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cherry.pie wrote:

DaveO wrote:I just don't get Wigan's pre season games. I can't remember the last time any of them had anything remotely close to a full first team squad out. So what is the point?

We have a few new players who you might think Wane would want to get to know their teammates in fixture but we don't seem to do it. If there is no value in doing so as far as Wane is concerned or if he is worried about injuries why bother with any pre-season games?

I feel sorry for MM. In days gone by his fellow team mates and plenty of opposition players would want to turn out for a players testimonial. If this is not going to happen you may as well stick to other events.

A fair question, as pre-season games often have little relevance to what goes on throughout the season. I guess it's just a case of getting players onto the field for a bit of match practice.

How valuable that game time is or whether it has any real benefit is up for debate. I don't know how you could really judge.

I guess for some of the young players it offers a chance to see how they do against a team at a higher level. Last year some of the fringe players didn't do too badly. A couple of years ago we saw Gildart struggle defensively against Leigh and it probably gave the coaching staff a good indication of what he needed to work on and by the end of the year he was in the first team and playing well. Similarly last year we learned that Jack Wells was able to mix it with professional players as he was very impressive.

The problem this year is that Leigh are much stronger as they've recruited well, so our youngsters weren't really in the game during the second half.

What does disappoint me is a testimonial game being given so little importance. They made a real effort for O'Loughlin, playing it at the DW and even had a cameo from Rads. This was a low key game played away from home for a player who has actually played a big role in some of our trophy wins. Just seemed a bit of a shame.

cherry.pie wrote:

DaveO wrote: I feel sorry for MM. In days gone by his fellow team mates and plenty of opposition players would want to turn out for a players testimonial. If this is not going to happen you may as well stick to other events.

What does disappoint me is a testimonial game being given so little importance. They made a real effort for O'Loughlin, playing it at the DW and even had a cameo from Rads. This was a low key game played away from home for a player who has actually played a big role in some of our trophy wins. Just seemed a bit of a shame.

josie andrews wrote:

cherry.pie wrote:

DaveO wrote: I feel sorry for MM. In days gone by his fellow team mates and plenty of opposition players would want to turn out for a players testimonial. If this is not going to happen you may as well stick to other events.

What does disappoint me is a testimonial game being given so little importance. They made a real effort for O'Loughlin, playing it at the DW and even had a cameo from Rads. This was a low key game played away from home for a player who has actually played a big role in some of our trophy wins. Just seemed a bit of a shame.

I agree with both these comments. If you're having a testimonial fame for a player who has given all of his professional career to one club it should be played at HOME & against a team of previous fellow teammates & opposition players. It is not fair to use it as a "friendly" warm up game IMO

TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:We very rarely (IF AT ALL) play friendlies at home is this a cost issue with the DW ?

FWarrior wrote:Started at fullback I think, moved to half later in the 2nd half.

Wiganer Ted wrote:Waney always said he'd replace his strong starting 13 as the game went on.

It was 12-10 at half time.
If there'd been 2 points in it with 20 to go then the verbals would have started, poor tackles gone in and, pretty much guaranteed in a Wigan/Leigh match, a punch up.
Shaun has been involved in enough Wigan/Leigh games to know the script and he wrote the Wigan script himself.

The last thing we need right now are visits to the disciplinary and 3 match bans being handed out.
No doubt the final score wasn't wanted but its much less of a problem than having a player or players suspended for Salford and Cronulla.

Unfortunate score but Shaun got the script spot on.