Former Wigan Warriors young gun pens League 1 deal for 2025
A League 1 match ball
Former Wigan Warriors youngster Joe Baldwin has put pen to paper on a new deal to remain with League 1 outfit North Wales Crusaders in 2025.
Still a teenager, Baldwin linked up with the Welsh club ahead of the 2024 campaign having spent four years in Wigan’s youth ranks.
Joining the Warriors as a 14-year-old from local community club Orrell St James, but departing before making a first-team appearance – he had been utilised primarily as a loose forward.
But since moving into the senior game, Crusaders have moulded him into more of a hooker – featuring 20 times across all competitions in the season just gone with ten starts in the #9 role.
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Former Wigan Warriors young gun Joe Baldwin pens North Wales Crusaders deal for 2025
Scoring his first – and to date only – senior try in a narrow defeat at home to Rochdale Hornets back in April, Baldwin would go on to scoop Crusaders’ Young Player of the Year award.
He helped Carl Forster’s side to a 7th place finish in League 1 in 2024, winning eight of their 20 games and missing out on the play-offs by just two competition points.
With the young forward’s new one-year deal for 2025 announced by the club on Monday evening, head coach Forster said: “I’m really happy to keep Joe on board.
“Last year, he came in unknown to the group as a young lad full of energy wanting to learn.
“He ended the year starting and playing big minutes. He was outstanding and deservedly won Young Player of the Year.
“Joe will only get better the more he plays and I’m really happy that it shall be with Crusaders.”
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