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look on the positve side
Aston excelled YET AGAIN
calderwood fantastic in the air
feka with fantastic runs
and vaeliki played superbly in my eyes

Welcome back, wnac! optimistic as always I see!

I know the results do not make for pleasant reading but do not be too disheartened. We are not anywhere near our best yet and we played a top 3 team off the park in the first half.
O'Loughlin will be a fine captain. Do not write people off too quickly. I presume he was selected at stand-off to beef our defence up. He is not a stand-off and it does limit our attack to not have 3 playmakers.
As it stands, we are still not quite right when defending on our line BUT hey most teams are not. It is the most difficult aspect of defence. That will get better and better with games played. The penalty piggy backs did not help our cause.
Our kicking game is still poor. Leeds outkicked us in the second half. We need to improve this more than anything.
I just keep thinking add Hock/Fletcher/Rads to that team and you have an awfully good team.
It's hard when you see such a good first half to stomach defeat but do not crack, do not turn on players. They will come good.

It was our kicking game that let us down, we seemed to be a different team in the first half..

When Leeds kicked they had us in our goal area everytime and were on top of us, we let them get to 10-15metres out before we could get to them

To give Leeds credit, it is the first time since Shaun Edwards that I have seen kickers look where the fullback is and change their angle of kick and so on. Whether that begs the question, should the winger not be moving further across or should the pressure on kickers not be greater is open to debate.

Yes the most optimistic fan in rugby league!!!!!!!!!!
We need to all just sit back and breathe easily just look at things for a minute Bradford where in the exactly same position last year but we all know what happened dont we? Well heres my ratings.
Ashton- Looking promising yet again really strong runner and good in the air. Young player of the year maybe?
Calderwood- Took alot of stick off the leeds fans but was really impressive under the high ball. Needs to pick up in attack a bit.
Richards- Still finding his feet tackled well but was only average.
Vaeliki- Fantastic tackle to put the leeds player into tutch. Always is quiet in attack and looks as though he is lacking pace.
Dallas- Really good as usuall. Gets us out of our danger area good and made some good breaks.
Lockers- Really did put in some brilliant tackles but proved he wernt a stand off in attack.
Moran- Brilliant! Really good in attack and defence and a fantastic kicking game.
Logan- Did he get injured? He seemed quiet.
Higham- Lovely play around the dummy half really impressive.
Paleaseania- Wow. He is just incredible. He is slowly coming into a wigan legend. Barnstorming runs.
Tickle- Rather quiet tonight.
Hargreaves- Also was quiet.
Hansen- I didnt really notice him tonight.
Godwin- Brings a fresh look to our team and was rapid around the ruck.
Brown- Why he only played 5 mins baffled me
SeuSeu- I think Feka brings the best out of Jerry had a good game tonight.
Tomkins- Again signs of improvement in him.
I have to conclude that Wigan should of buried the Rhinos and we need to learn how to play 80 mins. Our defence has improved and our attack was generally good but in parts needs to be improved. But all in all we can look forward with optimism.

A game of two halfs and all that, i think a good performance against a much better opposition than last week.

I do like the way that Godwin changes the game round and looks rapid.

I think our first 2 points will be from next weeks game

GeoffN posted:
Moran had an excellent game, as did Ashton and all the forwards. I felt we shaded the forward battle overall, although Peacock was always a handful.

I can't agree about Moran's performance. For me, his kicking game was poor (inconsistent at best) and he repeatedly takes (poor) options for himself on the last tackle when the rest of the team is set up for a different kick. It is his job to organise the attack in the backline, especially when we got that vital pressure on the Leeds line in the second half. But thats when we looked like we lacked organisation the most. I know its not his game - but noone else on the pitch is going to do it, so its got to be him.

Our pack is pretty good. I can't praise feca enough - just what we were missing.

The centres are a worry. I was always in the 'Liki camp, to me he's shown some good promise. But if he hasn't produced a good spell yet, I've got to start doubting him. Richards can't seem to tackle. I worry that he was bought as a winger - then Calderwood came up and the money we were going to use for a centre went on him - then we decided richard would have to be a center despite playing all year in the NRL on the wing.

Can't fault the two wings - good effort from calderwood.

Hope the expectation on O'Loughin (what with him being the saviour of Wigan for many fans whilst he was injured last season) isn't affecting his game. He may well come into some good form later in the season when he has recovered from his year long lay-off. Some fans are still expecting Hock to come back and strengthen the team despite having no pre-season and having not played for 12 months - somewhat optimistic I think.

Overall very disapointed, but at least it was a good game.

dont agree that higham was good he was average at best godwin has proved in every game we have played that he is better end of rant.

superleague posted:
dont agree that higham was good he was average at best godwin has proved in very game we have played that he is better end of rant.

bang on