https://www.totalrl.com/ex-wigan-warrio ... al-return/ Would we still be interested? There were plenty of concerns about Ratchford pre season at centre, but seems to have started well. Gildart was a good centre pre NRL and crucially wouldn’t count on the overseas quota. We have ‘a bit’ of cap space left, but sure we could make some more by moving someone out on loan if needed. Should we be looking?

https://www.totalrl.com/ex-wigan-warrio ... al-return/ Would we still be interested? There were plenty of concerns about Ratchford pre season at centre, but seems to have started well. Gildart was a good centre pre NRL and crucially wouldn’t count on the overseas quota. We have ‘a bit’ of cap space left, but sure we could make some more by moving someone out on loan if needed. Should we be looking?

No thanks be ok when Wrench comes back from injury.

Can’t see it, unless he’s prepared for a more ‘normal’ salary. We’ve already got one overpaid centre still on the books, and we will need to wait until the end of this season to see if he’s turned into the superstar that his wages suggest.

Gildart favours the left position, and with Wrench on the right that would be quite a strike partnership. But that will not happen as long as King is on the books. I guess it’s up to Wigan to see if they can make King into a class centre, and whether they’d prefer Gildart partnering Wardle. That’s a pretty tasty combination too.

I would say Leeds or Saints would be the bigger clubs most likely to snare Gildart if Wigan don’t want him back.

I'd take him as injury cover over Russell and probably Minikin who i don't even think is a centre. If needed we could bring Wrench back into the team on the wing where he played a lot last year.

Nah i'd rather develop Wrench as he's in a similar mold to Gildart anyway. Basically the same height and weight and Speed. So apart from more experience with Gildart i'd 100% rather stick with wrench.

Nope, avoid, he ain't that good, we don't need him to not that good on a huge post nrl salary

I don't want Gildart being another player standing in the way of Wrench playing at centre. We have Ratchford and Minikin as cover as it stands and we need to plan for the future.

Presumably Gildart would only be brought in to replace Mata’utia for next season though?

Still, I can’t see him coming cheap. Maybe Wigan will do us a favour and turn King around, or at least take him off our hands permanently so we can recruit accordingly.

All ifs and buts, especially with Toby King who is still a Warrington player as things stand. There's also the possibility that Mata'utia will be given an extension. Who knows what plans DP has with regards to his centres for 2023, onwards, which can easily change once we've got to June, July and beyond.

Time to grow our own players.

We have Jack Darbyshire and Jake Thewlis who are both centres on the threshold of the 1st team.

Gildart isn`t required and King not wanted by Wire`s hierarchy. If Wigan don`t sign King, then he will be loaned out to another team/teams for 2024 and 2025 seasons.

I totally agree with your opening sentence. We have made progress on this front, but we need to trust that the academy players are good enough. I'm amazed that Riley Dean has played so few games, given that Dec Patton had 100+ appearances for us. I know that some rate Hayes higher than him, but he's hardly had an adequate number of opportunities to asses whether he's good enough. Thewlis and Wrench being given the wing spot doesn't make the most of their talents, and I wonder if were going down a route of where our talent runs out of patience with DP and the club.

At the risk of Duck’s ire, Dec’s number of appearances is more a reflection of where we were as a club than his ability. The vast majority on here (with a notable feathered exception) realised before he hit 50 that he was limited as a player. BUT this has to be balanced against the argument that we didn’t give homegrown players enough of a chance.
As for Riley Dean, my view is if he shows ability in the Championship then he is worth a chance in the squad, but he wouldn’t get a game at the monet given the presence of Drinkwater and Williams so he is better off where he is.

He had his chance to come to Wire when we couldn’t get Wardle away from Wigan, but he took up a role at the Dolphins.
I think we’re better looking at our own and keeping faith in Wrench.
As things are currently, who would drop Ratchford for Gildart?

What gives you that impression?

On Gildart, it's a No from me as with we have elder statesman cover, youth coming through that deserve their chance and the return of Wrench who I think is already a fine player with more to come

Not true. Warrington didn't offer Gildart a contract.

Wrench is a better player than gildart.

Good point(illism) UR
In a senior moment I posted this on a completely unrelated topic!
(Probably wasn’t worth repeating…)

Excellent, were now in the picture where Gild art is concerned.

There was nothing stopping him from crawling on his hands and knees, and pleading for one!

I never said Warrington offered him a contract!

Average age of the squad is an interesting one.

I was going to comment that I thought we had an 'old' squad (30+) - thinking of the likes of Ratch, Vaughan, Dudson, Kasiano, Minikin, Mata'utia, even Bullock.

However we have 5 players in the 1st 18 (all players fit) would could be considered 'young' (sub 25) - Josh Thewliss, Matty Ashton, Connor Wrench, Danny Walker, Matty Nicholson, but Thomas Makaele and Matty Ashton are 25.
And obviously in the higher squad numbers the majority are academy products.

So all-in-all I think we seem to have a reasonable balance.

It got me to thinking of a time in the 90's (I think) when we had half the squad aged over 30 and the other half under 20, with nothing in between - a crazy situation.

What did you mean by 'he had his chance to come to Wire' ?

the insinuation was there though.