Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:03 am  

thepriestman85 wrote:

BIG long term loss in regards to Shenton and Saints.

Shenton is a massive talent on par with the likes of Senior & Gleeson at that age. Saints will not only benefit from his talents but they've also just secured a quality talent for the next 10 years which can't be overlooked.

It can't be overlooked just how important a long term fix like that is. Yes he may not be as good as what they have now and they maybe able to get a better Aussie for a season or two but Shenton will be class for them season after season for the next decade and I also think he will be the best centre in SL in a few seasons time.

Agreed.

I wont be critical of IL until our recruitment for next year is done, but a signing such as Shenton makes sense on every level to me.

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:07 am  

According to the Cas board Saints have offered him hell of a lot of money. Eggs in one basket?
If we did sign Shenton, presumably as a replacement for Carmont, what message would that send out to the young lads coming through? I think the lad is very promising but I wouldn't call him top drawer, not yet anyway.

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 7:15 am  

regards Shenton, i like him a lot but he is not world class and i personally do not think he ever will be so his money has to reflect that.

We are in no hurry to secure a centre anyway. Unless something drastic happens to Carmont regards an injury he will reach his contracted target of games and be a Wigan player in 2011. Not only does this give us continuity it gives us time to allow our prospects to develop as hopefully at least one of our young centres should be ready for a SL introduction in 2011 and a chance at the shirt in 2012.

Prop is a priority for me, centre only needs covering if either a real World Class player is available or George picks us a major injury.

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:19 am  

I cant say i'm to bothered if saints sign shenton.

give Marsh his chance.what i have seen of him he looks a top talent and will be another proud moment for the wigan club and fans.

and BTW that J.Tomkins try against wakefield was right out of the Gasnier handbook..so who knows

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:17 am  

I'm just going to echo everyone else's views by saying, Shenton is at the minute one of the best English centre's about if not the best. However when compared with the top echelon of Aussie centre's he falls quite short, we shouldn't pay over the odds for him purely because he's British, I'm quite sure that we could go into the 2011 season with the same backline as this year and it prove to be just as effective.

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:40 am  

jonh wrote:

regards Shenton, i like him a lot but he is not world class and i personally do not think he ever will be so his money has to reflect that.

We are in no hurry to secure a centre anyway. Unless something drastic happens to Carmont regards an injury he will reach his contracted target of games and be a Wigan player in 2011. Not only does this give us continuity it gives us time to allow our prospects to develop as hopefully at least one of our young centres should be ready for a SL introduction in 2011 and a chance at the shirt in 2012.

Prop is a priority for me, centre only needs covering if either a real World Class player is available or George picks us a major injury.

Not very many English backs are world class tho. Look at the best two English centres of the last decade –Gleeson and Senior both top notch SL players but compared with the likes of Lyon, Gidley, Gasnier, Copper & Inglis there is a massive gulf in class.

Now both Gleeson and Senior must be on a large wedge but I’d hazard a guess that every team in SL would have loved to have signed these two at the age of 22. They aren’t world class but they’ve won their teams big games and most importantly trophies.

Trust me Shenton will have a massive impact at Saints over the next ten years regardless of if he’s world class or not. He’s already a class SL player and every year he’ll improve, every year he’ll get better at what he does, every year his influence on the team will grow.

Sadly world class players are few and far between in SL and maybe instead of looking at world class we should re define our expectations to that of top SL players. Like I said before players like Sinfield, Lockers, Coley, Wellens, Senior, Cunningham, Maguire & Burrow aren’t world class players but every team in SL would have loved to have had each one in their squad for the past 10 years as they are great in SL.

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:41 am  

LovesToSpooge wrote:

I'm just going to echo everyone else's views by saying, Shenton is at the minute one of the best English centre's about if not the best. However when compared with the top echelon of Aussie centre's he falls quite short, we shouldn't pay over the odds for him purely because he's British, I'm quite sure that we could go into the 2011 season with the same backline as this year and it prove to be just as effective.

I agree with this.

Athough i cant quite see what all the hype is about with Shenton. Very good player, but not in the top 10 in the world at 3 or 4.

Our marque signing has to be an aggressive Prop forward.

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:50 pm  

It's a shame we seem to be able to produce good 2nd row forwards but are lacking when it comes to decent centre's.

Not sure it's whether most of the standout centre's in the U18's and 20's tend to be large for their age (built like 2nd rows anyway) and manage to stand out in the lower grades just because they have a size advantage - effectively they don't have to learn quality centre play of drawing a man, quality passing, good footwork, etc because they can run over poor quality opposition.

If some of our U16's & 18's had 3-4 years playing against quality opposition (and getting decent coaching) they would have to develop other parts of their game.

The same applies to most other positions to be fair - but it is most obvious at centre and full back where we can only produce competent players at best.

The arrival of mcguire and the massive turnaround in the skill levels of the players, and consistency of their application in just a 3 month period just shows how poor our SL coaching is. It wil be interesting to see how some of our promising young players turn out after a couple of years under the coaching of mcguire - now that is an exciting prospect..................

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:01 pm  

Big Steve wrote:

It wil be interesting to see how some of our promising young players turn out after a couple of years under the coaching of mcguire - now that is an exciting prospect..................

This is what really exites me and is another reason why i aint so sure we should be chucking good money at Shenton when we have young lads who have bags of potential.

Re: Rumours and signings 2010 v1 : Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:15 pm  

tugglesf78 wrote:

This is what really exites me and is another reason why i aint so sure we should be chucking good money at Shenton when we have young lads who have bags of potential.

I agree with that sentiment.

Our young lads + MM's coaching or spend loads of money and sign Shenton? I know which one i would rather do. The only way I would splash the cash is if a player is the dogs danglers and is worth going that extra mile for. I dont believe Shenton is worth throwing loads of money at.