Re: Team for Wire (a) : Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:47 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

How do you explain sides winning the Grand Final with players that have played 30+ games?

There's loads of examples.

Likewise, the team that used to have the week off prior to the GF struggled.

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:54 pm  

I am in the camp of going into the game against wire with a strong team, i think a big win against wire would be a massive confidence boost going into the semi.

However, looking at the stats from yesterday i would be resting byrne. The lad has had a brilliant year so far and has been the best prop overall in my opinion as well as the most improved player. He has earned a rest for this game and hopefully to come back firing vs saints as he did in his first stint good friday.

I would also swap halsall in for bibby. I have been impressed with halsall in every first team game he has played, he looks ready for the step up. Bibby however has been out of form the last few weeks and would benefit imo from being pushed from those behind in the pecking order, a kick up the backside so to speak.

Rest of the team unchanged.

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:10 pm  

BoredWiganer wrote:

I am in the camp of going into the game against wire with a strong team, i think a big win against wire would be a massive confidence boost going into the semi.

However, looking at the stats from yesterday i would be resting byrne. The lad has had a brilliant year so far and has been the best prop overall in my opinion as well as the most improved player. He has earned a rest for this game and hopefully to come back firing vs saints as he did in his first stint good friday.

I would also swap halsall in for bibby. I have been impressed with halsall in every first team game he has played, he looks ready for the step up. Bibby however has been out of form the last few weeks and would benefit imo from being pushed from those behind in the pecking order, a kick up the backside so to speak.

Rest of the team unchanged.

I could go with a rest for Byrne and I do think we will see a couple of rests or at least players having minutes limited. I recall at Wakey in the cup game Byrne came on with over an hour gone and clearly that was planned to then start him Good Friday. We’ve seen Singleton have his rest now, so I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe Smithies, Faz or Bateman got a break. I wouldn’t do it but I get it.

Going back to Byrne, his stats weren’t massive but his energy in defence around that hour mark onwards was pretty inspirational. He was flying off his line at points and nailed a couple of the Salford players. He’s progressing nicely. There’s work to do and loads of improvements in him but that’s all positive.

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:48 pm  

Liam and Smithies have been the most improved players for me this season and are showing they are definite keepers.

Jury out on Partington. I like that he offers something different in a ball playing forward, but when we are struggling for metres out if defence then he's something of a luxury.

With Mago we need to work on how to inject him into the game , especially against top teams. I like him alot but we need to work out how to make best use of his talents. How to get his carry when the previous play has just broken the defence and got a quick ptb, just like Saints do with Walmsley after Makinson has run the ball in.

It's those sort of combinations we should be really working on as to put our strike player in the best positions more frequently.

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:08 pm  

Full team for me unless anyone has a minor injury.

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:52 pm  

Phuzzy wrote:

It helps for sure but no amount of motivation can overcome fatigue significantly enough to allow you to perform at your best. It may do for a short period but not over a full 80 and we'll need a full 80 of peak performance from the team to win the semi final.

The 'eggs in one basket' is a different discussion though and I certainly can't put a convincing enough argument forward to disagree. The club has prioritised the cup this year but I can't help thinking that perhaps our best chance of silverware may be in the league this year. It's a long season and, although Saints are undoubtedly favourites, it's impossible to predict how things will look come September. We only need a couple things to go our way to tip the balance whereas for this cup game we know where we are relative to Saints right now.

I'm not saying we can't win, of course. Anything can happen on the day but we'll need a full 80 performance from everyone.

Because those players are normally squad players, key players will be rested during the season.

At this point in the season I don't think that's a valid issue, however the risk of injury or a player getting a ban in the league game has to be taken into account I would say 2 players maybe 3 max could be rested to ensure availability for the saints game

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Mon Apr 25, 2022 10:47 pm  

Dezzies_right_hook wrote:

Because those players are normally squad players, key players will be rested during the season.

At this point in the season I don't think that's a valid issue, however the risk of injury or a player getting a ban in the league game has to be taken into account I would say 2 players maybe 3 max could be rested to ensure availability for the saints game

Yeah, I don't think we can afford to take the Saints path as we aren't the settled entity they are. We are still a work in progress and too much disruption could be just as counter productive as over playing players.

In the scheme of things I don't think Friday's result will have a massive bearing one way or the other on our chances of silverware whereas the semi final clearly does. Getting the balance right is a job for the coaching staff to ponder on but, for my own part, I'd accept resting players for this one if they feel it's necessary.

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:08 am  

Was the Wire game on Sky? From the brief highlights on TSLS, they seemed to be going quite well without Williams and Ratchford,

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:00 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Yeah, I don't think we can afford to take the Saints path as we aren't the settled entity they are.

Not sure how settled we are to be honest - we have a similar situation in needing to find an answer to Dodd's injury.

Re: Team for Wire (a) : Tue Apr 26, 2022 9:57 am  

FearTheVee wrote:

Not sure how settled we are to be honest - we have a similar situation in needing to find an answer to Dodd's injury.

But the majority of your team, and all of your spine, have been in your system and/or playing together for some time now. Dodd's loss is not something that would be made better or worse by resting or not resting players. Our spine is Field (1st season proper), Cust (1st season and only arrived late), Smith (2nd season but not 1st choice half) and O'Neil (2nd season and with only 2 first team games under his belt).

I doubt even someone with the biggest Saints bias in the world would liken that to a spine of Welsby, Lomax, A.N. other and Roby!