www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby/rug ... -21593145/ Just as we start to see the guy play, admittedly only due to injuries, it seems that he is off. Let's hope Noble's departure, and the appointment of a new coach, can help change the guy's mind.

www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby/rug ... -21593145/ Just as we start to see the guy play, admittedly only due to injuries, it seems that he is off. Let's hope Noble's departure, and the appointment of a new coach, can help change the guy's mind.

Its been doing the rounds for weeks, he is meant to be off with his Girlfriend for a year or 2 linking with an NRl club with Wigan's blessing and then hopefully returning a much better player. Good idea for mine, as while he has been impressive i do not see him being a first team regular at Wigan next year of the year after.

Why not?

Who do we have that's better than him?

He looks quick, and creative, unlike the rest of our pack.

I would disagree regards creative at the moment, and also quick. He is for me very much the defensive loose, he is not as good as Locky and with the likes of Mossop, Tomkins, Farrell (who must get game time next year), Bailey etc in the backrow i feel he will struggle for a place.

His problem is he is not quite a 6 or a 13, due to lacking pace and size and strength. Hopefully 2 years down the line some good coaches and conditioners will have got there hands on him and moulded a player capable of returning to the Wigan side and making a position his own.

I do think he has a future at Wigan if he can be handled correctly and used in the right way, the NRL hopefully will give him this opportunity.

hes probably the quickest of them named

Sorry mate, but most of that is complete tripe.

Mossop has a long way to go to convince everyone that he is 1st team material. He is big and strong, no doubt, but he still wanders about the field as though he is in a daze.

Hansen is going nowhere, Bailey should be on a plane home, and Farrell is a few steps behind Flanagan in the development stakes.

I would much rather see Flanagan get a run, than Wigan bring another bog-standard Aussie in for next year.

Flanagans girlfriend is going to Australia. He is going with her.

Simple as that.

If Wigan have any sense then they will hold onto his registration (if they can as he is out of contract)

I think IL said they were and maybe he is going to the team who we are linking up with.

Lenagan said he's 'probably' going to Australia so it doesn't sound that it's totally set in stone.

Wigans first aim should be to get him to stop here imo as he looks ready made for the first team. If thats not an option the second aim has to be to make sure he comes back here after this stint down under.

He would gain alot from playing in Australia so it could be in Wigans best interests to let him play there for a year or 2.

make sure its contractual so he comes back. Good plan.

You are entitled to your opinion which is fine, i am honestly board of your cameo appearances on here slating everyone else's opinion and then vanishing for another few months.

What position would you play him next year? Locky has been the form loose this year in the comp and is going nowhere.

Given our current deficiencies up front we need some size and go forward in our backrow, both Mossop and Farrell give us this certainly over what Flannigan can. Nobody is faulting Flanigan's contribution thus far but is he has played only a few games his workrate is fantastic but given his size and stage of development can we expect this from him week in week out throughout a regular season, in my opinion no.

Having spoken about reserve players with reserve players Farrell is always mentioned as an opponent that they do not like to play against and is held in very high regard by his fellow reserve standard players Flanigan i dont think ever in these talks get a mention.

I do not for one second think he is a bad player, but our pack clearly lacks go forward, for the balance of the team i feel the above players mentioned offer the team more at this moment in time than Flanigan does. if we had a pack able to dominate teams i am sure he would be worth a spot much like the Wilkin role at Saints, i see him very much as that kind of player. The fact is we have very little go forward and a front row that fails to dominate there opponents apart from a 3 or 4 week spell every year.

Flanigan will be able to enhance his handling skills and his conditioning in an environment much more suited to improving this. In a couple of year he should return a better player and hopefully once we have the likes of Fielden off our hands and Prescott with another few years development a team of props capable of consistently competing and winning the battle upfront.

Until we are in a position to field a team of Props capable of this the last thing we need is a lightweight backrow.

Who mentioned anything about brining in bog standard Aussies by the way? I am starting to think you have an obsession with them, all the promotion for the backrow should and does look to be coming from within the club.

And I get really bored with people who name drop like you do.

"I speak with reserve players so therefore my opinion is more valid than yours".

We need strength in depth. You may have not noticed but the captain has been missing for about 4 weeks. Is Mossop a direct replacement for the captain? Is Farrell a direct replacement?

The answer to the above questions is no.

John mate that is one ace post that pal, looks to be 100pecent true
well said "thumbs up" lol

Don't think i dropped any names just made an observation, hardly the pinnacle of rugby or much to write home about reserve grade is it?! just stating a fact that Farrell is held in high regard by his peers as is Mossop, Flanigan never really gets a mention.

Tomkins is a direct replacement for Locky if we have no Flanigan, After that we still have Mossop, Bailey, Hansen, Farrell and others coming through. We have Coley capable of covering the backrow with O'Carroll coming in at Prop, we are hardly struggling for strength in the backrow. The concept of strength in depth is a good one, but not when it means players will spend 85% of there time in the reserves when they are potentially good Sl players with a bit more development.

The next 1 or 2 years in the reserves or 1 or 2 years in Australia playing at a better standard being coached to a better standard and in a better environment for developing his style of game.

For me its hardly rocket science.

Tomkins is a regular already, just in case you hadn't noticed.

Mossop will be a prop, as he doesn't seem to have the game sense to do anything else.

Hansen defends well, but brings nothing else.

You seem to be in favour of a situation whereby the team picks itself. I don't agree.

I think your being harsh on Mossop tbh.

I agreed with you after the Catalans and Bradford games that he looked in abit of a daze whilst on the pitch but that totally changed in the Leeds and Saints game. He looked to have settled down and defensively was miles better getting through tonnes or work and smashing people in the tackle.

I get the feeling he was just a little nervous in those first 2 games back.

I do agree though he's end up being a prop. Not because he doesn't have the game sense to play in the backrow but more because his attributes are suited to the poition with his sheer size and ability to mix it around the middle.

OK.

Maybe we should pack him off to the NRL with the rest of our youngsters then he can come back a superstar?

Dont you rate Mossop

I don't think we need to nor do i think we need to with Flanagan but that ones out of our hands by the looks of it.

If both were here in next year i'd have them in my 17 but it looks unlikely.

I agree with your comments about Flanny, its a shame to be losing him if reports are to be true. Don't worry about Jonh, he's just a pr@tt who likes to argue and call people silly names.

I'm not worried about him.

It's the more intelligent ones that I get anxious about.

Is it just me that see's the irony in this post?!

In my opinion, thre younger players, some with very little SL experience have all performed very well being thrown into the mix with the loses of Hock due him being Hock, and Bailey and Lockers to injury.

Joel has become a solid firet team regular, Mossop has adapted well with spells at other clubs and Flanny hasn't missed a beat since being included.

The effort against Leeds at home this season was superb, especially in defense, far better than the effort we put in with our capt back against Wire last weekend.

I'd be happy for us to let Bailey and work with young backrow forwards such as
Mossop
Flanny
Farrell (due to get a game in the non too distance future)

Tomkins
Lockers

Just you Jonh. Give up with it.

(Here we go, lets see Jonh try and pick me about for the next 10 pages)

Jack what does it matter if Tomkins is a regular? You asked who would cover 13. The answer is Tomkins. We could then still run with a second row containing any of the following.....

Mossop
Bailey
Hansen
Farrell
Coley

Regards Mossop, again you are entitled to your opinion fair enough, would be interesting to gauge the opinion of him at SL with the Hudds fans and coaching staff who all rate him very highly in this position.

I agree he will be a Prop long term but for the next year at least he needs to play in the secondrow.