Quote NickyKiss="NickyKiss"I wonder about Wire and their future after the next year or two. I admire them as a team and them being a strong side is good for the game but their strategy of buying cracking players over the past 5 years will now probably have to change. If you think that they signed guys like Hodgson, Monaghan x 2, Morley, Carvell etc in that time and all will probably be gone sooner rather then later how do they replace them? Guys like Hodgson and Micky Monaghan aren't coming over here anymore from Oz and none of the British lads look like rushing back either.
Their youth set up is the saving grace for them but to ask a kid to step in to a Morley or a hodgsons shoes is a tough ask. We've obviously got our own issues to deal with as well but our youngsters are probably a couple of further years on. I went to an u20's GF a couple of years back between the sides and from our side you see lads like Hughes, Crosby, Logan Tomkins, Sam Powell etc playing on a regular basis. Wire had a cracking side that year yet I don't think any of them are getting a regular game now apart from Currie (if he was playing, guess he was).
In a funny way us having a good few injuries may help us long term.'"
good point but our youth system was scrapped back when we were in financial trouble and has only been back up and running for the last 10-12 years or so and is now starting to bear fruit. currently through our youth we have
chris riley
ben harrison
ben currie
gaz o'brien - at saints currently (loan)
brad dwyer - at hudds (loan)
rhys evans - injured? last i heard
rhys williams
mike cooper - (going aus next year)
glenn riley - (going nz warriors next year)
james laithewaite
saltensall
mendeika - at london (loan)
tyrone mccarthy
danny bridge - (before you say it yes we bought him from your youth system)
matty blythe - at bradford (loan)
ben evans - at bradford (loan)
there are others but will leave it there but i am in full agreement that wigans youth system is lightyears ahead of the rest but in 10-12 years we have had ours we have some promising talent showing now
but yes we are in for a worrying off season if the rumours are true of us losing
morley - salford
carvell - bradford
and on top as prev mentioned cooper and riley going NRL that is 4 front rowers in one hit thats going to have an effect if we cant replace with quality and yes our youth is probably a bit far off to replace that experience
