Is a week off a good thing???

[Gizmo_Edwards]

With all the pre-match hype v Wire, this is a question I am still unsure of.

Under Madge he does not like resting players before big matches.

Then you have the other end of the scale MILLWARD resting a full team against Bradford some years ago.

I along with others believe if we beat Wire, we should play a lot of fringe and u20 players against Crusaders.

However if this comes to fruition I doubt Madge will rest any of our key players and I will have to wince ever time sam and george get tackled!!

Wire Fans all seem over confident because they could not back up after Wembley.

I have a sneaky feeling this will not make much difference and am confident we can get a result.

I think the players we feel all the talk from outside has been about the V incident, instead of our rugby.

Lets repeat the CC performance and show the world what Wigan Rugby League are about.

Can't wait for the chants to start "Have you ever seen the Wire win the league...."

See you all there

GIZ

[Wes]

The question seeming relatively simple is actually a complex one!

I think Madge will only rest players carrying knocks and 3-4 being the maximum, consistency is so important coming to the back end of the year.

It depends team to team too Huddersfield tried to rotate their squad and it failed miserably, IMO we have a greater strength in depth than they do so theoretically it should be easier for us.

It is also scientific (and this is where Bitcom earns his bucks) take going to the gym, if you have a week off it can put you back 3 weeks but if your close to plateau having a week off can put you back on gains, it would be Bitcom telling Madge IMO which players could take the rest and which it would harm.

Also in simple terms if you have a player who is flying you shouldnt stop that run, rest him after an average to poor game.

My personal answer to your question, is a week off a good thing??? Who knows!

[Sutty]

Lets repeat the CC performance and show the world what Wigan Rugby League are about.


GIZ

I hope we don't repeat the "performance", because if we do, we'll get thrashed against Wire. I'll settle for the same result though

Our defence was pretty good against Leeds, but we still conceded "soft tries" imo. If we play like we did the week before the CC Final, against Bradford, we'll be fine.

ps, Early 1973 the last time Wire finished top.

[Gizmo_Edwards]

I meant the performance against wire in the challenge cup!!

Totally agree though want to see an improvement in goal line defence.

If we can restrict them to say 2 tries all in the corners.

[Sutty]

Aha, I see. No probs.

In that case, I agree entirely

[weststand-rich]

I would say it most definately is.

Some years ago I've argued that it was a hinderence and match fitness was key, but since 2005 I've become increasingly convinced that at this time of year the key to grand final sucess is managing cumulative fatigue, all the bangs and knocks and the jaded feeling of 7 months play.

I don't think Wire are actually a better team than us, but on Sunday I think their fresh legs will be the difference and I think we'll struggle a bit.

That said, please prove me wrong

[gpartin]

I think the difference between us and Wire is they play 100% every game and we play 60%. There havent been too many games this season where we've not had an extra gear or two to go into when we've needed to. There's been a couple of times when we've misjudged it because it's a bit of a gamble but on the whole we've been in control. I think we'll beat Warrington because we are a much fitter team. I think this because usually when a team defends a lot early on they tire towards the end but when we played them in the cup we defended set after set and still ran away with it at the end.

The Warrington 'entertainers' gameplan consists mainly of shifting the ball wide with loads of dummy runners and creating an overlap, much like we did more often last season. We may not score as many tries, due in part to my earlier point about us only giving 60%, but we have IMO a far more varied attack and countless tricks up our sleeves. The myth has continued on sky and Tony Smith keeps referring to this idea that he coaches entertaining rugby whereas we have a win at all costs approach to the game with the implication being that we play boring rugby, utter nonsense. I'm sure we will have worked on defending against the Wire overlap but for all that's been said about Charnley and Joel in defence, having watched the tries we've conceded on that wing this season I think the issue lies with a certain mr Deacon who IMO slides too slowly and forces Joel onto the wrong man and eventually leaving a gaping hole either outside or inside Charnley.

[Gizmo_Edwards]

Tony smith is talking complete rubbish. Whether he likes it or not Rugby league is a results business, for him to say that he does not care about results as long as its pretty on the eye is stupid and if fans believe that they are showing a level of naivety.

We all know when warrington/saints/leeds start getting beat they have to focus on anything they can to detract from the fact they are not good enough.

Frankly I don't care who calls our play boring, they were not talking when we put 44 points on them in the cup game.

[cpwigan]

IT should be of benefit and I generally believe it is particularly for older players BUT often it takes teams 20 minutes to get going etc after a week off.

[Panchitta Marra]

Swings and roundabouts:
In the Long & Gleeson betting Scandal, they were both suspended for a number of weeks/months and both came back like brand new and were up to speed, both had a good end to the season and internationals if I remember right.
My old man always said to me that any alcohol session can knock a good athlete back a month in his training, and IMO We saw evidence of this with M.Gleeson against Leeds last season in the CC QF.
As somebody has already highlighted in a previous thread, Mark Bitcom's knowledge and skills could well be essential in the outcome of the Dire V Warriors game.
If we could take away the celebration aspect of Wigan winning the CC, I would have been confident of a win for us in this one as they have match winners injured or suspended.
In Madge and Bitty we trust.