Sounds promising and as though Wigan are working really hard to identify these lads.

Thanks for the info

Sounds like Thompson is happening, Michael Carayannis and Brent Read are both reporting it who are decent Journos

£100k I believe. It would be an opportunity to send Harvie Hill out on loan for a season and then bring him back when Cooper and Mago's contract expire at the end of next season.

Yeah, Let him go and get a full season into him. I wouldn't be against a full season at Wakefield at the top of the Championship where he wont have his confidence knocked from losing every week at somewhere like Cas/Fev (if they come up)

You are correct Stu, Mike Danson is not in the race to come second. I know for a fact that he told Rads to sign who he wants as money isn't the deciding factor. It is all about Wigan managing their salary cap well. In theory, we could easily replace Field and French with Tedesco and Cleary.

Yes you could but realistically you won't. No Australian playing SOO with years left will come to any SL club. You still have to fit players under a cap and overseas ones won't count as homegrown.

Warrington have shown with Moran that having lots of money doesn't guarantee trophies but to be fair to Wigan they are recruiting smartly. They've identified forwards was a real Achilles heel and they've reacted accordingly.

It goes deeper than that as, by all accounts, it was Saints who kicked up the stink around the academy GF. Wire knew they had zero chance and didn't want to play, but Saints pushed for Wigan to be kicked out.

Hollow/meaningless victory for Saints, but makes sense when you factor in them trying to push their development systems as the best in the country. Doesn't have the same ring when it's second best to Wigan.

Wouldn`t mind Hill at Leeds for a year.

This is completely untrue. Nobody "kicked up a stink" first and foremost. The RFL picked up on it themselves; it wasn't reported to them.

Secondly saints had absolutely no involvement whatsoever in the decision to disqualify Wigan. The entire thing was started by the RFL, investigated by them and the end decision made by them.

Correct.

If they are looking at kids in under 11s then not only is it against RFL regulations it is also bang out of order in my opinion and probably causing more damage than good.

The protocols are u13s up.

I appreciate some clubs monitor the 12s but generally do so incognito they certainly don’t like it to be known to be there for fear of fines etc.

To me watching non competitive under 11s is creating a very negative pressure on kids who just need to be there enjoying rugby. The drop out rate at Academy level is already very high as kids become disillusioned with the demands of the professional environment.

It’s interesting to note that Wigan are not in Yorkshire scouting nearly as much as Wire and Saints who have 1 or 2 over most weeks although Wigan seem to get the junior “superstar” Wire and Saints pick up lads in numbers, play on a bus for them or pay someone to take them to training together rather than putting the M62 pressure on each individual family.