On the subject of young players, the majority on here think that Matty Ashton will play wing next year. Unless I’ve missed it can anyone confirm he’s been given a new contact next year. I thought his present one is up in November.

Also as mentioned in a previous post without a reserve team how does Riley Dean prove he worth a new contract

How does Riley Dean prove he’s worth a new contract without a reserve team.
We know that next year Widdop and Williams are our half back partnership and unless there’s an injury when will Riley play. The club have only given him to the end of next year.

I think it is Riley Dean's 20th birthday tomorrow (Wednesday). Widdop was 21 before he made his first team debut and only played three games that season.

We shouldn't expect too much too soon from young players.

Personally I like the mix we have at the moment. It does look as though some of the more elder members of the squad will be moving on and we will have an overall average younger age next year. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the opportunities to come given Powell’s decent track record with youth development.

In relation to the elder players on the way out:
i.e. Clark, Austin and possibly Hill moving on they are all in their 30s. (Lineham is 29 next month and looks certain to be on his way)

So I would expect the likes of Thewlis/Ashton to get more game time on the left wing spot. If Hill does leave, we have Butler and J Harrison ready to make the step up off the bench with Mulhern/Philbin starting. Williams is obviously 5 years younger than Austin.

With the likes of Walker, Wrench, Longstaff, Doro and Dean on the back of that I think those players will get their opportunities throughout next year under Powell. I would suspect a lot more then they would have under Price. Powell has more of a focus on developing and bringing on young talent - it was only a few months back he gave a 17 year old a starting spot on the wing to make his home debut, in which he scored an impressive try.

I think the difficultly Powell will face next year is having to knit the side together, there is a lot of comings and goings along with a fairly new HB partnership, which may take time to develop.

Lets be honestt, Powell has played a lot of younger players through necessity with a smaller squad at cas and quite a few seasons with a long injury list (which I hope won't be replicated here). Price has done similar last year, before the cup final and when we fielded a young team to get games on for a spell. His reputation for giving youngsters a chance is a little exaggerated, however what he will do is allow the players who look the part to keep the shirt and force their way in to his plans where they can flourish (Truema for example) which is I suppose what we have been guilty of, again long injury lists do help the youngsters cause.

Those are the sort of opportunities that younger players have to take, they can't shy away or just do the basics, then hey have to show something to catch the eye, that could be no errors, good control of tackled in the ruck or a few good eye catching tackles, line breaks, catches under pressure, support runs etc etc, basically anything that puts the team on the front foot. Thewlis, Longstaff and Dean (good vision for a pass and a gap) have IMO, Danny walker did too (even though I wasn't his biggest fan to start with, still think its obvious where he is going with that big foot plant). Robson and Doro haven't taken their opportunities IMO, rightly or wrongly my overall impression of doro is that he's too small to be a prop and he doesn't make much impact and robson is unspectacularly steady. I appreciate that may be an injustice to them both but they have to earn the next opportunity by showing they can have an impact at superleague level, even if they make a few mistakes, same goes for all younger players really. The more impact they have the more quickly a second opportunity will arise, I can see why there is no rush to get them back in the first team as they aren't moving ahead of anyone else through performance. I doubt Powell will be rushing younger players to the front at the expense of fully fit first team players but I do hope he will blood younger players who catch his eye in training to keep the first team on their toes fighting for their shirt.

Hmm, not sure I agree with that, the first part, cas fans have complained about his reluctance to bring academy players through, unless he absolutely has to, let's also not forget the initial rejection of the elite academy award, due to lack of production.

You can point to Trueman and Foster, but they were Bradford products brought in during their latest demise.

He's another coach that makes 4 changes to cover 1 player dropping out.

It’s a valid enough point. When the contract extensions to the 6 youngsters were given out though Riley Dean was only given to Nov 2022. Next year Widdop and Williams are our half backs. Unless Widdop is given occasional rests without an established reserve grade I worry that Riley won’t given the chance to prove his worth for 2023.
I only bang on about Riley Dean because what I’ve saw of him I think he has every chance of making it.

You say you don't agree then agree!

I said the long injury lists are what has given cas youngsters more opportunity and it was a similar situation here last season.

I honestly feel younger players have a great chance when they come in to the first team, they have to demonstrate no significant weakening to the team against an established player who is likely paid an awful lot more money than them in a salary capped sport. Toby King came in and offered no significant weakening against Ryan atkins who will have been on a shed load more cash so King gets a run of games. I remember early on against wigan King on the last play dabbed a kick through with nothing on and forced a drop out, that's a really big play for a young player under pressure showing composure and an ability to play what's in front of him. That's the sort of thing younger players have to do to catch the eye.

Demonstrate no significant weakening and a next chance will come sooner. I think longstaff is knocking on the door now, very young but he's looked the part to me as well. I'm a little dissapointed that Dean hasn't had a few more chances as he looked good when he played. I also understand the sentiment behind sita playing on the wing when wrench could have been given a go but we won the match so hard to criticise the coach too much.

It's terrible how few games youngsters are playing at the moment, no wonder they struggle to break through.

Out of all the contracts given out to the youngsters who have played first team, there’s only Nathan Roebuck and Matty Ashton who don’t seem to have deals for next season. It could possibly be a last minute deal for Nathan.
Is there any news on Matty or are the club waiting for him to prove his fitness.

CW what chances has Robson had that you don’t think he has taken? I genuinely can’t recall the times he has been given an opportunity this season, that may be a reflection on his performance or my memory to be fair.

I think the number of interchanges may be a factor in why Wrench didn't play any part at Headingley. If were now down to 10 (correct me if I'm wrong) then Hill and Cooper going off and then back on again takes up 4. If two further forwards also go off and come back on again, that's another 4, which leaves just 2. Not a lot of wriggle room if there's a knock or two to factor in.

Good point.

Absolute priority is getting young players and players returning from injury a game of rugby. If the reserves becomes part time or there are"friendly" games between clubs who can get a team together well so be it. Your playing life is relatively short and you need to be turning out every week.
It's a bad habit training and just watching others playing.

One of the necessities of a great sport is a conveyor belt of youth ,gradually improving until the players reach the maturity of top level players & can then enter first teams either with their own clubs or at competitors. Without reserve grades the stars of the future will never be sufficient in number or quality to produce actual quality on the pitch. We are probably looking at the last batches of quick fix superstars who could come into teams to, hopefully, win the one that matters. Not every remedy can be bought & without reserves & academies the top players of the future will not be produced as the game goes down the pan.

I mean last year he had a few chances, whilst he didn't do anything terrible I'm not sure he did enough to be banging on the door for more opportunities. This year he hasn't had a go which is unfortunate for him because he could have developed a by since we last saw him.

I'm relatively happy with how they are coming on, Ashton and thewliss have both fitted into the side seamlessly and do not look out of place. Wrench and longstaff look next in line to be pushing on the door. Lineham looks to be on his way out so either thewliss or Ashton if extended can take starting soon in the wing. But we would be short of cover if Ashton goes. We have king n matautia at centre so it's unlikely wrench will be more than cover for the next season at least if he can continue to impress then he may get a gig on loan for next season when we go to 14 sides. And get the game time, the club should try and get him to the best club they can on loan. Longstaff could probably move onto the bench if j Clark goes so again will get minutes. Dorro n Robson have probably been the least impressive of our younger players in pushing for more chances. However they're young and still growing and developing strength n power so I'm not as concerned, but certainly not worried they're not getting picked they are way off the possible replacements .

Powell is coming in at a good time in being able to make some swift changes due to so many contracts expiring,, I think we will have made enquiries about tom Johnstone and if available he will replace lineham if not we will announce Ashton's extension. So being optimistic if there's no word on Ashton there's still hope for Johnston. For young players to develop they need quality and experience to guide them on and off the pitch. .

Sita on the wing was not really a suprise he's the only recognised winger available in the squad.,. Not a second row adapting to centre now moved to the wing just because he is young.. sita was the obvious call and the right one , as mentioned earliers it's about being able to come in and for the team to not feel the impact in a negative way bit tsee an improvement if anything.

A lot of fans fall in love with young players when in reality they know very little about them. They will hear some good reports from youth team games or sometimes the hype comes from family and friends and teammates who will assure us that this kid was dominating junior rugby but that's nothing like being able to handle Super League. They like the hope that a young unknown talent presents and hope we'll hit the lottery of the next Harris and Sculthorpe.

We've had players come through with a huge reputation that we'd been hearing about for years so the hype builds. Steve Pickersgill, GO'B, Rhys Evans, Harvey Livett. Then when they don't live up to the hype, it gets blamed on the coaches. As PY said earlier in the thread, who are the players that left us because of not getting opportunities that got picked up by other clubs and made it elsewhere? Really good players who slip through the net end up starring elsewhere, like Lee Briers and Chris Bridge did with us. Our alumni end up being mediocre players in lower table or lower league clubs. The usual excuse from their supporters is that the Warrington coach 'ruined them' through dropping them at some point, but being in and out of the side is usual for young players who are trying to break into the team and aren't setting the world on fire. You can't give a player a perma-place ahead of established first teamers, if he isn't performing. The irony here is that Price took a lot of flak for playing Ashton ahead of Ratchford in that cup semi against Salford.

The other issue that is inconsistent is that on the one hand we talk up our squad as being this superstar roster that should be winning Grand Finals if only we had better coaching, but on the other we complain that young players aren't getting a chance. Well this is what comes with having a squad of superstars....its like Chelsea won the Champions League and their fans complain about all the young talent that leaves because it doesn't get a shot. Personally I think our squad is overrated on this forum, and I would be up for some churn in the roster, move out some established names and take a punt on some more young players and new signings, but I usually get push back on here by people listing all the 'internationals' we have. I would say keep the ones who are successful established internationals but maybe look at moving on some of those who just have a few international caps and weren't much cop at international level...

To me it seems like Warrington have slowly clocked on to the importance of the youth system. There's clearly a lot more effort going into it than there used to be, but breaking into Warrington's 13 must now be harder than anywhere else in Super League. You are probably the only side left in the competition that will look to replace every outgoing regular with an external signing. That could work both ways, either it'll mean only the very best come through and you produce greats, or a lot will go elsewhere or give up younger as they see it as a closed shop.

Culture is another area that the top clubs in Super League have all had an edge over Warrington in. I'm not talking about corporate mission statements or motivational slogans on the wall. The top sides don't just recruit based on talent, they recruit character and the right type of people. There are times when you wonder why a big club hasn't gone after a certain player and it's not the talent that's the issue, it'll be their character. Again though, it does seem like maybe they are onto this as well given who has left or not being renewed recently.

Yep, can’t argue with character and attitude being a good basis for recruitment, your club wouldn’t dream of signing anyone who fell below the highest standards in that regard.
On a totally unrelated topic, what is Ben Barba doing these days?

Does he not still do afternoon tea with gelling Monaghan n gleeson ?

Well our performances against Saints must have been totally out of character. You'll have to hope we revert back to type one day.

I would say they are totally in character, brilliant when they want but also terrible too at times and average for the majority.

Well just looked at the Squad for the Wakefield match and you’ve got to say Mr Price certainly keeps us posters on here on our toes.

I don’t miss many first team games and would like to watch the Academy more but Morgan Burgess and Tom Whitehead has certainly caught me by surprise. Sometimes I just can’t understand the thinking behind it.
You would think Nathan Roebuck or Jacob Gannon would get named before these 2 young lads. Price has said the squad is fit and healthy and even though they may not play it’s certainly a surprise.
Maybe Walter can give us his thoughts on these 2 players.

I take it all back, can we give fewer youngsters a chance, looks like we might lose. Price OUT!