as a wigan fan first and foremost i don't see a dilemma. play the wigan players! ha. blackpool win and they develop. makes simple sense! but seriously, i see how its unfair on the players in the panthers squad.

by the way, walker named in wigan 19 again

So the chances are he won't be with us this week. Maybe not a bad thing in some respects as the same 17 really should play this week if they're all fit.

The next game not being til a week on Monday (at South Wales Scorps) they will then have a little longer than usual to recover.

Josh Charnley has signed a dual registration deal with Blackpool. He is a superb winger / centre from the Wigan academy.

Look after him for us, he is a top prospect and will do very well at that level. He's still only 18 years of age but is big and fast (in the Pat Richards mold)

heard that this was due a few weeks ago, not sure why the delay actually. unless wigan were holding back because of the injury situation. either way, great news all round. lets hope *fingers crossed* injuries clear up at wigan fast and josh plays maximum games at blackpool so he doesn't get called up.

I got told by someone at the club that he was signing this week mainly due to the fact maguire likes what crompton is doing here and wants to keep sending players our way to keep holland company as he takes the others away, obviously feeling that they will get more benefit here, but looking forward to seeing charnley play although not tomorrow as im in wigan, but maybe the leeds game? or the next home game afterwards.

it appears from the news article on wigan's website that he won't be playing challenge cup - probably why the deal wasn't announced last week and probabaly won't be seeing him in action at leeds, and even then the gateshead game clashes huddersfield away so don't know what i'll do about that either.

Not sure I'm overly happy at this situation looking at the longer view.

I don't want players coming over for one or two games then returning, it's not healthy on a number of levels, the main two being:

1) It disrupts team cohesion
2) it puts players out of the side who would normally be part of the squad leading to unrest

I have no problem with dual regging in some respects, but players need to come on season long loans imho, which can be terminated if the lending club needs them back.

For example, tonight, I have no doubts that this lad Charnley is more than useful, but why, after a performance like last Sunday, should anyone miss out tonight unless they have to?

Seems the lad is most at home at full back or wing, so that would mean Munro (13 tries in 10 games), Leather (game breaker) or Ballard (another game breaker with 7 tries in 9 starts) missing out, which personally I wouldn't be in favour of.

If someone is in need of a rest or is carrying a knock then fine, bring him in, but otherwise I wouldn't tinker.

Donny are a big, rough side. This is a night for experience. It ain't bust, don't fix it.

Discuss

the long term benefit of the club is promotion. get that or go back to having a bunch of poorly trained poor quality players like it was before MC turned up. having genuine quality in the team is for the greater good. plus, before bobby hope put some money in on players like hemmingway, ballard and halliwell with SL experience we were crying out for players from clubs like wigan to come play a game for us. it shouldn't be any different now. and it raises the profile of the club. if 10-20 wigan fans come to watch us because we have players in our team that is good for the club. the fact that wigan fans on a weekly basis speak about how the players are getting on a the panthers is good for the club. and the better they do the more panthers will benefit long term.

i know it is unfair on players like leather and munro who have been around for a while and have done not a lot wrong. its a shame that players like mccully or fairhurst miss out. but the team is getting better with this talent. look at holland. would you now pick any other front rower in the squad ahead of him? no chance. look at walker, he was my man of the match when i saw him play and now he is apparently going to get a go off the bench against quins tonight, but when some of the injured players come back at wigan he will be back at the panthers, and i'd want him to walk back into the team personally.

another point here is ballard started poorly at the club and i still have some reservations about him. don't like his support and link play as a fullback and don't think he gets involved enough as a winger. munro is solid but getting older now so no harm in giving him the odd week off in my opinion. leather is as we know injury prone. he is also in the worst form i've seen from him at the club with his confidence being down. i would seriously hope genuine competition for places would change that because jonny is a class act in the championship leagues. but right now does he deserve to be playing automatically every week? i'm not so sure. his most influencial appearance this season was off the bench at skolars. maybe he needs a kick up the backside a little.

plus MC likes to put a back on the bench so one of them will find themself there if they miss out.

final point of long rant - charnley is more of a winger/centre than winger/fullback. with glassman-mayberry injured all the time that might be where we fit him in.

edit: one more point i just noticed - this is the most replied to thread on the panthers board so at the very least its got us fans interested and talking about it...which is good for the club. ha.

Thaks Markill, you've done the job - it's started people talking about us and that was whole point (hence my "discuss" bit at the end!)

I happen to agree with you, I think one or two players do need the odd reminder that there is no "comfort zone", and those with the spirit for the fight and the job ahead (let's face, it is Championship or bust this season) will keep scrapping for a place.

If for example, Pete Fairhurst has walked, then perhaps he wasn't the man for the job anyway. If he hasn't and is prepared to tough it out, then every credit to him.

Not sure about Leather's best game being at Skolars, he was one of the main players in the 2nd half against York, think he had a hand in all 3 of Dave Llewellyn's tries.

It's great tough that we have so much to talk about now that's positive, we must do our best to get the message out to the wider public. It'll be interesting to see how many come out tonight.

Now, if we could only get Casey Mayberry a hamstring transplant....

Agree Seagull

What game was the previous post to you watching

McCully poor Well if topping the tackle counts as a poor performance Your right Seagull lots of fans dont watch what goes on in a game
Like i said in an earlier post DEFENCE WINS GAMES

defence wins championships - attack wins games. thats how the cliche goes i thought. anyway, bad penalty counts win neither. if you get ran at you make a lot of tackles. if you give a couple of needless penalties they will keep coming at you - more tackles. i don't recall him making any outstanding one-on-one tackles though.

but this thread is about the dual reg players - who haven't been guilty of weak penalties in the games i've seen. and the defence of walker against swinton was one of the best i've seen. their props even seemed to be targetting him at one point and he rode it all. and then there are the lines he runs in attack too. thats why, if he was available to us, i'd put him straight in in mccully's place. i'm sure MC would too.

So, how did Charnley perform. According to the League Express he was m.o.m. As I said in my previous post he is a very talented and decicated player.

Not sure he was MOM tbh, but he did play pretty well. For 18 the lad's a bit of a beast, certainly hits hard in the tackle but needs to learn that you can't stand up tackle, chest on, every time.

After his early efforts at goal he looked a reasonable place kicker, although for such a big lad he hasn't got too much distance as yet, but that will come with time.

He can certainly break a tackle though, although he did only look really effective in that department once Donny's old school, telly tubby pack started to burn out in the last 20 minutes.

For a kid of 18 though he does show a lot of potential.