Nearly split my sides laughing at that one! Please don't, I've already had enough excitement for today!!

Hmm, good performance today but still not convinced by Brown. Still not even mentioned as a possibility for the English test side.

Having said that, felt very pleased today for all the ex Wigan boys and will be cheering them on in the final.

How surprising, I didn't see this thread coming

Sometimes young players need to be persevered with, too often they are cast aside before they mature as players resulting in clubs looking for the quick fix from overseas.
Lessons need to be learn't.

We needed to pay for Vealiki...

That turned out well

But Noble doesnt know what he is doing with youngsters.

I think Robinson would be a better foil for Tomkins than either Leuluai or Brown.

how many years will it be before we are saying the same thing when we allow more players to go as people get on there backs as they dont think they are good enough or the changing of managers every couple of years,keep the faith with this team,just needs fine tuning.just let these young lads come through who care about wigan and stop bringing players in for big paydays who dont give a damm!

That depends on people seeing Tomkins as a SO or SH.

IMO of past players Dobson would be perfect.

The idea situation for me would been Barrett for a year or two with Sam at SH, then Dobson coming back and Sam moving to stand off when he's perhaps become a bit more of a physical presence.

If we still had Barret, Tomkins would not even of got in the team yet. I see your point though.

I don't think it really matters, you need a player with more of an organisational game at the moment, whether that be a SH like Dobson or a SO like Barrett.

Though I don't think Dobson is much better than average tbh, he looked to excel at your place because you'd been that used to the dross that was Moran. He's doing well at HKR, but again he's just playing a fairly decent game however he's doing it consistently.

I think you are right about us needing someone to organize and it would be great to have someone teaching Sam this side of the game however he is still just one player in a team of 17 therefore surely it is best to try and find his best position.

It's a difficult scenario.

Probably to keep the likes of Wild, Brown, Robinson (ignoring any off field issues) etc. on, you have to up their wages, and guarantee them first team opportunities. Thus you have to cut back on over seas signings.

If the club cut bak on over seas signings in favour of promoting youth, they cut get shouted down from the fans (as is the case now).

I'd like to think a happy medium could be achieved under the current staff at the club, but such idealism was never realistic under Lindsay.