Same 18 Again!!!!

Discuss all things Wigan Warriors. Comments and opinions on all aspects of the club's performance are welcome.
turf
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Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by turf »

According to the Official site, we have the same 18 man squad for tomorrow's trip to Leeds that we had against Saints.

Whithers for full back again?!?!?!?!
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superleague
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by superleague »

:angry: :angry: :angry: nobby must be blind we seriously need to drop millard, withers and hansen for that matter, move bailey to the second row, goulding in at centre, McIlorum on the bench and start and finish with ashton at FB
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superleague
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by superleague »

pieater-alex posted:
superleague posted:
:angry: :angry: :angry: nobby must be blind we seriously need to drop millard, withers and hansen for that matter, move bailey to the second row, goulding in at centre, McIlorum on the bench and start and finish with ashton at FB
We dont want this at all goulding will get ripped to pieces against the experienced keith senior and McIlorum hasn't played a in super league before and to play his first game against Leeds and him having a bad game could seriously dent his confidence.

No what we need to do is what I think Nobby will do is move Ashton to fullback withers to centre bailey to the second row move fletcher to the bench and drop prescott.
i dont know what we will lose in replacing millard with McIlorum, iknow one thing we will gain speed faster passing better acceleration and a youngster with a rugby brain.

goulding is a 50/50 but hes sniffing on the fringes as CPwigan as said alot on this board he would also offer a bit more speed in the centres.

withers too slow and is not a centre we need as much speed as possibly against leeds
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superleague
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by superleague »

pieater-alex posted:
superleague posted:
pieater-alex posted: We dont want this at all goulding will get ripped to pieces against the experienced keith senior and McIlorum hasn't played a in super league before and to play his first game against Leeds and him having a bad game could seriously dent his confidence.

No what we need to do is what I think Nobby will do is move Ashton to fullback withers to centre bailey to the second row move fletcher to the bench and drop prescott.
i dont know what we will lose in replacing millard with McIlorum, iknow one thing we will gain speed faster passing better acceleration and a youngster with a rugby brain.

goulding is a 50/50 but hes sniffing on the fringes as CPwigan as said alot on this board he would also offer a bit more speed in the centres.

withers too slow and is not a centre we need as much speed as possibly against leeds
What we will lose in replacing Millard with McIllorum is experience and when playing a team like Leeds you need as much of it. It would be wrong to play McIllorum as IMO he would get battered about and it would IMO dent his confidence.

Goulding is a good player and will like you said is on the fringes of the Wigan team but against a powerful centre like Senior we need a bigger player and thats why we should play withers. Ok granted withers isn't quick and you say we need speed but we dont have any other options really. Goulding would get bashed about and I think Gleeson would as well who does that leave us with if we put bailey in the second row.

I think we could do with a quick experienced centre but the fact is we dont have one and with the squad we have got I would say we play withers at centre not goulding.
i'll just agree to disagree mate.
DaveO
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by DaveO »

pieater-alex posted:

What we will lose in replacing Millard with McIllorum is experience and when playing a team like Leeds you need as much of it. It would be wrong to play McIllorum as IMO he would get battered about and it would IMO dent his confidence.
I can't believe anyone thinks Millard should be in the team at all. Experience he may have but he is past it and simply not good enough to be able to apply it.

It isn't about McIllorum being inexperienced but the fact Millard is a complete liability. If you would not play McIllorum then we should do the 80 mins with Higham only and use the bench spot for a fourth prop because Millard should be dropped.

However if we do need two hookers McIllorum should be given a début despite his lack of experience. He has to start some time and there are no easy games in SL.

Given this is a second game in four days his fresh legs are what will be needed.

This seems one position we have a genuine alternative to the first team player and you only have to look at how Ashton went last season to realise some of the 18 year olds out there are able to compete at the top level. We will never get anywhere if the club is afraid to play these young lads. I am not saying ship half the first team out in favour of the U18/U21 squad but replacing one player, Millard with McIllorum, seems a low risk move to me given Millard offers nothing to the side.

Dave
DaveO
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by DaveO »

pieater-alex posted:
DaveO posted:
pieater-alex posted:

What we will lose in replacing Millard with McIllorum is experience and when playing a team like Leeds you need as much of it. It would be wrong to play McIllorum as IMO he would get battered about and it would IMO dent his confidence.
However if we do need two hookers McIllorum should be given a début despite his lack of experience. He has to start some time and there are no easy games in SL.
Yes there are no easy games in super league but Leeds is a more difficult one seems as there top of the league.
Which is why if we have a player who is failing to deliver we need him out of the side.
Also with Leeds being Millards old club I think it would be right to play him. I agree with people when they say Millard is not good enough because he's not simple as however it's too late now we've signed him and this season we will have to use him.
Why should we have to use him just because we signed him? We signed all the other players in the squad but if they don't deliver they should be dropped and the same should apply to Millard. If Millard thinks he will get a start every week we may as well give up now.

Noble has threatened to drop players who he thinks are not performing and he said as much after the Saints game. I can only assume given he has not done this he thinks they are performing or the alternatives are not there which is very disturbing because in effect the same 18 again endorses that performance as good enough or says he thinks they are the best we have.

Dave
cpwigan
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by cpwigan »

Remember the hooker substitute only has to play 20 minutes. So we could opt for McLlorum or Coyle (Coyle gives you a reserve scrum half too). Mcllorum is a workaholic enthusiastic player. Just what you need IMO after the opening 20-30 minutes.

Sometimes you have to think that by giving a youngster (I would never advocate wholesale changes) you are bringing that player along and developing them in order for them to become a player of real talent for the long term. We get nothing from Millard either in the short term or long term.
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superleague
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by superleague »

whats annoying me is that nobby doesnt seem to see millard is S**T and is prepared to give him more game time than higham absoult ludicrus(sp) IMO millard should be permanetly dropped and McIlorum should be bench hooker doing 10-15 minute spells if needed to going off how the match is going.
cpwigan
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by cpwigan »

McLlorum is from Leeds too. He would be very highly motivated playing them.

Millard is just hopeless and we gave him 2 years :eusa17:
Big Steve
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Re: Same 18 Again!!!!

Post by Big Steve »

I think Noble must be most concerned that the players aren't carrying out the game plan and controlling the ball, and not that we aren't playing with enough pace.

And there is some credibility to this - if we had controlled the ball and been patient against saints, we would have put ourselves into much better try scoring positions - instead we lose the ball, and give penalties away.

Therefore he goes for the experienced player who should know about controlling play rather than 'head down' and doing their own thing. He selects Wither's for experience rather than Ashton's pace. (as it happens Withers made a number of errors in this game, but usually he does play with assurance).

I guess that he must think that Millard offers more controlled play than Higham from the PTB.

If we do the right things on the pitch more frequently we will have every chance of beating Leeds - and that's with Millard and Withers playing. (Although I'd rather Ashton start and Higham play the majority of the game if not the full 80).
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