Re: Out of contract players : Mon Jun 29, 2020 9:17 pm  

[quote="Builth Wells Wire"]
The circumstances of Newton's departure sounds like a similar story regarding David Myers.

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Out of contract players : Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:29 am  

Builth Wells Wire wrote: Terry Newton sparked controversy from his earliest days in rugby league. Initially signing at 14 for Warrington, he also signed for Leeds on his 16th birthday. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1904091415/ ... TF8&btkr=1 Oh i'm aware of the issues, i've read the book and seen the interviews, we wanted to keep him, we didn't release him cos we thought he wasn't gonna make it.

Builth Wells Wire wrote: Terry Newton sparked controversy from his earliest days in rugby league. Initially signing at 14 for Warrington, he also signed for Leeds on his 16th birthday. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1904091415/ ... TF8&btkr=1 Oh i'm aware of the issues, i've read the book and seen the interviews, we wanted to keep him, we didn't release him cos we thought he wasn't gonna make it.

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Out of contract players : Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:34 am  

sally cinnamon wrote:

I think Richie Mathers was on our books as a schoolboy too, before going to Leeds. His career path tends to involve rejoining Warrington every few years

But if you discount the players that were only briefly on the books as a schoolboy and focus on players who actually spent time in the U18 or U21 teams, there haven't really been any stories of players we let go who went on to show us what might have been.

We've actually done better the other way round, with young players who other clubs have let go to us early in their careers and maybe were surprised at how they turned out with us: Lee Briers, Ben Westwood, Simon Grix, Chris Bridge.

In the case of Westwood and Grix, they weren't really let go, they were signings forced by financial pressure and relegation, but I think Wakey may have fought harder to keep Westwood if they'd have known how he would turn out and that Gareth Ellis was heading to Leeds a couple of years later. Simon Grix joined us with relatively little hype around him.

Briers and Bridge were let go by big clubs at a time when they were likely to be back ups for the foreseeable future. They both became first team regulars from the off at Warrington, and they became much better players and had long careers.

In the case of all four of those players, Warrington coaches persevered with them through some bumpy times through lack of form or injury, and I wonder if they would have had the same opportunities at other clubs. Worth considering when you next hear the critique "Warrington don't know how to develop promising talent/not willing to be patient enough to give talent a chance".

wakefield never would have seen westwoods career evolve like it did here, they were playing him at centre and he was merely one of john harbin's bunch of academy lads that had been shoved in the first team because wakey were going though their first financial crisis.

Grix was being scouted by newcastle knights when we signed him, he was the last halifax's fairly bright golden generation.

Oh and joe mellor, was always the name that got brought up as the one that got away,

Re: Out of contract players : Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:47 am  

sally cinnamon wrote:

I think Richie Mathers was on our books as a schoolboy too, before going to Leeds. His career path tends to involve rejoining Warrington every few years

But if you discount the players that were only briefly on the books as a schoolboy and focus on players who actually spent time in the U18 or U21 teams, there haven't really been any stories of players we let go who went on to show us what might have been.

We've actually done better the other way round, with young players who other clubs have let go to us early in their careers and maybe were surprised at how they turned out with us: Lee Briers, Ben Westwood, Simon Grix, Chris Bridge.

In the case of Westwood and Grix, they weren't really let go, they were signings forced by financial pressure and relegation, but I think Wakey may have fought harder to keep Westwood if they'd have known how he would turn out and that Gareth Ellis was heading to Leeds a couple of years later. Simon Grix joined us with relatively little hype around him.

Briers and Bridge were let go by big clubs at a time when they were likely to be back ups for the foreseeable future. They both became first team regulars from the off at Warrington, and they became much better players and had long careers.

In the case of all four of those players, Warrington coaches persevered with them through some bumpy times through lack of form or injury, and I wonder if they would have had the same opportunities at other clubs. Worth considering when you next hear the critique "Warrington don't know how to develop promising talent/not willing to be patient enough to give talent a chance".

Wasn't Mathers only with us on loan? Pretty sure he was a Leeds academy player?

[Wanderer]

Re: Out of contract players : Tue Jun 30, 2020 12:49 pm  

Alffi_7 wrote:

Wasn't Mathers only with us on loan? Pretty sure he was a Leeds academy player?

You're correct, he came through amateur RL in the Leeds area and then the Leeds Rhinos Academy.

He had a loan spell with Warrington (2002) before breaking into the Rhinos first team.

Re: Out of contract players : Tue Jun 30, 2020 2:10 pm  

Fantastic Mr Catpiss wrote:

wakefield never would have seen westwoods career evolve like it did here, they were playing him at centre and he was merely one of john harbin's bunch of academy lads that had been shoved in the first team because wakey were going though their first financial crisis.

Grix was being scouted by newcastle knights when we signed him, he was the last halifax's fairly bright golden generation.

Oh and joe mellor, was always the name that got brought up as the one that got away,

We signed Westwood as a centre too, I remember Plange saying he was the next Keith Senior. He'd had 2 and a half years as a fairly unremarkable centre/winger before starting the 2005 season on the bench after we signed Gleeson and Toa. I think it was an eye injury to Paul Noone that left us short of forwards so Cullen stuck him in the second row, and he never looked back.

As it took injuries and random luck for us to stumble on him as a forward, it may well have happened had he stayed at Wakey, possibly sooner, given that they had thin squads.

What I remember from the time we signed him was him being compared (negatively) to Ellis as a centre, and the Wakey fans being quick to tell us that we'd "signed the wrong one" and calling him Ben Deadwood, bit like the Salford fans laughed when we signed Myler that the true talent was really Ratchford.

Re: Out of contract players : Tue Jun 30, 2020 2:12 pm  

Wanderer wrote: You're correct, he came through amateur RL in the Leeds area and then the Leeds Rhinos Academy. He had a loan spell with Warrington (2002) before breaking into the Rhinos first team. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/ne ... ng-rarely/

Wanderer wrote: You're correct, he came through amateur RL in the Leeds area and then the Leeds Rhinos Academy. He had a loan spell with Warrington (2002) before breaking into the Rhinos first team. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/ne ... ng-rarely/

[Wanderer]

Re: Out of contract players : Tue Jun 30, 2020 2:53 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/5322257.lads-of-this-quality-come-along-rarely/

I stand corrected, based on that he clearly did at least sign.
(He did go on to play for Leeds Academy before returning to Wire on loan).

Re: Out of contract players : Mon Jul 13, 2020 1:31 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

What sort of shape is our pack going to be in? BMM leaving...take out the over 30s and we'll be Philbin, D Clark, Kibula, Hughes, Johnson, Davis. Not going to give Saints sleepless nights is it.

I'd much prefer "Hilly & Cooper, Sami Kibula, bibberty bobberty boo."

Re: Out of contract players : Mon Jul 13, 2020 1:37 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

You can hand them over in a brown paper bag in the back of a taxi, if you can find a discreet enough driver who won't be tempted to tell everyone on the internet.

there's a very fine line between appearing to be in the know, and an ego massage. Some walk that fine line like a vexed up rodeo clown.