Re: Today's friendlies : Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:24 pm  

Trojan Horse wrote:

Starting 9 Wood didn’t play. Ashurst, Tupou, both starting half’s brough Nd Miller and also fifita sat out the second half with some young lads like Crowther and batch playing good minutes through the 80. Fringe players like baldwinson, Reynolds, annakin and Hirst getting good runs. Both teams were testing out their depth. I think it proved useful to both teams but it isn’t any indication to how either clubs season will go.

Given the changes on number of interchanges this season I don’t see the idea behind naming 13 subs like you did today and players playing half matches. Get the minutes into them and used to playing longer minutes. Leeds went with 6 subs today and agreed on 6 each on Boxing Day vs Wakey even though Chester went and named 8 and had to be reminded on the day that 2 of those named couldn’t play.

Re: Today's friendlies : Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:32 pm  

ThePrinter wrote:

Given the changes on number of interchanges this season I don’t see the idea behind naming 13 subs like you did today and players playing half matches

I think the idea is to give them all a run with having a big squad, but with your knowledge of all things Wakey, plus being a coach yourself(be it only armchair) I bow down to your experience

Re: Today's friendlies : Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:36 pm  

little wayne69 wrote:

I think the idea is to give them all a run with having a big squad, but with your knowledge of all things Wakey, plus being a coach yourself(be it only armchair) I bow down to your experience

If you want to give them all a run then arrange more friendlies, duh!

Re: Today's friendlies : Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:47 pm  

ThePrinter wrote:

Given the changes on number of interchanges this season I don’t see the idea behind naming 13 subs like you did today and players playing half matches. Get the minutes into them and used to playing longer minutes. Leeds went with 6 subs today and agreed on 6 each on Boxing Day vs Wakey even though Chester went and named 8 and had to be reminded on the day that 2 of those named couldn’t play.

Depends on what you want to get out of the game I guess. Hull play Saints next week and I imagine that will be pretty close to the side that will feature in round 1, and maybe with a handful of the youngsters who impressed today getting another chance. I expect the trialist Naulago might get another run as well because Radford seems keen on him. He's new to the game and is raw as you would expect but he is a specimen.

Re: Today's friendlies : Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:48 pm  

Trojan Horse wrote:

Starting 9 Wood didn’t play. Ashurst, Tupou, both starting half’s brough Nd Miller and also fifita sat out the second half with some young lads like Crowther and batch playing good minutes through the 80. Fringe players like baldwinson, Reynolds, annakin and Hirst getting good runs. Both teams were testing out their depth. I think it proved useful to both teams but it isn’t any indication to how either clubs season will go.

I found parts a little frustrating from a wakey perspective in that we dropped a lot of ball and gave a number of last tackle penalties away putting ourselves under pressure unnecessarily but there’s things to work on and plenty per season to go yet. I think both coaches will be fairly happy tbh. Looking forward to round 1 I have to say. Should be a good trip out to London and with another 2 friendlies wakey should be ready to hopefully put a marker down.

Agree I think both Coaches will be reasonably happy. I think CC will be a little disappointed we were going for that killer pass once too often especially in that first half and let a few soft tries in and seemed to take our foot off the gas a little after the first try that let Hull get into the game far more.

But with 26 players used and all SL tried and tested, I'm really happy with the depth and quality we have this season.

As you say Chester got most of his starting 13 plus Fifita, who came on as the first interchange and like many others didn't come back on. We then moved to Reynolds and Hampshire in the Halves and Hirst, Baldwinson, Huby and King in the front row. We managed to give game time to 8 props while getting good match time as you say into the young lads like Jowitt, Batchelor, and Crowther, plus minutes into squad players like some I've already mentioned plus Arundel & Annakin, so it was a useful game all around.

From CC's interview after the match, he says he's very wary of injuries in these friendlies so didn't give players any longer than they needed and got a good look at certain guys who probably wasn't in his matchday 17/19 but have given him something to think about.

Obviously, with a few weeks to go and a couple more warm-up matches, we'll be looking to sharpen our attack and work on the defense but it's hard to take too much out of a game with so many different bodies on the pitch and so many different combinations tried.

Apparently, according to a couple of the players who were interviewed before the boxing day game, we've been working far more on fitness in the Preseason, much more than any other and as the friendlies & season close in they're spending more time on attack and defensive structures - which I imagine will be similar for all teams.

Re: Today's friendlies : Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:04 pm  

Mr. Zucchini Head wrote:

Depends on what you want to get out of the game I guess. Hull play Saints next week and I imagine that will be pretty close to the side that will feature in round 1, and maybe with a handful of the youngsters who impressed today getting another chance. I expect the trialist Naulago might get another run as well because Radford seems keen on him. He's new to the game and is raw as you would expect but he is a specimen.

Like you say it does depend on what each team wants out of the game. In this, both teams probably wanted to just get some minutes into most of their squad. We've got another 2 friendlies, one against Newcastle, which will most likely be a reserve team, unless he feels one or two need more game time. Then we finish off against Hudds, which I imagine will be more like the starting 17 under an 8 man interchange.

Re: Today's friendlies : Mon Jan 14, 2019 8:53 am  

ThePrinter wrote:

Given the changes on number of interchanges this season I don’t see the idea behind naming 13 subs like you did today and players playing half matches. Get the minutes into them and used to playing longer minutes. Leeds went with 6 subs today and agreed on 6 each on Boxing Day vs Wakey even though Chester went and named 8 and had to be reminded on the day that 2 of those named couldn’t play.

It wasn't quite a full swap at HT but, having all of your squad getting a competitive run out can only be a good thing and Trinity's second team looked better than the FC reserves.

As for Boxing day, whatever the reason for Trinity taking 8 subs to Headingley, Chester certainly seemed surprised and disappointed and bearing in mind that it was a Christmas pudding game it seemed a little pedantic not to allow Jowitt and Batchelor some game time, mind you, both were outstanding yesterday so, maybe a blessing in disguise.

Re: Today's friendlies : Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:34 pm  

Hull KR 30-16 widnes

Only a friendly but feared the worst for us when i saw Kr's starting 13 and squad. We were missing Gelling, Inu, Ashall, Cahill, Gilmore and Craven but used 17 players yesterday who have come through the ranks at Widnes, great effort all round by the lads.

Re: Today's friendlies : Mon Jan 14, 2019 1:12 pm  

Pats plastic pitch wrote:

Hull KR 30-16 widnes

Only a friendly but feared the worst for us when i saw Kr's starting 13 and squad. We were missing Gelling, Inu, Ashall, Cahill, Gilmore and Craven but used 17 players yesterday who have come through the ranks at Widnes, great effort all round by the lads.

indeed it was, and i think they will go well in the championship next year very organised and robust,

Re: Today's friendlies : Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:28 pm  

Salford 52-6 Swinton

Comfortable win for Salford and a few new faces given a run-out in our first (of only 2) pre-season friendly.

Starting XIII
Evalds
Chamberlain
Sa'u
Welham
Bibby
Luis
Hastings
Dudson
Lussick
Mossop
Jones
Turgut
Flanagan

Interchange: Griffin, McCarthy, Nakubuwai, Johnson, Olpherts, Davies-Aspey, Wellington

Props and wingers did 40 minutes each and our main men (Lui, Hastings, Sa'u) etc came off after 55-60 minutes. Steady performance with some pretty slick handling at times against an admittedly limited Swinton outfit. Don't think we learnt anything new from what we know already in that our first 17 looks pretty strong but we'll rely heavily on our spine which is up there (IMO) with some of the best in the division. And we obviously won't be able to cope with a big injury list with such a small squad. Whether we have the firepower up front to lay the platform for Lui & Jacko to run amok remains to be seen. Kopczak will be a big loss and some of the younger lads will need to step up. We could also do with a bit more pace in the backline as we're lacking a but in that dept.

Sio, Lawton, Wood, Tomkins and Murray to come into the squad still and Adam Walker in March will beef things up a little. In theory a lighter pack capable of playing big minutes should benefit us with the rule changes but I guess time will tell. Wigan up next and I'd imagine they'll play a strong team prior to their SL opener with Saints the following week.

One big plus was a debut for 16yo hooker Connor Davies-Aspey, a product of our foundation. The kid looks about 12 and took a couple of big hits but made a few cracking breaks and his distribution was excellent. We don't get to see many youth products breaking through at Salford so hopefully the kid has a big future in front of him if managed properly.