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!

We only seem to give players a chance when there is an injury. Not when players are off form.

For example I don't think Joel Tomkins has hit top form this year. Why not shake him up a bit and give Farrell (or at the time) Flanagan a shot?

Same with Phil Bailey and Harrison Hansen.

Not to mention last season we had Liam Colbon playing in the second row!

Another example of when players could be given a chance is when we rush players back to early instead of giving a shot to one of our reserves lads. Phil Bailey suffered from it this year and Sean O'loughlin last year.

Opportunities for players are there.



Rubbish. People tell me Eamon O'carroll is too small but he was our best prop (before he got injured) Also stood up to Adrian Morley a couple of seasons ago as well.

Sam Tomkins another one. Scrawny as anything but has won a lot of praise for his defensive effort.

I have never seen any lads who have played this year struggle because of their size (or ability)

This is all true, but we'd have needed a crystal ball to make an informed judgement on this. People need to realise that Flanagan's decision to leave had more or less been announced by the time he started hitting his straps in the first team.

Nobby perhaps should have given him an opportunity earlier. But Nobby is almost certainly on his way too, so hopefully that wariness about using young players will go as well.

Am I missing something here? Noble brought Flanagan in from Bradford (link below) so he knew all about his potential, and didn't give him a shot at the 1st team. Could you make it up? www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 30815.html

Am I missing something here? Noble brought Flanagan in from Bradford (link below) so he knew all about his potential, and didn't give him a shot at the 1st team. Could you make it up? www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 30815.html

There are plenty of other players who are not special cases who got débuts and had long stints in the first team as teenagers in the NRL.

Have a look at these three I found with not much effort.

Lachlan Coote, Chris Lawrence and Wade Graham. Graham makes Sam Tomkins look big. Graham is 5 foot 9 and 73kg yet has played 18 games for Penrith as a teenager so hardly a genetic freak. I think Coote is about the same size. None of them are genetic freaks but all made débuts as teenagers and played significant number of games as teenagers.

As to them being outside backs we have had outside backs waiting for chances who have not been given it until it was forced on Noble. We even had, as has been pointed out Colbon playing in the pack before giving forwards a chance.

I don't understand why you are arguing against what has gone on at Wigan recently because the evidence is young players are getting chances both in SL and in the NRL but we have been very reluctant to do it.



I am well aware you won't keep everyone happy but I have provided enough evidence now to show it is you not I with the wrong idea about the introduction of young players to the modern game. There are numerous teenagers who have all played significant numbers of games in both SL and NRL to highlight the fact it is not the exception you maintain it is.

Dave

Once again highlighting players size is where you fall down it has nothing to do with that its about development.

How realistically could Flanigan have got a shot before he did?

Colbon was playing in the pack for the reserves and doing a good job hence he got his shot there.

Players have to be developed enough and show up in the reserves to earn there shot, you cannot just give away a first team shirt on the off chance they can step up when they have not proved it in the reserves or on loan.

Flanigan was down the pecking order for a reason his performances did not merit him getting a shot, if he had what is to say Mossop/Farrell would not have moved on.

Personally I am not sad to see him go, i hope he goes well in the NRL but i feel we have 3 junior backrow forwards at the club coming through who are superior, we can no longer stock pile players.

Tomkins got his shot, Mossop got his shot Farrell will get his shot next year.

The NRL system is very different and those young players that do get a shot have to earn it by playing in a much more intense and higher standard of "reserve grade" rugby.

All young players have a duty of care we saw what happened to the likes of Brown who was not ready for regullar first team and it showed, we had players like Wild, Locky and Hock who came on the scene at a relatively young age all took near career ending injuries early on in there career, coincidence? Westerman has dropped off the pace this year as has Myler after a good start, players like Fielden fall apart as they age due to over use when young.

Its a very fine line and i would suggest that to see our young players go so well is an indication that they are being handled in the correct way and groomed for a career at Wigan rather than a couple of years and then shipping them off to Huddersfield etc.