I agree about waiting for Owens and Gilmore, but players like Craven and Hulme are coming to the age where its make or break time really. Both of those players will be too old for the u20's (unless the SL u20's comp are allowed overage players in the team). Players like Owen at Cas, Westerman at Hull, Tomkins, Eastmond, Ratchford etc etc all came through to 1st team and playing regular before 21. IIRC both Owen and Westerman were both 16 when they were 1st team regulars for Cas in our division back in 2007 and injuries apart, they have been 1st teamers ever since. For what its worth I think Danny Hulme has really come on recently and has been one of the bright spots in a really poor season for us, but I think Craven has quite a lot of catching up to do. Thats not a criticism of Danny, but simply a fact that most young players who make it in SL have a lot more game time under their belts by his age. Its probably more of a criticsm of the club rather than the player. If the club don't think Craven is ready for Championship level, how can he go to SL standard in such a short space of time? The dual contract system shows how much SL clubs value young players learning their trade in the Championship. We're happy to develop the next Tomkins for Wigan, but reluctanct to try our own - it just doesn't make sense. Similarly we have released Dave Houghton, but also not given him the chance to show what he can do. We're more prepared to play a completely unfit Danny Sculthorpe + Wigan's Crosby before Houghton.
Since we were rejected in 2008 we've had 3 years to develop and nurture players so that going into SL we would at least have some homegrown players ready. To date only Hulme has managed to hold down a place - and even he wasn't considered ready for 1st team action this season+ only broke into the team due to injuries. IMO we've held back too much on the youth development + far more players got their chance last year compared to this - even though we knew we were guaranteed to be in SL and the club go on so much about youth development. What the club say and what they do seem to be 2 entirely different things. The club are aware of the club trained rules aren't they? I would very much hope that the club trained players in the 1st team squad are going to be active members of the team + not just passengers to make up the numbers.
Are you forgetting that Craven would have been a 1st team regular for most of the season if it weren't for his injury?
Trust in Widnes
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