We produce so many youngsters so can’t keep them all. Some will go on to forge good careers elsewhere, some won’t.

Certainly in IL’s tenure and to be fair long before that we seem to have got most of the decisions that were in our control spot on.

Smith is one that we should be doing our upmost to keep however giving him a starting role before he is ready will be detrimental to both him and us.

A season loan at Leigh or even one of the top end championship clubs would IMO work in both his and our favour in the long term.

Ahh fair one

That was pretty much my point

Rads mentioning Field being a chance of playing on the wing in an interview with the evening post. There’s nothing concrete but does say they’re not sure where he’ll play and that he’s quick enough to cover the wing spot.

He also says it’s unlikely there will be anymore signings with us being close to the cap. Doesn’t totally rule it out but says a player would need to leave if anyone were to be brought in.

Cant understand the Field signing if they are not sure what role he is going to play. Unless they have got him for when or if Hastings goes after next season

I suppose Rads isn’t the man to make the call on what position he’ll play anyway and Lam may be dead set on where he will put him. It’s just an interesting comment from Rads when there’s been some debate about the merits of mentioning him as a potential wing option.

It's not a bad shout tbh.

Give him 12 months to bed in and then replace Hastings in 12 months.

IIRC they said the same thing when French came over, playing him on the wing initially before eventually moving him to full back. My gut feeling is that when they signed French they probably expected to lose at least one of French/Hastings.

I think it’s more likely they expected Tommy to retire.

Either way I still fully believe Field will be our halfback for the 2021 season maybe not from the first game but I expect him to be there later in the season.

He may play 1 at times occasionally and beyond 2021 I think it is highly likely we will be going with Field and Smith as starting halves with Hastings probably leaving and Tommy either retiring or going around in a solely supporting role.

I'd prefer that to happen in all honesty rather than a half come in and be expected to hot the ground running.

Give them time to settle not only into the club/team but also the area and lifestyle etc and potential time away from family.

I guess we have no need to rush the guy, or heap any pressure on him. Give him time to bed in, find his feet and we'll hopefully see the best of him at the business end of the year or when he's really needed in 2022.

guess that makes sense with the severe cost cutting required

I'm sure Rads is just speculating on what Lam may do if we are short on the wing. Field is rapid (could well be the quickest player in SL over 50m) but I'm sure we'll only see him on the wing as a last resort if needs must. Who's to say what his kick defence or positional play would be like on the wing?

I'm pretty certain Lam has brought him in to play with Hastings in the halves. He's a dangerous player who will make a lot of line breaks in 2021 - perhaps that's something we need more of from our halfbacks. The only nagging doubt I have stems from Lam's comments about seeing Hastings as a 9. I wonder whether there might be a surprise and we sometimes see Field and Leuluai at 6 and 7 with Hastings starting at hooker - Powell is too valuable to the team for this to have be an option IMO.

As for Rads' more general comment on recruitment, that's nothing we didn't already know - more players will need to leave before anyone comes in. There's still Clark, Hankinson and maybe Shorrocks plus there's a certain marquee player of course.

Yeah and I think the squad is strong enough to win something next year as it is. We’ll need a bit of luck with injuries with us not having as much depth as last year but if we get that I’m happy enough.

Doesn't surprise me they have considered playing Field on the wing. Rapid and should be ok under the high ball as he's played full back. Important thing for me is that he plays each week. That way he'll get used to Wigan's plays and also how SL is different to the NRL. Said from the start that as Marshall won't be fit at the start of the season play him at 5 then with 25-20 to go switch him to half back to use his pace against tiring forwards and half backs.

Come 2022 Tommy and Jacko could well have left leaving Field and Harry Smith as our half backs. It is important that they both play each week. It maybe that TL starts in the "bigger" games with Smith off the bench and reverse when the opposition is not as formidable.