It’s a fine balancing act for sure. Damned if you let young lads go and damned if you keep them and don’t sign more experienced players. Lam played a huge part in it looking so unbalanced IMO by putting out full packs of kids when he could’ve got guys like Bullock and Clark in there. Having 2 or 3 kids in is great but having 6 young forwards in your 17 for a play off tie is overkill.
Ultimately it’s about firstly keeping your best kids and then choosing the best ones to be in your first 17. I look at them all and Havard, Smithies and Pearce-Paul are the stand outs for me and are ones I’d see as first 17 players next season. The likes of Partington, Byrne and Shorrocks are good lads and decent players and all have places in a squad but realistically they should be around your squad positions 18-23 IMO and should be pushing for starting places. All will improve and get better over the years but only in the right environment. Having them all in at once is hurting us and hurting them. Byrne should be fighting Havard for a spot, KPP should be fighting Shorrocks and Partington should be fighting Smithies and all driving each other on. They should not be all playing side by side in a superleague pack, not yet. That should be the aim for 3 or 4 years time but it’s far too early. The club takes some blame for that being the case but Lam had a weird fetish for putting them all in. I trust Peet and Wanes knowledge of developing youngsters to not over burden them all as part of the same pack next season, unless it’s an absolute emergency. It has to be the first priority going in to 2022.
