St pete wrote:
Like I said I'm my other posts, youth is all well and good but for every one good kid we prob get five bad ones. Teams need to be very very lucky to produce young lads that all kick on and make it. We've brought same great players through the youth in the super league era like wello, roby, Graham, KC etc but we've also brought through so called next generation superstars that are now no where to be seen or playing for lesser clubs.
I don't buy into the views like we don't need to replace wello because we've got Ian hardman, we don't need to replace Lyon because we've got Ste tyrer and so on because 90% of the time it just don't work.
We big these kids up so much it's scary, if it's that easy to replace players then why not just throw our u20s out.
I'm not saying throw the 20's out, what I am saying is that if they get the job done, then we should not just be switching players for names sake.
Also it's a changed game nowa days from 10 years ago. 10 years ago, with all the get outs teams could look to the talent pool in austrailia to fill any gaps. However present circumstances mean that the talent pool in the NRL is no longer a fishing ground for gaps in your own youth development. Instead we are going to have to fill our own gaps or rely on other SL clubs to fill those gaps.
So we did have Steve Tyre, but I think most fans can say he did not make the grade at Saints, but he was given his chance, to try and grab that spot. For me Lomax has taken his chance and proved he is up to the first team half back position. Gaskell has also taken his chance and has shown potential, I'm not saying he is at Lomax's standard yet, but also he plays a different role to Lomax and Pryce etc. Which is why I would have him in my team as although not the finished article he gives something different. Now if Wheeler was ready, then I would not be able to say which of the 2 are better, but you would expect it to be Wheeler, who like Lomax is 2 years ahead of Gaskell.
It may very well be that Gaskell does not make it, but if he keeps getting better and better with each game it will be difficult just to say well wait 2 years with no game time as we are keeping Leon, Lance, Lomax and Wheeler. Same goes for Wheeler.
As for Hardman replacing Wellens, I'm not sure where that one came from as, I don't think during the time of Hardman, that Wellens was up for replacement. He's only just turned 31.
Ashe maybe a replacement for Wellens, or Lance or Lomax or Wheeler, but I never thought it would be hardman. Hardman may have been a stand in for injury, but that's a different senario.
