I dont deny that. My point was solely that i no longer get my hopes up with Rogues predictions for young players. Id rather wait until they make the step up and use my own judgement.

As I understood the issue he is a Leeds lad who wanted to move closer to home? Having watched him several times there is no doubting his qualities as a player, be interesting to see how he develops over there now?

you are not wrong.

Wanting to be nearer home had nothing to do with it. He obviously took exception to the way he was treated after playing for most of the season and then had to make way for a newcomer who was no better.

Looks like Leeds and Dave Elliot see more in him than Wigan.

Seems to be a regular thing how some young players are treated at Wigan. Callum Green, Samy Kibula, Kyle Shelford and others, all rejected by Wigan, but snapped up by Warrington.

And you have got to question why we missed out on signing quality Wigan lads like Stephan Ratchford and Jack Welsby?

I thought Corey Hall was at Leeds before the end of the season last year? I could be wrong but I don’t recall him being ‘dropped’ for semis and finals by Wigan, as he wasn’t at the club anymore.

As for Kibula and Green, it’s not hurt us so far and I don’t see them turning out for anyone’s first team yet. Kyle Shelford was nowhere near good enough sadly and went to Swinton before signing kart time at Wire (to play reserves no doubt) In regards to Ratchford and Welsby, if we’ve missed out on two players who’s careers started ten years apart, we’re not doing too bad. I’d look at Ratchfords career and say he’s probably missed out on us, rather than the other way round. Jack Welsby looks a good player but it’s early days and you can’t sign them all as they say.

Quote ="Ruddy Duck"Wanting to be nearer home had nothing to do with it. He obviously took exception to the way he was treated after playing for most of the season and then had to make way for a newcomer who was no better. Looks like Leeds and Dave Elliot see more in him than Wigan. Seems to be a regular thing how some young players are treated at Wigan. Callum Green, Samy Kibula, Kyle Shelford and others, all rejected by Wigan, but snapped up by Warrington. And you have got to question why we missed out on signing quality Wigan lads like Stephan Ratchford and Jack Welsby?'" https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/leeds-rh ... ter-22942/

Quote ="Ruddy Duck"Wanting to be nearer home had nothing to do with it. He obviously took exception to the way he was treated after playing for most of the season and then had to make way for a newcomer who was no better. Looks like Leeds and Dave Elliot see more in him than Wigan. Seems to be a regular thing how some young players are treated at Wigan. Callum Green, Samy Kibula, Kyle Shelford and others, all rejected by Wigan, but snapped up by Warrington. And you have got to question why we missed out on signing quality Wigan lads like Stephan Ratchford and Jack Welsby?'" https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/leeds-rh ... ter-22942/

Our youth policy is dreadful. We should pack our academy in.

Not wanting to re open the Samy Kibula debate but he would still not be in line for a first team place with us this season and despite his undoubted talents he would have moved down the pecking order. It is good to see that he has lost some of the puppy fat and I hope that he does well at Wire. Of the others Shelford signing for them is a strange one, I read that he was signed specifically for the reserves. In general the lads that we have let go have not gone on to be world beaters but that is the nature of the game because the odd one will go on to do something. Do you remember Rob Lever who had been GB captain when we let him go? Good lads at 19 are often not the best at 21. We have now signed two ex players back, one of which left as a winger and returned as a prop, sometimes a player has to step out of the known environment if they are to reach their potential.

I’ve seen it first hand, the players they deem not good enough are treated poorly, very poorly. I know a lad who followed Wigan home and away, loved the club, good player too but binned off and treated poorly because he had a so called ‘attitude’. I never experienced anything but a very good attitude from him. But he’s now been snapped up by another SL club and is on loan to a Championship side, good luck to him aswell I hope he makes it.

I always thought Kibula to be a pudding to be honest, Shelford was a decent player just a bit small, could he have been converted to a 9? I thought Callum Green was a decent player.

So if the other SL club loaned him out to a Championship club, what did you suggest we do with him? We can't hold on to every single player. Sadly, you have to make big calls and let some go. I'm not suggesting this happened with your player, but that can lead to a change in a players attitude especially at a young age if they believe they will make it and it all ends in a rejection.

We could have played him in our 19s, he’s still 17/18.

Also, something else I didn’t like about the club was the way they’d fall over each other to sign a fast runner from athletics with absolutely no rugby experience. So a player who was fast but couldn’t hold a ball, never watched a game of rugby in their lives was treated better than lads who had all the skills, all the knowledge and loved the club.

And how many players do we play in the 19s? Again....we can't keep them all.

Just because you can’t keep them all doesn’t mean you have to disregard the ones you don’t in such a poor way.

What is the supposed poor way? Informing them we won't be renewing their contract? Anything after that is down to the player.

The pubs are littered with "Rugby players" with their own stories of how they "Could have been a contender!" But it was the clubs/coaches/other players etc fault.

There will always be the occasional parent/player who feels they got the rough end of the stick so to speak, and they view their time at the club ending badly.
Reality is this club has got a fantastic record for developing, giving opportunities to and supporting youngsters off the field. It is widely viewed as one of if not the best academy in the country and reguallary acquires and retains the best talent.
It certainly does this far better than it did circa 2000 -2007

Sometimes tough decisions have to be made and that wont always go down well, be viewed by released player and family as being fair and also sometimes theyll get it wrong.
All I hope is the club are as successful with it over the next 10/12 years as they have been over the last.

I could have been a contender, if only I had been good enough and a bit less soft.

The recruitment of younger players into the club is outstanding to the point of being quite remarkable.

How many "club trained" players there are at Wigan RL I don't know but I'll bet we are the equal of any club and better than most. It was mentioned in the trade press that we have more overseas spots available than any other club in SL. Probably because we bring more through our youth systems than any other club.
The foundation of this success has to be recruitment. We don't hear much about it if anything at all at junior level but it has been quite outstanding.
That was put in place by IL and probably with Joe Lydon's help back in 2008/9 or so.
The club and us fans should be proud of what has been achieved over the past decade with recruitment and junior development.

All of you defending it are just looking at the finished product, the nice shiney end. I wasn’t a player nor am I a relative of a player but my experience seriously made me look at the club in a different light.

I’d say some of the projects they run might get a group of 100 lads and get 1 SL player out of it (hooray, it’s successful) but you’ll get at least 50 of those turn their backs on RL and us as a club.

Also, this isn’t a ‘wah, some players don’t make it boo hoo’. I get that, but a club as big and famous as us should be setting standards. Anyone comes and gets involved in the club who is participating in some sort of training programme should be treated as best they can. Also if there’s only so much room, ( I believe it’s 20 under 16s) you can ‘sign’ then there shouldn’t be any other schemes that offer false hope just to get the net a bit wider.

Rugby is a lot like any other sport, the outstanding get picked up but they get recruited along with lot who get there because of who they know, happens so much in rugby both codes

Snap

As a three time runner up in the world's tallest dwarf contest I feel your pain

As a parent of a lad who (although played for a great team a few years ago) was never going to make it into any scholarships I did notice that 'some' parents of 'some' kids that did make it into Wigan's scholarship year 1 suddenly acquired that certain swagger of "my lad has made it with Wigan". From a group of 6-7 from our amateur club all but one were let go by year 2.

I've heard that at this level Wigan can be seen as quite ruthless, heard accusations that they don't treat all the lads that well, have favourites.. etc (which I found funny as this is something we had to put up with at amateur level). Some moved to Saints & Widnes as they 'treat their lads better' whether this is true or not I don't know.

Yes it's ruthless at Wigan....and so it should be.
I think it was Rads book where he said back in the day he came through he had to work extra hard as he wasn't the most skilful player in the reserves but there were others striding around town thinking they'd made it that were lost to the game a few years later, whilst he was winning honours.

Spot on, and is why we succeed year after year at that level. We then have to be ruthless again in who can take the next step

I was completely impartial and I’m a Wigan fan, so I’d be more biased toward the club in theory. I’d agree with what you’ve heard aswell re favourites and ruthless.

It can be the nature of any professional sport. Football is even more ruthless. I know one man who was the step father of a wonderkind whose wife got a message asking her to provide details of the lads estranged father so that they could judge if the lad was likely to grow. Another lad I was working with had been understudy to Grobelaar(????) at Liverpool and England under 21 goalkeeper but was having to retrain having failed to make the grade. He was a lucky one because some of those boys are given everything and everything is done for them and it suddenly disappears and it is easy to go off the rails. Not that that makes the treatment handed out to some of the youngsters right but the attrition rate is awful. I had always hoped that the education side of playing at Wigan would soften the blow