Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:12 pm  

In Saints favour, they had a poor season in terms of injury yet finished 2nd with a supposed weak pack. I think Saints will be strong up front if they don't have the same injury situation.

Forgetting depth for one minute and just picking the 5 best men from each team. Then i'd have to agree that Saints have the top pack.

I'd say Wire are 2nd.

Morley runner up 2 years running for MoS
Monaghan is the leagues best hooker for me.
Anderson and Harrison are absolute monsters in defence and tire out the opposition with huge bone crunching hits.
Westwood is THE most underrated player in SL
Gaz Carvell seems to be our weakest link in the pack yet i'm sure the top clubs would take him.

The one thing no one can compete with Wigan though is the depth but if Wire and Saints keep their 1st players fit i wouldn't be too envious of Wigan

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:19 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Soliola was bought as a centre (poor decision IMO) Wheeler has been unable to string more than five consecutive games together for four years.
Perry is already missing for the first 4 / 5 games of the season.

A fully fit Saints starting 17 will be a difficult game for anyone, but after that there is a big lack of strength in depth.

I'm not so sure about this lack of depth.

Wellens
Gardner
Shenton
Wheeler
Meli
Pryce
Eastmond
Graham
Roby
Perry
Wilkin
Soliola
Flannery

Moore
LMS
TP
Clough

Outside that we have Lomax/Foster/Armstrong/Gaskell as cover in the backs with 50 SL appearances and 23 tries between them.

In the forwards we have Ashurst/Dixon/Magennis/Frodsham with 89 SL appearances between them.

We had awful luck with injuries last year and the squad was strong enough to finish 2nd and reach the GF; in my opinion we have strengthened for 2011. Yes, we don't have as much depth as Wigan - but you can only play 17 players.

Had the situation been reversed in the GF and Wigan had Tomkins and TL injured (and Saints with Pryce and Eastmond fit) it wouldn't have mattered how many back rowers Wigan had in their squad.

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:22 pm  

I thought that there were six in a pack.

But you can't just do that, you have to consider at least nine (3 subs) and in many cases ten (four subs).

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:25 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

I'm not so sure about this lack of depth.

Wellens
Gardner
Shenton
Wheeler
Meli
Pryce
Eastmond
Graham
Roby
Perry
Wilkin
Soliola
Flannery

Moore
LMS
TP
Clough

Outside that we have Lomax/Foster/Armstrong/Gaskell as cover in the backs with 50 SL appearances and 23 tries between them.

In the forwards we have Ashurst/Dixon/Magennis/Frodsham with 89 SL appearances between them.

We had awful luck with injuries last year and the squad was strong enough to finish 2nd and reach the GF; in my opinion we have strengthened for 2011. Yes, we don't have as much depth as Wigan - but you can only play 17 players.

Had the situation been reversed in the GF and Wigan had Tomkins and TL injured (and Saints with Pryce and Eastmond fit) it wouldn't have mattered how many back rowers Wigan had in their squad.

And how many of those do you honestly believe would get anywhere near the Wigan side especially when you consider what has happened at U20/ reserve level for the last three years.

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:31 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

And how many of those do you honestly believe would get anywhere near the Wigan side especially when you consider what has happened at U20/ reserve level for the last three years.

How can you say that with Pryce in your squad, he's only good for a 10m out barge over try to the corner, biggest donkey i've seen for years and is it you that is one of his biggest defenders ?

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:43 pm  

Yed wrote:

How can you say that with Pryce in your squad, he's only good for a 10m out barge over try to the corner, biggest donkey i've seen for years and is it you that is one of his biggest defenders ?

He's got a squad number 26 and managed 13 tries from 9 games last season.
You get four points for no matter where you score from, Saints for example scored more tries from within 10 metres of the line than any other team in Superleague last season.

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:54 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

He's got a squad number 26 and managed 13 tries from 9 games last season.
You get four points for no matter where you score from, Saints for example scored more tries from within 10 metres of the line than any other team in Superleague last season.

I'm voting that as Rogues favorite stat from 2010. He just needed to follow it up with "Saints the entertainers"

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:01 pm  

Of course Saints are missing their pack centrepiece a certain Mr Cunningham...

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:09 pm  

Cunningham is a once in a decade kind of player, very few players come through who are as good as KFC

Re: Warrington Pack : Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:51 pm  

Yed wrote:

Cunningham is a once in a decade kind of player, very few players come through who are as good as KFC

quote me. "Roby can be better"

I firmly believe that and since he has signed i am scared that he can curse us like fatty KDC has for years.

Hoodoo=KFC=Hoodoo

hopefully that changes this year.