Wigan v wakey

[Mike]

my take on this is that some things dont change.

we havent seen a live game of rugby since March and all some people can do is moan .

if its not all the games are being played at Leeds, its the sound is wrong cos its not a Wigan chant, to Lam isnt good enough to every player in a cherry and white shirt isnt good enough, not heard anyone calling IL or KR for a short while, so sure that wont be far away.

Surely just seeing competitive rugby is what everyone wants to see at the minute. Yes, it may not be the best game ever as the players havent played for almost 5 months, so to expect a flawless display and player absolutely bang on for fitness too wasnt going to happen

Understand your positive outlook, not expecting 100% from the off however,how do you explain many other teams fitness and cohesion in comparison?

Fitness, game management, team selection and positional changes do seem fair questions?

since the build up to starting back all the above should be 100%

The NRL don't appear to having these issues

All that said, Yes its great to have the game back!!

The first couple of weeks of NRL games were rubbish! They were drop-a-thons.

I thought we did pretty good despite letting them back at the end. The negativity on here astounds me at times compared to about 15-20 years ago when the site first started.

[josie andrews]

The first couple of weeks of NRL games were rubbish! They were drop-a-thons.

I thought we did pretty good despite letting them back at the end. The negativity on here astounds me at times compared to about 15-20 years ago when the site first started.

This!

[the pieman]

my take on this is that some things dont change.

we havent seen a live game of rugby since March and all some people can do is moan .

if its not all the games are being played at Leeds, its the sound is wrong cos its not a Wigan chant, to Lam isnt good enough to every player in a cherry and white shirt isnt good enough, not heard anyone calling IL or KR for a short while, so sure that wont be far away.

Surely just seeing competitive rugby is what everyone wants to see at the minute. Yes, it may not be the best game ever as the players havent played for almost 5 months, so to expect a flawless display and player absolutely bang on for fitness too wasnt going to happen

Understand your positive outlook, not expecting 100% from the off however,how do you explain many other teams fitness and cohesion in comparison?

Fitness, game management, team selection and positional changes do seem fair questions?

since the build up to starting back all the above should be 100%

The NRL don't appear to having these issues

All that said, Yes its great to have the game back!!

The first couple of weeks of NRL games were rubbish! They were drop-a-thons.

I thought we did pretty good despite letting them back at the end. The negativity on here astounds me at times compared to about 15-20 years ago when the site first started.

Cheers Mike, that was the point i was trying to make. Some people just come on here to post negativity all the time, irrelevant of the situation.

@jackthelad

i am far from a happy clapper and have criticised the club, but moreso the RFL for lack of ability to promote the game etc.

i have seen in this thread alone Mitch Clark touted within the MOM and also not fit to wear the shirt. There are players week in / week out are slated as not being good enough and if they do play well or do something to win a game, then they dont get credit for that. In a salary capped sport we cannot have 17 world class players, but even the great teams of the late 80's to early 90's didnt have them. They had some genuine world class players supplemented with grafters / work horses / unsung heroes. It seems that you cannot be a grafter these days as you arent good enough or you are in line for being the next whipping boy.

If i was to criticise the weekend performance it would be game management, not fitness. When you are comfortably winning a game, you dont give the opposition the chance to get back into it. Wakey were given that opportunity and nearly took it. Defending in a RL game takes far more out of a player than attacking, so to keep giving penalties / repeat sets away is only going to end up with a tiring side. You only need to look at the last try Regan Grace scored for Saints at the weekend. Yes it was a good try, but only because the Leeds defence was so disjointed and all over the place as they were shattered from defending so much. I have seen social media asking is this the best hat-trick ever? Nope, far from it but 2 good tries, and seriously aided by a poor Leeds defence with gaps wider than my arse for someone of Regan Grace' ability to go through quite easily.

As i posted previously i am just happy to see RL being played live again and Wigan RL back out on the pitch. Was it the greatest performance ever - no, but not sure it warranted some of the criticism given lack of time together, match practice, match fitness (different to being fit).

[Exiled Wiganer]

We have lost to Wakefield plenty of times recently, so I was just happy to get over the line. I really like our back line - I think we can trouble anyone once we click, particularly if Gildart deigns to play for us again. The forwards have bothered me since Lam took over, and I am still worried - they don’t look fit enough, focussed enough and don’t seem to have a game plan to make the most of their strengths. IL must despair to think of what we are paying Burgess to trot around aimlessly (though he showed a couple of glimpses of what he could achieve). Overall, it was great to see us win, and a relief simply to be watching us in action again. We can beat anyone bar Saints, even with our obvious failings, and on a good day if our backs click we could give Saints a game.

[Southern Softy]

It's not negative to want your team to be better and to comment on what seem like worrying trends. I wouldn't have fancied us to beat Salford, given how they played against Hull.
We seem to have returned looking exactly as we did against Salford before lockdown, when we let a winning position slip away. We were better than normal after half-time but it didn't last. I don't know if it's fitness, lack of coaching, attitude or a mixture but very few fans thought it was a good performance against one of the League's weaker teams.
Everyone makes mistakes but a good team doesn't make the same mistakes over and over again. We still are vulnerable to a hooker running straight at a retreating and disorganised defence at the PTB; we still can't cope when a team varies their play and uses a short kick-off against us and our discipline is still poor.
I like Smithies and think he will be not just a good but probably a great player for us but when he loses the ball, you just know he will concede a penalty almost immediately out of anger. No one kept him away from the next PTB on Sunday and bingo - a penalty and soon a try against us. Small stuff maybe but eliminate those little things and the opposition will get desperate and make their own mistakes. Leeds beat Huddersfield from nowhere when they roughed them up and suckered them into a scruffy kind of punch-up match. I imagine they will do much the same at the weekend. It's up to our team to resist the temptation to mix it and then go on to play a poor team off the park and stay top.
We are top of the league and the Leeds match will give us a better idea of where we are but I don't think anyone is really confident that we are operating as a team who stand out in SL and we should be.

[Firestarter]

It's not negative to want your team to be better and to comment on what seem like worrying trends. I wouldn't have fancied us to beat Salford, given how they played against Hull.
We seem to have returned looking exactly as we did against Salford before lockdown, when we let a winning position slip away. We were better than normal after half-time but it didn't last. I don't know if it's fitness, lack of coaching, attitude or a mixture but very few fans thought it was a good performance against one of the League's weaker teams.
Everyone makes mistakes but a good team doesn't make the same mistakes over and over again. We still are vulnerable to a hooker running straight at a retreating and disorganised defence at the PTB; we still can't cope when a team varies their play and uses a short kick-off against us and our discipline is still poor.
I like Smithies and think he will be not just a good but probably a great player for us but when he loses the ball, you just know he will concede a penalty almost immediately out of anger. No one kept him away from the next PTB on Sunday and bingo - a penalty and soon a try against us. Small stuff maybe but eliminate those little things and the opposition will get desperate and make their own mistakes. Leeds beat Huddersfield from nowhere when they roughed them up and suckered them into a scruffy kind of punch-up match. I imagine they will do much the same at the weekend. It's up to our team to resist the temptation to mix it and then go on to play a poor team off the park and stay top.
We are top of the league and the Leeds match will give us a better idea of where we are but I don't think anyone is really confident that we are operating as a team who stand out in SL and we should be.

Good stuff

[The booze hound]

The first couple of weeks of NRL games were rubbish! They were drop-a-thons.

I thought we did pretty good despite letting them back at the end. The negativity on here astounds me at times compared to about 15-20 years ago when the site first started.

This!

20 years ago we where watching Andy Farrell, Jason Robinson, Gary Connolly, Steve Renouf, Brett Dallas, Terry Newton, Denis Betts, Kris Radlinski. We where spoiled back then.

[morley pie eater]

The first couple of weeks of NRL games were rubbish! They were drop-a-thons.

I thought we did pretty good despite letting them back at the end. The negativity on here astounds me at times compared to about 15-20 years ago when the site first started.

This!

Here, here!

[Welski]

[/quote]

The negativity on here astounds me at times compared to about 15-20 years ago when the site first started.
[/quote]

Yes but back then we had a structure to the posts, everyone was fitter and we didn’t have to limit the number on the site due to cap restrictions.

[Firestarter]

I blame sky for super league looking inferior to NRL...... its defo a step down unfortunately...... i really think our game needs the crowds , whereas, the NRL is just business as usual