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Anybody who thinks Wigan are going to go backwards anytime soon is delusional. Their current squad is full of talented home grown players already and they'll go out and sign quality players where the need to.

Smiggs wrote:

Anybody who thinks Wigan are going to go backwards anytime soon is delusional. Their current squad is full of talented home grown players already and they'll go out and sign quality players where the need to.

Completely agree about their current squad, but they won't have a better 6 next year than Finch.
If they move Tomkins to 6 and play Russell at FB they won't be as good either, especially if it's Matty Smith at 7.

Smiggs wrote:

Anybody who thinks Wigan are going to go backwards anytime soon is delusional. Their current squad is full of talented home grown players already and they'll go out and sign quality players where the need to.

Who is implying that they will go backwards ?.....all I see is people challenging RBAs view that Wigan will be even better next year.

[R.B.A]

Bet Lynch wrote:

Who is implying that they will go backwards ?.....all I see is people challenging RBAs view that Wigan will be even better next year.

And its great to see a (mostly) constructive discussion. To me, as things stand it will be harder for Wigan to go backwards than to progress. Certainly when you look at their opposition, Leeds are certainly entering a re-building stage. Warrington are an ageing team and will be going through transition although they too have a great youth system. Saints and Huddersfield will have new coaches so may take time to adapt to new systems etc. It looks as though Hull and Rovers are going to have a massive turn-over of players now that our new coaches have had a good look at their respective squads so that is going to take time to bed in.
When you take all of that into account on top of the young players that are bursting onto the scene at Wigan and the masses of salary cap that they have spare then i would just hand them the 2013 title now.
(Rovers to win the Challenge Cup though Mrs B).

Maybe the rest of SL teams will finally wake up and start really investing in it's Academy's now. The need for teams to produce their own English/French stars is now paramount.

R.B.A wrote:

And its great to see a (mostly) constructive discussion. To me, as things stand it will be harder for Wigan to go backwards than to progress. Certainly when you look at their opposition, Leeds are certainly entering a re-building stage. Warrington are an ageing team and will be going through transition although they too have a great youth system. Saints and Huddersfield will have new coaches so may take time to adapt to new systems etc. It looks as though Hull and Rovers are going to have a massive turn-over of players now that our new coaches have had a good look at their respective squads so that is going to take time to bed in.
When you take all of that into account on top of the young players that are bursting onto the scene at Wigan and the masses of salary cap that they have spare then i would just hand them the 2013 title now.
(Rovers to win the Challenge Cup though Mrs B).

I still think the overall quality of the competition will be diluted in the next couple of years as Leuleuais (Tommy and Kylie), Finch, Brett Hodgson, Menzies, Morley etc depart and are replaced by younger British players with a lack of genuine homegrown talent.

[R.B.A]

B0NES wrote:

Maybe the rest of SL teams will finally wake up and start really investing in it's Academy's now. The need for teams to produce their own English/French stars is now paramount.

100% correct. To be fair to Hull and Rovers they do seem to be making the effort and Academy/Scholarship results have been encouraging but it is a long term and costly project hence i think the plans to join forces at junior level.

Mrs Barista wrote:

I still think the overall quality of the competition will be diluted in the next couple of years as Leuleuais (Tommy and Kylie), Finch, Brett Hodgson, Menzies, Morley etc depart and are replaced by younger British players with a lack of genuine homegrown talent.

And hopefully good for the international game too

R.B.A wrote:

100% correct. To be fair to Hull and Rovers they do seem to be making the effort and Academy/Scholarship results have been encouraging but it is a long term and costly project hence i think the plans to join forces at junior level.

The Effort isn't good enough and Both clubs are way off the player amounts they should be producing imo. SL clubs should have been chucking money into the kids long ago rather than wasting their money on NRL quick fixes.

[R.B.A]

Mrs Barista wrote:

I still think the overall quality of the competition will be diluted in the next couple of years as Leuleuais (Tommy and Kylie), Finch, Brett Hodgson, Menzies, Morley etc depart and are replaced by younger British players with a lack of genuine homegrown talent.

Perhaps, but maybe we may find that Ratchford is better than Hodgson, Bowden better than Moa, Green better than Clinton, Jones better than Meli, Russell better than Roberts etc..