Quite shockingly the lads didn't turn up yesterday i think the so called first team regulars that played might as well not have turned up, Dudson didnt do himself or the team any favours he looked unfit gave countless penaltied away along with Connor Farrell who's discipline was also terrible to watch, Stu fielden put in an average performance cant fault his defence though, our half backs where non existant Jack Murphy was good under the high ball but went missing for the rest of the game, he's had a great season angainst the smaller teams but doesnt seem to show up in the big games, gelling was a non-starter throughout, the only positives where the left hand side combo of Iian Thornley and Matty Russell, Thornley looked strong as usual definitley got the metal to take over from carmont and Russel looked a different class in stages, probably wasted his talent on the wing me thinks, but he still managed to bag a brace, unfortunatley we lost Crosby to a swinging arm which didnt help our cause because apart from Fielden and Burke's teamwork in defence the rest of our pack might as well go and re-sign for St Pats! Full credit to the leeds team they excelled in attack and especially their defence, the wigan lads just looked confused when on the leeds line and just couldnt get the moves flowing! Im sure the lads will be as dissapointed as i was because on paper wigan should really have run away with this one! Everyone has their opinion but i thought id give you the brutual truth this time lets hope our fist team can do better !

Can I ask a stupid question please.

What's the point of allowing Fielden, Gelling, Dudson etc to play with kids in a comp for kids, I am sure Leeds, Wire and Saints did the same, so not a dig at your club but it just seems daft with a GF at stake, I could understand the league games.

Fielden and Dudson desperately need game time after being out for long periods. Gelling was brought over as a 'project' and was expected to spend this season playing reserve grade anyway. The only reason he played first team rugby was because of the injury to Richards.

I'm surprised Wire have anybody under 20 on their books



Has anybody checked their age certificates?

Off the top of my head I think Weller Hauraki was the only player for Leeds who couldn't be described as a kid.

Hopefully his team mates will have learned zilch from him.

Yeh the leeds team had a few under 18's in the team and quite a few of their lads where very impressive, the fullback number 11 and the hooker stood out and their prop at 10 he ran hard! Should be future in the game for soem of the new crop!

No 10 would be Brad Singleton, hooker Liam Hood, fullback Jimmy Watson.

Warrington and Leeds both had two over-age players in their teams I believe.

Wigan utilised the recent rule change to play the maximum of five over-age players.

Will Gelling spend next season with South Wales or is a loan spell with another Super League club (if any will take him) preferable?

With Carmont leaving in the next fortnight it's widely expected that Gelling and Iain Thornley will be left to fight it out for the vacant left centre position next season.

Only one winner there thornelys nailed on for me!

With the scrapping of the U20's for next season we have already started to lose players from our current crop, Matty Russell has signed for the gold coast titans (his choice not the clubs) and several other players have been told there is no contract for them next season.

Possibly but Gelling has been tremendous in the centre position over the last couple of months.

Matty Russell was never really in with a shout at Wigan and he's done the right thing for himself. Unfortunately when you've got arguably the best player in the league in front of you and still only 23 years old, your only option is to look elsewhere.

I wish him all the best though and having the opportunity to move to the Gold Coast and be paid for it at his age isn't an opportunity to be sniffed at.

The rest of your post concerns me though as I've said to you before. With nowhere for 19/20/21 year olds to play I fear we will lose some good lads to other clubs/sports/careers.

TBF with what he has been offered at GC it was a no brainer, regardless of who was in front of him. the club aren't too happy about it but can't blame him. I'm not sure of who exactly has been told there is no contract for them apart from one and it wouldn't be fair to name him and Ryan king but that was common knowledge. There have definitely been a few though.

Russell slipped behind Murphy in the pecking order this year so there was already competition just to become back up for Tomkins. He's the sort of player who could really become a huge talent if he fixes the weaknesses in his game and there's much better coaching available in Australia.

Out of the current under 20's who haven't played any or very many first team games the ones I think the club really needs to keep are -

Rhodri Lloyd (pretty sure he's already contracted for a few years)
Jack Murphy
Greg Burke
Dom Crosby (although he's over age)
Sam Powell
John O'Donnell

Out of the rest I don't think there are any who would really have anything to offer.

It is a problem that we will have to come to terms with. I would be happy for the club to have an arrangement, with an Aussie outfit, were players can spend a couple of years in Australia before returning to play in this country.

We need to make sure our succession planning is spot-on, for example we need to ensure that we have a ready made replacement for Sam in two years time. The constant moving of the goal posts is neither helping clubs or players.

Possibly not, but late developers like Crosby would have slipped through our fingers if the U20s competition had been scrapped a few years ago.

I mentioned that on another forum, scrapping the under 20's disadvantages prop forwards who generally peak later in their careers and some probably aren't ready to play week in week out even once they reach their early 20's.

Just had a quick look on google maps at the stadium (Skilled Park) and the local area including the coastline and all I can say is....wow! For a 23 year old lad to be given the opportunity to get out there and be well paid for it is every young persons dream.

Get out there and don't look back..!

the full back is jimmy watson, very highly rated at leeds. the prop is brad singleton who should have played plenty for the first team this year. a really good player

i have never ever seen a topic regarding the wigan academy without rogues gallery making reference to it in some form or other.
As he has constantly bigged up the wigan academy set up and has taken great delight in belittling the Rhino's academy set up,i would have expected him to do the decent thing here and eat some humble pie and congratulate our far younger winning side?
i hope that rogues does not try to out do leon pryce and try to take his mantle of the hide and seek king away from him

on a side note this was a fantastic result for these Rhino's kids against the much more experienced Wigan counterparts,the majority of our u20's will be moving onto pastures new next season due to the changes that will come into force from the rfl

To be fair to Rogues, I've not seen him post for a number of days.

fair enough pal and i do hope that he is ok

nice guy rogues. i've always found him a decent bloke. even if he is a wigan fan

There are 2 others I would add to this list, Liam Carberry and Matt Crow, neither have been given much of a chance this season by the current coach, for whatever reason I am at a loss. Carberry is a hooker but for some reason seems to have played most of his games at loose forward, which it is obvious he is not. I appreciate that Hooker is Logans position but believe Carberry should have been given more opportunities to develop in that role. Crow who together with Carberry and Burke showed a lot of promise for the previous 3 seasons at centre and 2nd row, has barely had a look in, being on the bench or not even in the squad. I looked at Rogues stats and he has had only 2 starts all season. At 2nd row he gives the team more pace/vision and definately more discipline certainly than Connor Farrell has shown in that postion.