the reserves.

Flanigan has been impressive since he arrived on the scene, but his decision was made prior to that and given players like Tunson, Tomkins and Mossop all got a shot at first team before him he clearly was not performing to the level they were in the reserves.

You will never keep everyone happy its a fact of life of the modern game, and again I have to say i think in some respect your a little dated with your views and the harsh realities of playing and running a rugby league club in the post cap era.

but do you not feel that the attitude towards the youngsters in our club is changing? A lot more have had their chances this year than usual, and I would imagine in the future we may see them being brought into the team at a younger age.