Obviously Mellor stood out to me more because I was watching the Wigan players. Didn't even know O'Brien had played until It was mentioned on the radio on the way home. He might have had a decent game but he didn't do anything special enough for a opposition fan to notice.

To sort of answer your question though, I was quite impressed with Mellor, he scored a good try and was jinking around the way Sam Tomkins does, set up a few clean breaks with good off-loads and was there in support play most of the time, if we had injures in the halfs, I reckon Mellor will slot in well in super league

Mellor and Gelling should have played today imo, as the coaching staff need to see if they can step up next year and replace the outgoing Tommy and Carmont.

We have seen time and time again Sam kill off the so-called lesser teams almost single handedly and definitely should have played. I've only seen Russell play a handful of times but he does look prone to errors defensively, I think blooding him in with a few wing appearances would probably be the best approach, and with him only being 18 there'll be plenty of opportunites.

Bottom line is we have a talented group of youngsters coming through and Wane has made a mistake by trying to play too many of them at once rather than drip feed them 1/2 at a time. I can't see him making the same mistake again. We need to get over this week with a big performance against London next week to prepare for Wire the week after. Not all doom and gloom it's all down to how the players respond.

O'Brien has a good kicking game with field kicking and attempts at goal.
No one doubts his ability but Warrington should be spelling someone as good as him into their first team on a regular basis.
Wane just over did the "introducing youngsters" theory today and paid the price.

We have always had players out of contract at the end every season and I have never yet seen the club deal with that by doing what Wane did today as long as I have been watching Wigan.

There are plenty of games in the season to give younger players a game without leaving five first team players out.

There was no reason to do it. Certainly not the fact we have those players above out of contract.

You are actually implying Wane will do this again which fills me with dread. It is just not the right way to do it. These young players need to play alongside the established pros not instead of them. He won't learn anything watching them get beat (which they will) if he does this again. He needs to evolve the team not replace it.

In any case it is totally unrealistic to expect the experience in the list above to be replaced entirely by the young players in the squad in 2013 so I fail to see the connection between the two sets of players. If we lose Finch and Tommy the young players we have won't be good enough to replace them both and the idea they will be if we drop five first team players to give them games is unrealistic. We will have to recruit form outside for at least one half back slot if Sam remains at full back.

The club does need to be mindful of who is out of contract and I am sure it is but it needs to get the balance right about promoting young players and recruiting experienced players from outside.

We produce a lot of young players and its just a fact some will leave because they do not get the opportunity.

However none of this which is all pretty obvious and nothing new requires five first team players to be rested.

To be fair Warrington play a half-back same age as Mellor every week plus Ratchford has played every week as well. That's two young British half-backs in the 17 already so it makes sense O'Brien getting game time at Widnes especially as he returns from injury.

How did Mullaley go for Widnes? Looks a good youngster.

Wayne Bennett seems to think you need to do your business now otherwise you miss out on the top talent, his reasoning behind the Beua Scott signing.

Couple this with the likelihood of us losing both halfbacks in 2013 then you can understand the urgency. It was a gamble that didn't pay off, maybe next time he'll expose less kids to SL at once. He is still green and I'd rather he learnt lessons now than in October.

We may have lost, but Leeds proved last year that today's poor result means nothing. I'm more concerned about wane learning about all his players and moving himself and the squad forwards for Oct and then 2013.

Bennett is probably right but I'd bet my house on the fact Bennett has never rested five first team players at once to see if younger players at his club are good enough.

The idea Wane did this out of a sense of urgency about next years squad is crazy IMO. If he did we are in trouble!

He didn't need to drop Sam and Lockers to give Mellor a game.

He wanted to see how Russell and mellor went as they may be pivotal for 2013, we should be finalising plans for next years squad within the next month. It is a matter of urgency.

Yes too many kids at once doEsnt work and we've seen the evidence for this when millward was in charge of us. But let's look at the bigger picture - Leeds proved you Win nothing for finishing first in the d1ck waving contest like wire did.

Nothing changes with regards to Oct.

Well that is two players. Mellor to start as Tommy was injured and Russell on the bench to allow Sam to go to 6 and Russell to come on. Once the game was won if he really wanted to see them play at the same time he could do so. Or do it the other way letting them both start and have Sam on the bench as insurance.



As you say too many kids never works and you are right we first saw that with Millward but I wish people would stop banging on about Leeds. What Leeds did has no relevance to what Wane did today. Sinfield played in 27 SL matches and Burrow 25 and their coach never rested five senior pros at any time. They were just off form and had some injuries early on. The fact they won it from 5th wasn't because they rested players.

Marsh ripped right into you today and was 1 of the reasons we won lol.
We will have him to do the same again he is quality

The idea was spot on from Wane. I just think it would be beter suited to a home game. The hostile away atmosphere won't be easy on the youngsters. Still relatively new as a SL coach, got to be be given time. We(wire) lost at home to Salford last year. I think it's more credit to Widnes than anything else.

Remember it's still early in the season with everything to play for. We were devastated in losing to a team like Wigan earlier in the season but have bounced back to win every game since. Chin up lads!

I am sorry but what is that based on. Tuson was outstanding last week when he came on and is always a dependable player off the bench who does nothing wrong. We need to keep players like this.

Marsh has not once let us down in the few games he has played for us, he has good footwork and has the makings of a good centre. Im sure Wigan will be watching him closely at Widnes and at some point in the future he could be in line for a run in the team at centre just like Goulding has had this year.

In terms of who I would keep...

Marsh
Tuson
Mcillorum
OLoughlin

all british and all great squad players.

The jury is out for both Fielden and Amos. Right now I think we will give Fielden a contract and Amos will go but things can change.

Ideally I would keep Finch but if hes not happy then let him go. Hes a good player he can really pull the strings for us at times but at other times he can be a liability with knock ons and stray passes.


If Finch goes we need to line up a suitable replacement. Dureau would be great signing.

I like the look at Moon at Salford, he would be a good buy to replace Carmont.

We must by a 9 to replace Tommy in my eyes, but then they say this Carberry is good as people say he is I can see us give Mickey Mac the full reigns for a year while we bring this lad through but if we do that I am not sure 2013 will see us win any silverware, as Mcillorum is too inconsistant on attack.

Wane would of learnt a lot from yesterday regarding the youngsters and how far he can take it when resting a few players. Its a game we should of won but its not the end of the world. I would rather sacrifice the two points yesterday and get a good idea how some of the younger players are compared to bottom end super league opposition and in the process improve our chances of having our best team on the field come play off times.

Some Wiganers need to realise the competition has changed. The full steam ahead in every match system is not the best way of winning this championship anymore. We need to move with the times if we want to keep picking up trophies.

Im more dissapointed with the fact some of our younger guys werent up to beating Widnes.

Keep Fielden....are you feeling ok?

He had the right idea but should have had a plan B. Simple as that.

Exactly.

if wane really thinks he did the right thing to blood so manny youngsters against lower league opposition then surley he will keep the same team for our next trip to london! but im willing to bet he deosn't. it was a stupid experiment that went wrong one or two youngsters ok but five what where you thinking.

I'd agree with this. Maybe Sam or Lockers on the bench or Gelling Russell on the bench to start with. That being said they did well to get into 2 leads which Widnes shouldn't have come back from. I wouldn't expect Widnes to put 19 unanswered points on Hunslet in 20 mins of rugby.

You lives and learns i suppose, the fans want to see us winning not having freindlies or trial games for the younger players.
Ive seen great post on another sight, stating Mcguire wanted to win every game and would be ultra professional in how he gets to that is wane saying Wigan are prepared to not to do it this way and moving away from this ultra professional winning attitude

I don't see what all the fuss is about yesterday's team selection. If we'd won, nobody would have batted an eyelid and we'd all be banging on about how great our youngsters are. Fact is we let an 18 point lead go and i'd be more concerned about that, not the players we had out on the park. They were obviously good enough to to give Widnes a game, but not close it out...

He has said we had a couple of injuries [iand[/i he needed to see how some young players go. No he didn't. A sensible coach would have used the opportunity of a couple of injuries to try a couple of young players. Not put more than he needed to in the side which already out of necessity included the inexperienced Hughes. There was simply no actual [ineed[/i to do what he did at all. A couple of young players v Widnes and a couple of different ones v London would have told him far more than the rather pointless exercise of replacing half the team.

He screwed up and that is all there is too it.



You seem to have a very short memory of how we approached the regular season in 2010 and 2011. Given the "full steam ahead approach" is exactly what Madge did I would say you are completely wrong here. We won the GF when we won the league and won the CC when we finished second. We had a coach who didn't adopt the "full steam ahead approach" in Brian Noble. He was always telling us the competition started in August and we won nothing under him. It seems it is you who have not moved with the times and prefer the Noble approach rather than the one Madge used that brought is success.

Wigan moved with the times by appointing Madge who clearly set out to win every game by picking teams that could do so. Wane's contention that this is what he did v Widnes is a joke. Madge never once risked a loss by deliberately resting as many senior pros as Wane did v Widnes.

We also fell at the last hurdle last year because Maguire failed to rotate the squad well enough and had absolutely no plan B, particularly when it came to replacing Deacon which needed to be done much earlier, as opposed to the last couple of games.

Wane can't go in with the mentality of picking the best squad every week because Madge made that impossible. We don't know enough about how the young players will cope so Wane will have to give as many young players as possible as many chances as possible this year otherwise we're screwed next year.

He was a few senior players short against Widnes and he will know that, but he said the players on the pitch had the ability to win the game and they did. A lot of those players underperformed and he was wrong to think that a team good enough to beat Widnes would necessarily do so when asked to. I'd be very surprised if he made so many changes again but I'm glad he pushed his luck on this occasion, rather than doing it further down the line.

MM mistake last season was not to rest players before the very last game of the regular season just after the CC final. That was August we are now in early March and resting now will have no effect for August. The season before we did not rest so many players at any time of the season and finished top and won the Grand Final. And that GF wining season MM blooded a few young players every so often and that worked well.

People trying to draw any sort of comfort by the direct comparison as what happened last season and now are greatly mistaken. How are we screwed next year Apart from TL, maybe Finch, Carmont none of the players leaving have not got a direct replacement ready in that position. Lockers will stay Fielden is replaced by Mossop and Macilorum will stay as well. Roberts, Fielden, Marsh, Tuson are not guranteed first team spots even if fully fit. Apart from TL, Finch and Carmont the side will be almost the same as this season.

Given that game was a good game apparently to blood some young players i take it that most would be very happy to see the same side out on Sunday against the Broncos given they are on the same points and Widnes and are just as poor. So its an ideal opportunity to have them have another game in SL as after all points are meaningless and the comp starts in September. So how many would be happy to lose to Broncos this weeked with the same side out as yesterday. Given what people post on here i bet some would be happy if SW did the samething again. After all we are guranteed top 4 arent we.

We will know if SW thinks he has made an error yesterday if he plays the best side he can. Or if he thinks he is right he will play the same side again.

Playing just a couple of youngsters would of been very easy for them with all our stars carrying them. You need to let these lads stand on their own two feet and let them show what they are capable of. I have no doubt they were good enough to beat Widnes but they didnt play well enough and let Wane down.

When we won the GF we got knocked out of the challenge cup and had rest time. We also had a new system and suprised a lot of teams and blew teams away early and took the rest of the game easy, once people cottoned on it wasnt as easy. We have to plan for going all the way in both competitions and rotating the squad will help this. Last season come the play offs we looked dead on our feet.