This season, 19 players in the Under 18 Academy and 42 players in the Scholarship have never played a game for the club which is very sad for the young players concerned.
It has now been announced that 17 new young players have been signed for next season's Scholarship with only two from Wigan St Judes and none from Wigan St Patricks, Ince Rose Bridge, Orrell St James, Shevington Sharks etc which make me ask the question, are youngsters in Wigan no longer interested in playing the game like in the past.
Over many years, Wigan St Patricks has been renowned for for being a conveyor line for producing players for Wigan Warriors, so why is that no longer the case.
Is it a indication of how the game in Wigan has no longer got the pulling power that it had during the days of Central Park?
If that now the case with fewer young players coming from the local amateur clubs, no games being played during the pandemic situation at the DW Stadium and no games being played at Wigan in next years World Cup Competition, we all should be very concerned about the future of the game in Wigan and not have the blazy and arrogant attitude that Rugby League in the town is still bigger than Football, especially with so many non rugby newcomers now living in the Wigan area.
In my opinion, all went pear shaped when we moved from Central Park, which may have been out of date, but had at least it had some character and atmosphere unlike the DW Stadium which is too big for the attendances now and has no atmosphere as a result of being a all seater Stadium.