Quite.

You're not going to be able to create a champions side out of entirely home grown players.

NO!!!! If they are not born within the WN1 area, we dont want them!!

What about wages?

They are on quite a bit more than league players so what would make them take a pay cut to come over to our code?

Plus they get massive sponsor deals (if they become very good) thats an added bonus

And they wont like our pies!!

how the hell will we sign class players from union when they have a salary cap of a minimum of £4.26m from 2012. www.espnscrum.com/premiership-20 ... 40449.html ...unless we re-dress the balance and allow our top players to earn comparable wages then we will lose the more and more to Union from a younger age

how the hell will we sign class players from union when they have a salary cap of a minimum of £4.26m from 2012. www.espnscrum.com/premiership-20 ... 40449.html ...unless we re-dress the balance and allow our top players to earn comparable wages then we will lose the more and more to Union from a younger age

We can find them a few pasties

I avoid saying nice things about Wigan where possible, but ALL sane people like your pies.

When the aussie salary cap goes up it can only really benefit wigan. We have an excellent youth system and it is second to none. We would then see alot of our youth playing in the first team which as seen in previous seasons with our 20s being at the top of the tree we have the players there who can make the step up. Wasn't it Lenegans plan all along to have a majority of wigan lads in the side with a couple of overseas players?

We need to identify talent that can be turned into top class first team players, and it doesn't matter if it is from the Wigan area, from other RL areas, from Rugby Union, from football, from athletics, from basketball etc.

It's completely irrelevant what sport they come from, although it's obviously easier from a rugby background. We recently lost a very good player who has got an apprenticeship at a top football club.

Who's that?

Completely agree too!

too true Rogue, it doesn't matter where they come from as long as they are young enough not to have irreversible bad habits/technique and can be moulded into the kind of player that benefits Wigan rugby. We should as a sport look at the Union set up where up to 8 academy trained players have at least £20-30k of their salary not part of the cap when they make the first team...This would mean clubs who train their own youngsters would then still be able to offer them a decent salary once they make the first team instead of having to let them go to other clubs who don't bring on young players

It cheers me up to hear this because even if the stories are exaggerated, I get fet up hearing about how scouts from Sale, Gloucester and Bath are constantly circling around our youngsters.

Let's do it to them for a change.

Quote ="pie.warrior"how the hell will we sign class players from union when they have a salary cap of a minimum of £4.26m from 2012. www.espnscrum.com/premiership-20 ... 40449.html ...unless we re-dress the balance and allow our top players to earn comparable wages then we will lose the more and more to Union from a younger age'" We're not going to be looking at experienced England or Scotland internationals though. It's the young lads with something special we'll be keeping a watch on. We need to have our eyes open to spot talent in other sports whether that be football, basketball, union or tiddlywinks. Like it or not, rugby league is smaller than many other sports in this country so the talent pool isnt huge. You just need to look at the England backs in recent years.

Quote ="pie.warrior"how the hell will we sign class players from union when they have a salary cap of a minimum of £4.26m from 2012. www.espnscrum.com/premiership-20 ... 40449.html ...unless we re-dress the balance and allow our top players to earn comparable wages then we will lose the more and more to Union from a younger age'" We're not going to be looking at experienced England or Scotland internationals though. It's the young lads with something special we'll be keeping a watch on. We need to have our eyes open to spot talent in other sports whether that be football, basketball, union or tiddlywinks. Like it or not, rugby league is smaller than many other sports in this country so the talent pool isnt huge. You just need to look at the England backs in recent years.

signing and training young raw talent is one thing, but keeping hold of it with an ever increasing gap in the salary cap compared to NRL and Union will be difficult. The days of young lads only wanting to play for their hometown club is becoming a thing of the past in the modern era, players have agents and they are there to get the best deal for their charges which is becoming a double your money and play union for lads that turn 20. We need a salary cap structure that allows clubs to keep hold of more young talent.

It's not so much about changing our cap to be competitive as simply getting more money in our game. We could put in a cap of 5 million tomorrow. It wouldn't alter the fact that none of our clubs have that money to spend.

Like previously mentioned on this thread it's about signing youngsters from RU, those who haven't quite broken into the first team yet. The chances of signing someone like Foden who would go well in RL IMO, are slim to none. But if we can tempt the 16 and 17 year old Foden's and alike who are out there then great.

I remember reading a comment from Lenegan where he commented on Wigan's scouting network saying it was running at only 40% of what it should be. It's about broadening that network as much as possible. Jermaine McGillvary was a semi-profesional footballer before his switch to the Giants, so as far apart as some sports may seem. It's that athletic ability that's shared between all sportsmen that allows for potential switches.

It'll never happen. Money in Union is miles higher than in League. An also ran journey man is on probably double what our also ran journey man type players are on. As for the top players, the wages on offer approach lower echelon premier league wages, especially in France. Can't see even 16 or 17 year olds coming to us from union. It would be good though if we found a new Botica or Twiggy or a headline signing like Scott Quinell.

Thats all Scott Qiunell was a headline signing and we turned down Chris Joynt because of it

As others have said it isn't about signing the marquee international standard ridiculously high waged Union players. It is about targeting the young players still developing whose skill set might be more suited to league. A very positive message from our chairman. I posted a list on the rumours thread of all the OOC Super League players and it is a very grim list. There is no market to recruit from within Super League at all. The strength of the pound, the decreasing overseas quota and the increase in the NRL salary cap makes it very hard to recruit from the NRL anymore. The emphasis must now be on junior development. Bringing your own players through. Matt Parish at Salford has highlighted this as one area Salford have neglected and need to improve if they want to put forward a serious title challenging side. It's imperative for all clubs to improve in this area. I think when the licenses are handed out this (junior development) should be the area clubs are more meticulously judged on as it is one area where too many clubs are failing.

Martin Offiah was a little known union player before Widnes saw his potential. We should our eye out for potential talent wherever it currently is.

Only backs, and those that can kick. Getting forwards in Union, even at a young age will taken time to mould them (get them fit) and improve their tackling ability (no contact until 10 years old).

Welcome to the Australian RL attitude from 1978.

Have we really taken this long to realise?

But Scott Quinell was a better player than Joynt. Not sure what point youre making?

yeah but look at it this way u cud get a gud few years of rugby league training which means by the time your 26, 27 ur almost certain u can get a mega salary off a league player.

We don't need to take players from Union, we just need to keep our own.

Chris Ashton
Ian Thornley
Owen Farrell
Isreal Folau
Karmichael Hunt
Lesley Vainikolo
Sonny Bill Williams
Shontayne Hape
Stephen Myler

Should all still be playing RL. That is A LOT of talent to lose. No doubt super league and the NRL would be better with these guys playing. I realise a couple of them originally played Union, but once we have the talent, lets keep them.

In the past....

Clinton Schifcofske
Lee Smith
Brian Carney
Andy Farrell
Iestyn Harris
Henry Paul
Jason Robinson
Mat Rogers
Wendell Sailor
Lote Tuqiri
Timana Tahu
Chev Walker
Barrie-Jon Mather
Mark Gasnier
Craig Gower

... have all been allowed to go to RU, I know some of them came back but RL cannot afford to keep losing this talent.

It is killing the player pool.

RL would be a lot better off keeping these players without doubt...

It is the same story with some coaches now as well... Edwards, Farrell...

WE NEED TO KEEP OUR TALENT BEFORE WE SIGN THEIRS.