Played well today for Cas..safe under high ball and dangerous when linking into the line.

Im told if Carney comes Castleford want Ryan Hampshire.

I think its probably worth it.

Hampshire no doubt the best in his age group back when he was 16/17 but we see it all too often with players who arent able to make that step up to Super League. Time to cut our losses with him.

All teams have a half back who takes control, ours is Matty Smith and another who has more off the cuff style, ours is George Williams. Smith is still under contract for another 3 years, and unless he goes to the NRL George will be here for another 12 years. Sam Tomkins will be our fullback for another 6-8 years as well. I see now way of Hampshire getting in the team. Best for all parties concerned if he moves on and theres no better way to do it than to use him to get us one of the best wingers in Super League!

It seems like a good bit of forward planning has taken place if it is correct that a swap is on the cards involving Hampshire and Carney.

Hampshire goes to Castleford for a season long loan and Carney goes to Salford on a similar deal, any objections if the deal had been done a season earlier will have been forgotten.

Somehow Lee Hansen/Sean Long spring to mind.

Would it not be best to get Hampshire back and play him at 6 with Williams thought to be needing an op with Powell at 9?

The thing is in 2 years Carney will be retiring but Hampshire will be coming to fruition and yet again we'd be getting rid of someone too soon. At the start of the year Hampshire didn't stand much of a chance at getting a game at 6 because of Sam Powell in front of him for that position, with McIllorum injured and Powell moving to 9 aswell as Williams and Lockers injuries surely it wouldn't be a bad idea to call Hampshire back.

Objections from whom? Fans? Players?

The reason behind Carney's move to Salford is well documented. Not something quickly forgotten. Surprised he wasn't just sacked by Cas.

As to Hampshire when he went to Cas on loan, he signed a three year contract with us and IL said he had a big future here. The idea IL went to those lengths to pacify a few fans on Internet forums is far fetched.

Carney is 27, can't see him retiring in 2 years.

I doubt he will come back to Wigan. Like others on here I'm a bit worried about him leaving and coming back to haunt us. We are sadly lacking strength in depth in the halves.

This is becoming a farce. Either recall him from his loan or put him up for sale. For all the support he gets on this site few would have Hampshire before Williams or Smith and as a fullback we all known that he is a stopgap. If he had not taken his ball home he would have played in every game this season for us rather than not getting game time at Cars. Now that he has had a chance too show what he can do he is in the same predicament, as at Wigan, as a second choice half being asked to play fullback. I do not really care if he should "come back to haunt us" as both the club and player need to move on. If he does not want to play for us then we should respect his wishes and start looking for the next big thing. Hampshire is at an age where he knows that he needs to play or become irrelevant.

he never took his ball home, just not rated by wane and he wants to play.

Yeah, but he wants to play in his own stipulated position. Which is a luxury granted to one or two really special players, and almost never to kids.

Prior to going out on loan, he had two starts at stand off (one when we rested more or less the whole team the week after winning the CC '13, one when Williams got injured in the warm up) and twenty starts at full back. Can you name one other player, young or otherwise, who is almost always picked out of position when trying to break into the team? The only other one i can think of recently was Gelling when he kept getting picked on the wing, no surprise he only looked any good once we moved him to centre.

Rocky struggles under the high ball, and has more or less no chance at making it at Wigan as a full back given that we have just signed Sam Tomkins. I really don't think he's being unreasonable by asking to get a crack in his best position. People are saying he has failed to convert his academy promise into Super League but how many full SL games has he even played in the halves? Maybe 4 starts in 4 seasons between his time here and at Cas, hardly enough to use as a basis to write him off.

The problem is, we have no idea how he looks in the halves in training for example. I'm not one to say the coach is always right, but he is the one who sees him every day. Maybe he just doesn't see him as a half in super league, if there is someone else who is playing/training better than him, then why would you pick Hampshire in the halves based on previous reputation.

If Williams was fit, I'd drop Smith in a heartbeat.

I'm not writing him off. I wish we could hang onto him. But barring an injury to Smith, I don't see how he's going to get a regular shot in his favourite position.

I still think he's being badly advised by someone. It's got to be worth staying at Wigan and plugging away. Maybe his home-county has some extra appeal for him, but it didn't take Cas long to shunt him to full-back either.

He's not going to get a shot in his favoured position thanks to Mr Wane and his false promises.
How is it worth stopping at Wigan and plugging away when you don't see him getting a shot? Powell told him when he went to Cas that he would have to take his chances when they came along, he was moved from the halves to full back when Dorn got injured, and fwiw neither his dad or his agent have wrongly advised him.