Centre, halfback and hooker are the three positions I see us needing to strengthen with Thomas Leuluai and George Carmont leaving at the end of the season. The NRL market is 'largely dead' (to quote Lenagan) and the quality available in Super League is not much better either with most of the best players being tied up to 3/4/5 year contracts.
A possible solution could be to continue to promote from within. Now I'm not in the mind frame of giving a player a shirt purely because he's from Wigan, but I look at Logan Tomkins, Liam Carberry, Joe Mellor, Sam Powell, Anthony Gelling & can't ignore the fact we have some very talented young lads here at the club who could fill those spots without the need for too much recruitment.
It's controversial. We'd have to sign up Brett Finch, Sean O'loughlin and perhaps Stuart Fielden (as long as he returns to full fitness/form) so that we have some experienced players around these lads. One of the halfbacks and Anthony Gelling would have to be given some considerable game time this season for it to work ala Lomax/Gaskell at Saints. You have to ask, with the pack that we have, the quality in Sam Tomkins, Brett Finch, Mike McIlorum and Sean O'loughlin we have in key positions and the systems/structures/coaching here at Wigan - could it work?
Next season if we ended up lining up like:
Tomkins
Charnley Goulding Gelling Richards
Finch Mellor
Mossop McIlorum Lima
Hansen Hock
Lockers
------------------
Prescott
Fielden
Lauaki
Faz/Tomkins/Carberry
What would people think?
IF Wigan were to go down this route of using what we have here, then you could advocate the signing of Gareth Ellis because we'd have the salary cap space to do so (although how that affects Faz/Tuson/Burke/Hughes would still concern me).
The reason I say all this is because Shaun Wane has made some brave moves. He's backed the lads he has coached in the U20's and SO FAR they've proved worthy. Josh Charnley, Darrell Goulding and Mike McIlorum - all been given starting shirts and doing good for us. Lee Mossop has been given a starting shirt and has proven more than worthy. A player like Tom Spencer has been given a couple of games very early in his career and he hasn't let us down when he's played. Think about it, who honestly was confident that Goulding would make a good centre? Who was confident that Mike McIlorum could be an 80 minute hooker in a top team? A Darrell Goulding/Josh Charnley partnership had most people on here (myself included) worried in defence - they've been excellent!
Albeit it's only been a few games into the season and much sterner tests lie ahead, but as the season progresses on and we see how these lads continue to develop and how they play against the top sides it will be interesting to see how they fair. If they can stand up to the challenge, could the idea of continuing to promote from within and back players like Joe Mellor/Gelling/Tomkins/Carberry/Spencer/Hughes etc really pay off? Is there a need for much recruitment? Time will tell.
