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.

Because they have a weaker squad!!!

Ainscough is a teenager who has bewen given his chance at Wigan this year.

His opportunity never really came because he had some big players infront of him like Bailey, Hock, Hansen, Joel Tomkins and O'Loughlin. I don't think Wigan can be blamed for not leaving out guys that have in the main been very good for us for a long time.

It's a shame i suppose that things have worked out as they have but i can't really blame Wigan. The lad was 21 and still playing u21 rugby so it would have been hard for Wigan to be sure enough of him to offer him a new deal.

The area that Wigan could possibly have looked at would have been to get him on a season long loan somewhere this year so they could get a look at him in a first team like Saints have done with Scott Moore.

On a side note it's encouraging to read there that Gareth Ellis thinks the training methods down under have improved his game. That encourages me if McGuire is to take over as coach as he's meant to be a forward thinking young coach and is coming from the best club in the NRL.

There is evidently a greater priority on signing up talented lads long term more than there was under the previous management - Yes.

But the whole debate is on giving the young lads an opportunity in the first team. I mean someone can tear the reserves apart all year but you will never know how good they are until you give them a chance at super league level. Mark Flanagan is a clear example of this.

When everyone earlier in the season was debating on who should get a contract extension most did not know with Flanagan as they had never seen him play first team level. Maybe the Wigan management have done the same? However now he has had a chance it's evident that he is ready and is a bloody good player and we have missed out!