Re: Pre-season chat : Fri Feb 03, 2023 2:16 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

I was going to say hopefully nothing major with Liam Byrne but thinking on, I think he’s banned isn’t he? He got a ban during the World Cup iirc.

The only other player missing that is a minor concern is Harvie Hill. Maybe he’s being loaned out like Silva or has a knock.

Yes re. Byrne, pretty sure it was just one match so he should be available for HKR

Re: Pre-season chat : Fri Feb 03, 2023 4:45 pm  

I believe the plan is to loan Hill out for a month given that the Reserves don't play for that long.

Re: Pre-season chat : Fri Feb 03, 2023 7:01 pm  

Stu M wrote:

I believe the plan is to loan Hill out for a month given that the Reserves don't play for that long.

That would be a wise move. He’s probably not going to play here in the first month or two of this season but if he can go and smash it elsewhere, a chance may not be far down the track.

Re: Pre-season chat : Fri Feb 03, 2023 7:34 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

I was going to say hopefully nothing major with Liam Byrne but thinking on, I think he’s banned isn’t he? He got a ban during the World Cup iirc.

The only other player missing that is a minor concern is Harvie Hill. Maybe he’s being loaned out like Silva or has a knock.

Byrne’s ban was farcical given what others got away with. Why did he not serve his ban in one of the other pre-season friendlies?

Re: Pre-season chat : Sun Feb 05, 2023 4:46 pm  

Impressive display from Wigan. Thought King looked very dangerous with ball in hand his ability to offload is going to cause teams some problems this year.

Smith looks to have upped his physicality and Cust looked very dangerous. KPP another lad who looks to have picked up his physicality.

Some nice touches around the ruck from all our 9s.

Field and French carrying on where they left off, Cooper looked very good in his spell too. Smithies looks every bit a Wigan 13.

Few bits to work on, sliding defence was caught out a few times in the first half.

Only negative for me was Mago who came up with 2 errors in his short spell.

Re: Pre-season chat : Sun Feb 05, 2023 4:59 pm  

Can only be pleased. Some tightening up to do in defence, with a bit of line jumping going on but that’s understandable.

The attack is going to be extremely dangerous again, probably more so with a clear increase in quality in the centres. I thought Cust was extremely impressive and there were nice touches from many others. I really liked what Forber brought again in his short spell. If you have a team coming at you with Field, French, Cust etc and guys like KPP and King offloading, the last thing you need adding is a guy sniping at you from dummy half as well.

Re: Pre-season chat : Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:24 pm  

Very impressive first hit out. Cust was outstanding in all areas but what really stood out from a team perspective was the amount of offload. Cooper, Mago, KPP and Toby King all look to be adept in this area. King was excellent with his offloads today and both centres seem to have added threat to the team. We'll be a hard team to prevent scoring this year, even more so than last.

Particularly encouraging was that we didn't seem to lose anything when the replacements came on. We still looked a threat.

Re: Pre-season chat : Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:52 pm  

jonh wrote:

Impressive display from Wigan. Thought King looked very dangerous with ball in hand his ability to offload is going to cause teams some problems this year.

Smith looks to have upped his physicality and Cust looked very dangerous. KPP another lad who looks to have picked up his physicality.

Some nice touches around the ruck from all our 9s.

Field and French carrying on where they left off, Cooper looked very good in his spell too. Smithies looks every bit a Wigan 13.

Few bits to work on, sliding defence was caught out a few times in the first half.

Only negative for me was Mago who came up with 2 errors in his short spell.

Was a good hit out.

Like you mentioned about the sliding defence was mainly on Kings side which hopefully just put it down to the partnership developing

I didn’t see the other error from Mago but the first one looked like he had the ball reefed. To his credit he looked to be doing more mins. He had some good drives and was looking for the offload

Salford looked good. Bit rusty like but should be causing teams problems this year

Re: Pre-season chat : Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:56 pm  

I thought that both our half backs played well today. We are going to score plenty of points this season and, if our forwards can step it up we will be a real threat. I was slightly disappointed with O’Neil, Mago and KPP today, I think they need to inject themselves more into the game. After saying that, they are probably still blowing the cobwebs away. We have some exciting younger players coming through the ranks. Forber’s cameo was great and if he continues his development at this rate he will pushing for a place in the first team next season. Eckersley and Douglas look good athletes and if Junior can get aggression into his game he could be a top forward.

Overall, a good workout with a lot more to come.

Re: Pre-season chat : Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:56 pm  

Very good - as good as you could expect from a pre season game. The first try was a cracker.

King was the biggest plus - looked far more energetic. Clearly been told to look for the offload.

Shame that Mago came up with some errors - I suspect the squad numbers are an accurate reflection and he's 6th choice prop atm.

Suspect Forber will overtake O'Neill.