The difference between us and Leeds is that a lot of Leeds' older players are obviously not as good as they were a few years ago. Players like Briers, Carvell and Monas seem to be getting even better.

brilliant point..also when the more high profile players do decide to pack in simon moran will flash the cash and get someone else in...

I think you should write to the club and suggest they set up two Academy teams, four scholarship teams and recruit plenty of good coaches and a director of youth development to bring them all through. Then we could set up some kind of scheme were fans could help contribute and raise additional funds to support such excellent work. Then, maybe we could see plenty of Warrington players featuring in the England Academy side, coming through our first team and being loaned out to other SL clubs to get experience.

Oh wait....

You post some dog turd RP.

Winner of the 'most accurate post of the day' award.

You forgot Westwood.

Just ban him.

Even without those players. with many more additions before they leave, still in good nick.

Riley
Joel
Evans
Atkins
Williams
O'Brien
Myler
Harrison
Bridge(I think he'd make a good hooker with his skill set)
Wood
Westwood
Evans
McCarthy

Subs-
Mitchell
Cooper
Helliwell

Gaz O'Brien has played No 6 every game he has played in the Under 20s this season! 6 and 7 are virtually the same nowadays anyway, 1 defends on the left and 1 on the right!

There is always this churning process at all clubs but yes it is a valid point we have had a pretty stable team since 2008 and after 2011 there will be a high turn over between 2012-14.

I am not massively worried because we do have a number of good players who are young and will be around for a while so there will be some continuity, also we don't have a big gap between 21 year olds at one end and 34 year olds at the other, there are players in their late 20s who will move on to be the senior pros to replace the ones who retire. Also players moving on means that we will have salary cap space freed up and will be able to bring good players in.

I am however concerned about a couple of replacements - it will be very difficult to replace Briers and Michael Monaghan with players of similar quality, even with cap space freed up, the NRL increase in salary cap means the best NRL players will be hard to get over here now and in the UK there just isn't the talent available.

I do think there is a bit of now or never in terms of winning trophies, this is a great team which we have currently, and the next team may take a different shape which is not as good as it was and we may have to accept we slip behind Wigan for a bit. However there is a difference between doing what Bradford did, which is had a great team then collapsed, and doing what say Alex Ferguson has done with Man United, when his treble winning team started to break up and got overtaken by Arsenal and Chelsea, he kept United in the hunt while he built his next generation which emerged 3 years later and started dominating. If we keep Tony Smith then he can do that as well.

Rogues you've found somebody of a like mind as you on this point:- Raymond Pennington.

Theres a big difference between soccer and RL in that is the salary cap, in RL if your players get old you cant just go out and buy the best unless you get rid of the older ones. Thats what Wire should be doing if they wanna keep at the top of the tree. Saints have done this well over the years in offloading the likes of Long when it became clear he was past it and injury prone and having a good conveyor belt of youth and experience.

For Wire if we dont win SL this year or next year with our 'Dads army' then it could be a while before we are in a position to do so again.

Well I've had a go at Saints and Leeds for it in the past, it may as well be your turn now.

Complete tosh
We have a fantastic BALANCE of youth and experience
We're top of the league, and playing the best rugby I've seen in a Warrington shirt in 30+ years, and our resident Nazi sympathiser is crying about ages.

Do you not think Smith/Moran have not given the age issue lots of thought, or do you think they'll wake up in 2 years time, in a cold sweat, thinking Morley Briers etc will go on til their 40's....

DONT PANIC

RP. saints tactic of offloading injury prone players obviously works well! they currently have a fully fit squad with not even a niggle never mind any injuries......

hodgson , yes he`s past it , hang on top points scorer this year , king , yes hes well over the hill , briers , oh yes worst stand off in super league never going to make it , m.monas got to say he`s average , NOT , and as for moz well , say no more

i think you will find we can , our top 4 or 5 earners are all in the age bracket you state , therefore we can replace age with youth or like for like , ie shillington for moz , smith/ennis for m.monas , marshall for briers , slater (pretty pretty please ) for hodgson . we are a club on the up , despite what the pie eaters say and as long as moran has hold of the purse strings ( salary cap permitting we are here for the long haul)

Age is but a number with modern nutrition and conditioning.

Would anyone disagree that Briers is now in the form of his life? I can't remember him ever being as consistently good as this.

I must be old school still as I like my teams to have the 7 close to the ruck and bringing the forwards into the game with the 6 operating wider and linking the backs. Not sure about this channel thing, reminds me too much of Paul Cullen.

He is in the form of his life your right but his body is now more fragile than ever, he needs protecting by Smith to keep him fresh. Playing for Wales in the 4 nations is his dream though, but could be hard on his body which as we all know has not been kept in tip top conditon over the years.

What protection has he had this season?

No-one is saying these players are rubbish. Just that its worrying for Wire that so many of your key players are so close to retirement around the same time.

Same thing happened with Wigan when Farrell, O'Connor, Radlinski, Cowie, Newton, Connolly, Dallas, Renouf, Furner, Smith, Lam all left/retired within the space of a couple of seasons look where that left us - we were absolutely terrible when they left, up until we got a massive boost of talent coming through these past 2 years in the Tomkins bros, farrell, mossop, etc.

You cant just live in hope that players like O'Brian will be the new messiah and all will be well (we did the same with Kevin Brown)

We are being given the world on a plate by Lord Smith of the Shire and all you do is complain about the effing plate !!

Idea - next time you have a thought, either tell the person next to you at the time or just let it go.

I think it might be a case of 'What ridiculous thread can I think of today,' Mark.