BRAD SINGLETON is confident that Wigan Warriors’ youth ranks are churning out more top forwards for the future.
The experienced prop came through the hugely productive Leeds Rhinos system, and Wigan are one of the few clubs with an Academy of similar stature.
The Warriors’ second-place finish and Challenge Cup glory last season was powered by recent products like Morgan Smithies, Liam Byrne and Ethan Havard, while Warrington Wolves poached Matty Nicholson and Leeds Rhinos signed up James McDonnell.
There are more players now waiting in the Wigan wings, with props Junior Nsemba and Harvie Hill highly-rated by head coach Matt Peet following first-team debuts at the end of last season.
Singleton, who has made over 200 top-flight appearances and was twice a Super League winner with Leeds, also sees rich promise in the younger members of Wigan’s squad.
“Especially for a team like Wigan, it’s quite a conveyer belt of talent and attitude – the great attitude continues and you can see that with these lads. There are signs there of some great Super League players,” he said.
“Obviously we’ll have to see how that pans out, but from what I have seen there’s a great future for all of them.
“With the likes of Junior and Harvie, there are some big boys and big athletes coming through. It’s exciting.”
Both of those young players will hope to make a further impression on the first team in 2023, as Peet’s sides look to build on a 2022 campaign that finished with disappointment in the Super League play-off semi-finals.
Singleton said: “Winning a Challenge Cup and finishing second will be tough to improve on, but focusing on improving each game and each week will get us in a good place and who knows?
“We’d like to go one step closer and that’s the only way to improve this year. But we’ll just have to concentrate on narrowing that down week-to-week.”
