Harry Smith (Wigan) and Tom Dearden (Broncos)

[Father Ted]

Wigan's organising half next year will be Hastings. With the reserves League next year that will put younger players in a better position to get promoted to first team when injuries and suspensions occur.

[Rupert Prince]

2 hours ago, dkw said:

Theres not really a 6 and 7 anymore, other than feeding a scrum. Both halfs are first receivers, both halfs swap duties, most teams now often split the halfs across the the 2 sides of the pitch. I`m amazed Smith cant get in the Wigan team somewhere though, Truman at Cas got game time at Full back, others on the wing etc. Smith is a fantastic talent, I would hate to see him wasted and lost to Wigan.

Correct.  Assuming Hastings is the replacement of Williams then Wigan will be looking for a 7 in due course, probably next season.  Sammut is available of course already but is 32 (?).

So frankly Smith is being managed reasonably I think. 

[Dunbar]

6 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Correct.  Assuming Hastings is the replacement of Williams then Wigan will be looking for a 7 in due course, probably next season.  Sammut is available of course already but is 32 (?).

So frankly Smith is being managed reasonably I think. 

I hope you are right and Wigan have a plan for Smith's long term development that will pay dividends. 

I don't know how long he is due to spend at the Skolars but I worry that playing 200 miles away from his coaches at Wigan in a comp two levels below Super League is not the right path.

Especially when you consider that Dearden's coach at Brisbane has already given him the confidence boost that he sees him as the long term half for one of the biggest clubs in the NRL.

Ok, Dearden injured at the moment but their careers were already appearing to diverge.

[Rupert Prince]

Thank you Dunbar.  All fair enough.

I do not see why we should not expect Smith to be looked after as it were.  And assuming he is useful then he should get his chance.  There seems no evidence to me of him being dragged down or back.

On another Wigan perspective I see that last weekend at Bradford, Hanley scored 30pts, Forshaw get 2 tries and also Tyrer and Sculthorp and O'Neill played.  I told this to my doctor and he said my memory lessons are working well keeping back my early onset of dementia...

[Exiled Wiganer]

As I asserted forcefully in a different context a week ago, we will never see another Hanley in our game. Called that one right. 

[EagleEyePie]

I don't think you can question Wigan's approach to bringing through young players given how many get their opportunity. I think with Smith initially there would have been a risk in chucking him into a side with so many injuries than wasn't playing well. We had some key players missing but still had options in the halves. I think Lam was keen on giving Jake Shorrocks an opportunity, and Shorrocks himself was a very promising player whose development was hampered by injury problems.

Shorrocks was probably ahead in the pecking order at that time and getting 1st team games while Smith was getting games at Swinton and Josh Woods playing regularly for Leigh. All our young halves were playing some 1st team rugby which is good.

I'm not sure whether Smith was always going to be recalled from loan or if it's more a case of Swinton needing forwards more than they need halves. I think clubs can only play a maximum of 4 dual reg/loan players from one club and at present the Lions have Samy Kibula, Jack Wells, Liam Byrne and Craig Mullen playing regularly. If there's a limit on how many can play for one club then there may have to be some periods where certain players don't feature. 

If the younger players aren't playing for Swinton then London Skolars are our other dual reg partnership so they go down there. Dual reg with Skolars isn't ideal as they only turn up on game day but I guess it does challenge some of these players to play in situations outside their comfort zone.

I'm sure Smith will get his chance but at present both Williams and Leuluai are playing very well and Sammut was also very impressive against Salford. You have to balance giving young players a chance with ensuring the 1st team is stable and playing consistently well. You can't just chuck young players in whenever you feel like it if you're chasing consistency.

[Futtocks]

4 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

As I asserted forcefully in a different context a week ago, we will never see another Hanley in our game. Called that one right. 

Time has come to an end? Already? But I was going to put the bins out...

[DoubleD]

4 hours ago, Dunbar said:

I hope you are right and Wigan have a plan for Smith's long term development that will pay dividends. 

I don't know how long he is due to spend at the Skolars but I worry that playing 200 miles away from his coaches at Wigan in a comp two levels below Super League is not the right path.

Especially when you consider that Dearden's coach at Brisbane has already given him the confidence boost that he sees him as the long term half for one of the biggest clubs in the NRL.

Ok, Dearden injured at the moment but their careers were already appearing to diverge.

This is the problem with DR and no reserves

[Dunbar]

I see that Joe Shorrocks and Harry Smith were back in the Wigan u19's team last week so their dual reg at Skolars was quite short.

[EagleEyePie]

The Skolars dual reg has never really been a long term thing. The only player who played there as a dual reg player for any length of time was Craig Mullen, and he was very much on the naughty step at that point. James Barran is on a season long loan there from us but didn't play that week - so presumably we allowed Smith to go down and replace him in the halves for that game. Sam Grant is also on a season long loan from us (although hasn't played in a while) and Joe Brown was too before he re-signed with Bradford.

Swinton is the main dual reg partner and it seems we'll let players go down to Skolars if they are in need of someone to cover.