I'm not sure that your assertion is correct. If Wigan had lost the first ten games would they have got to the GF? The first ten games might have counted for naff all but they saw the team playing with a lot of flair and confidence. And that gave youngsters like Thornley confidence to go on and do ok in the Challenge Cup final and Grand Final after replacing the similarly irreplacable Carmont.

With a full season behind them maybe Bateman or Hughes can do the same. HH was immense last season, but maybe Wigan have seen the best of him and are right to cash in.

Change happens in sport as the best teams evolve whilst they are winning. Wigan are bringing in youngsters with huge potential from a position of strength (ie double winners).

By the way, I'm sure that you've seen Bateman play - are you not impressed? (Bulls win at DW in 2012 for example) I'm betting that he will be a huge player for us and for England. He'll need plenty of game time next season and maybe SW is thinking that keeping HH will impede this.

You could be right, maybe I am living in cloud cuckoo land, but if so I've got SW for company!!!

Personally I'd like Hansen to stay on another year just because our squad is lacking senior players. Outside of Bowen, Lockers and Hansen the rest of the squad falls between 21-27ish, presuming that Lauaki and Powell either won't play much, or at all.

Why this preoccupation with age and experience?

This current Wigan team may be young, but they're not inexperienced - they are double winners.

Some like MMc and Goulding may be young but they've won six trophies in 4 years. You may need older heads around when the youngsters have no experience but our youngsters like Taylor, Thornley, and Flower are now double winners. Faz and Josh may be young but they've packed as much experience in already than most do in a whole career.

I'm not sure why you feel that these guys need an older head around?

Experience doesn't necessarily mean just trophies. What about the experience of playing under different coaches/regimes? Or the experience of still being able to perform when results are seriously not going your way and the fans are on your back? I wonder who the players take their lead off when change happens or when the poop hits the fan. I'd wager the answer for most players is Hansen and Lockers

All good points - and I'm certain that Lockers is a perfect role model.

But our young players have already hit highs and lows in the last two seasons.

And I'm afraid that you are seriously over-rating HH. Look at the stats for last season. He is a liability in attack and his defence, whilst good, is certainly not far superior to any of the other forwards especially Lockers, Faz, Flower, MMc. He certainly misses more tackles than anyone (apart from MMc). Even Jack Hughes measures up pretty well against HH and he's supposed to have had a poor season.

HH has been great for Wigan for a good few years now but I supect that the coaching staff who look at this stuff in excruciating detail have concluded that HH is expendable. And I agree.

I agree that some of the younger players have got plenty of first team games under their belt, but none of the ones you've mentioned can really be seen as leaders. If you look at the leadership team that Madge implemented in 2010, most of those players have moved on, all apart from Lockers in fact, plus we've lost another 2 senior figures this year in Sam and Pat, and there aren't that many in a similar mould in the current squad. I'm not talking about senior players just with a regards to age or number of games, but also leadership qualities. Having a number of figures around him definitely helped Lockers kick on when he wasn't having to shoulder all the responsibilty himself.

FWIW I don't actually think it would be a massive disaster if H did move on this year, but ideally I'd want him to do another year.

Fair points.

How about the following with leadership qualities - MMc/Matty/Blake/Faz?

I don't know enough about Bowen/Pettybourne - maybe they are good leaders.

And supposedly one of the things that most impressed SW about Tony Clubb are his leadership qualities (mind you he'll have to make the team first)

What i would say about hansen is the stats will rarely tell the story of his efforts in defence. He, along with mcilorum, oloughlin and more recently flower, absolutely steamrolls people. Again and again in the big games. We saw liam farrell mature last season, and hughes play in a fair number of games back in the second row, but neither will currently bring that ability to dominate defensively that i personally feel is key to how wigan perform in the big games.

This is a very good point. Stats cannot show how hard someone hits in a tackle and this in Rugby League does make a huge difference.

Unfortunately for Wigan this is already a done deal, any of the young Wigan lads coming through the youth system are on a hiding to nothing at the moment.

If Lenagan keeps penny pinching like he is at the minute, bringing over high paid NRL imports then H's departure will not be the last, Tuson, Mossop ETC.

A good indicator of someone like H's standing in the team is the massive uproar that his departure has created with the other players in the team when they found out recently.

Penny pinching AND bringing over high paid NRL imports?

Can you really be guilty of both at the same time?

Well if the current regime continues, through its management to bring continued success, then so be it... The message to the young players is, if you are good enough, you get a chance... You ought to look at the players who have been given debuts, and how many are currently in 1st choice berths, and the size of the squad, which has a high number of classy youngsters waiting in the wings... I will be sad to see H go, if he does, but I also look forward to seeing his replacements stake a claim... We have to move on, sentimentality has no place in team/squad selection... You must also consider that H may actually WANT to leave...

Didn't you previously tell us he was signing for NZ Warriors, and that we were signing Paul Wood?

never heard that before...