Wonder how poor Eddie is bearing up !!

If true, I'm out of the 1873 lottery - pointless.

How would that hurt Wigan?

The only losers in that are Wakefield Trinity

Superb analysis of what's going on in the junior game from BLM and The Avenger.
The big clubs get the praise for producing juniors, because they know they can 'bend' the rules to sign a player from outside of their area, with only a minimal penalty.
But you wouldn't want the same teams in the hunt for the Grand Final and Wembley every year would you? Or would you RFL?

Exactly

I'm just saying what's the point in 1873 if we can't hold onto the young players once we have brought them on?

If everyone left on mass then it would be even harder holding onto the ones who do sign up with the club.

The real issue is their pathway to the first team. What's the point in an academy if the club are reluctant to use the players who do come through the ranks and stay loyal only to see sh.ite like Jordan Tansey get in ahead of them.

Hard not to agree with that as well.

Because it still allows us to bring some through
Crowther
Jowitt
Johnstone

Wigan & Leeds have and will always cheat the system but despite that we have always managed to develop some excellent players. If our supporters stop supporting via initiatives such as 1873 then we become less able to compete for players and less capable of developing the ones we get while making Wigan and Leeds job easier.

What is the point of people dipping into their pockets to help with junior development when the club throw money away on totally pointless signings of senior players. The amount of money we are paying to first team passengers would give us a very good junior set up.

As in most aspects of life, it's about balance!

Indeed.

Ultimately, the 1873 gives the club some additional income, which we are told goes toward junior development.
IF it didn't exist, the income would need to come from elsewhere or, spending cut from elsewhere. It's that simple.

I don't know the take up on the scheme but, it will certainly generate several £1000 over the year and we should be encouraging more people to join.

The nature of promotion and relegation will make any coach nervous about putting in youngsters at the most critical part of the season and this is the same for any club "under threat".

This is no reason to stop paying into the scheme and every person that drop out, just makes it harder for the club to make ends meet.

One thing that MC should be applauded for is keeping us afloat will the pitiful attendances that we currently have and the young lads will certainly get plenty of game time in the future.

Yes it is simple !!!!

If we had recruited wisely we would have plenty of cash left over to spend more money on junior development. Instead we have urinated money up against a wall by being conned by other clubs and agents into signing people who are not good enough.
It goes even further, if we had someone at the club with the slightest bit of rugby knowledge we may not have been in the perilous situation that we are now in.

Taking injuries out of the situation just tot up the number of players on the side lines who are contributing nothing and have an educated guess at adding up their accumulative wages. If you could cut the amount in half you could replace some of them with decent juniors who would be waiting in the background ready to be called up.

It still riles me that we thought we were being smart by not signing Liam Kay and spending more on the contract of Richard Owen. We had invested time and money in Kay and just when he was ready we ditched him for a player not wanted at Cas.
OK I know that example is history but to me it highlights our approach and attitude towards youth development.

People keep going on about Kay and the others we have let go (I can't even recall their names now - that's how much impact they have made), but no other SL club has deemed them worth a contract.

That suggests the decisions were correct.