The changes for next year will be minimal.
Bowen in at full back, Burgess, or Briscoe at 5. I do think Thornley will get the 4 shirt, it is his to lose after his Cup Final performance.
In the forwards we've Mossop and Tuson leaving with Powell here and Hopkins plus Pettybourne signed.
Shaun Wane will go for size in the forwards, continuity in the halves, and minimal changes to the backs.

Tbh I don't think we'd be doing either of them any favours to have Burgess on the wing with Thornley as his centre. Thornley has had a few shaky moments in defence and I think such an inexperienced partnership could have a torrid time, a la Joel and Charnley fairly often during 2011.

I just think a backline of:

Hampshire
Charnley
Goulding
Thornley
Burgess

is far too inexperienced for 2014 and can see why we have been looking at players like Minichello, Brisco and Bowen to help the development of the likes of Hampshire and Burgess over a season or two, rather than throwing them in the deep end with only a handful of first team appearances between them. I don't know whether Briscoe is still a target or not, but if he still has NRL aspirations he could also be a stop-gap type signing with Burgess taking over when he goes to Australia?

Like the earlier poster stated, we have 27 regular season games for the players to gain experience next season. They are competitive friendlies and the final result in th does not decide major trophies.

Thankfully that will change in 2015 with a top 4 playoff system.

I agree in relation to centre I do not think we will be bringing in any real quality to the position, but I still think this is our weakest area.

Richards was never really a goal kicker before he joined us and he was coached to so maybe it is something we could look at again. I do not want us to bring in an average player who kicks, at risk of missing out on quality that don't. Charnley would be a candidate I guess, I cannot see where we will be looking to fit a kicker in if we are looking outside the club other than as a replacement for Sam or Pat at 1 or wing.

In relation to Pat as a player he has lost yards of pace, and I would be disappointed if we were not able to recruit or promote with a superior player.

The concern with Bowen seems to be coming from the conditioning team who say his results in the off season are gradually reducing year on year, which is to be expected at his age. His performances though are still quality and we will be in a position to blood Hampshire or Tierney and also use Bowen throughout the year as and when the fixture list dictated.

There are plenty of older and some not so old players who rarely train to anywhere near full capacity in the week but still do it on match day.

I wouldn't have a problem bringing in Bowen. He is a very experienced player and will be a useful addition to the team.

However, what I would have a problem with if he is the only player we get, and is called a "replacement" for Sam.

The reality is that next year with Sam, Pat, Mossop all leaving, it should mean we have a lot of CC space to play around with.

As a Wigan supporter I would like that to be used.

Good points. I have said the same thing myself. Several of our young players have potential but it could backfire if we chuck 'em all in at once. It did when Kevin Brown (and others at that time) broke into the side.

We will still have Lockers and other experienced players but if they are injured we could see a very inexperienced side take the field. It wouldn't take many injuries to leave us with a very young side.

Manfredi was a FB at LMR

I can't remember anyone saying anyone wanting to give any of them a first 13 squad number apart from Ainscough. Obviously I'm guessing about what will happen in '15 and '16 but I'd hope the club are at least planning three seasons ahead, even if these plans do get tweaked further down the line.

I STILL THINK TOP 5 WAS BEST SCENARIO. TOP TEAM HAD TO LOSE TWICE ON THE BOUNCE BOTH AT HOME TO MISS OUT ON FINAL...

WE DIDN'T LOSE TWICE ON THE BOUNCE, WE BEAT LES CATALANS AND LOST TO LEEDS

The point clearly remains. You seem happy with young untested players in our first team.

Burgess has been tearing it up in the under 19s and looked great in the first team v Hull KR, there is always Manfredi as well who has also been playing very well. If neither of them work out (unlikely) then we can always put Thornley on the wing which has worked fine in the past. As for Tierney, he can get some game time over the next couple of seasons against the weaker sides with Bowen playing in the big games, so we'll know whether he's good enough to take the #1 shirt in 2016. Same with Hampshire and Williams, they can have game time off the bench, if they play poorly we have Powell and Logan, I'm sure one of the four will always be in good enough form to do a 20-30 minute stint, and one of (Hampshire, Williams and Powell) will be good enough for the #6 shirt in 2015 if Green doesn't roll his socks up.

THAT'S BECAUSE IT WASN'T A TOP 5 FORMAT. THAT IS WHY THE TOP 8 IS FLAWED....

TOP 5 WAS 1 V 2 WINNER TO FINAL ...LOSER PLAYED FOLLOWING WEEK IN ELIMINATION SEMI...WIN..GO TO FINAL...LOSE GO OUT....

SO TEAM AT TOP HAD 2 CHANCES BOTH AT HOME TO MAKE FINAL ...HAD TO LOSE BOTH NOT TO MAKE OLD TRAFFORD

SORRY, I MISREAD WHAT YOU SAID BECAUSE IT WAS ALL IN CAPS, I PREFER THE TOP 5 SYSTEM TOO