Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sat Feb 03, 2024 10:48 pm  

Bugger, just read Luke Thomas was carried off with a knee injury He was absolutely solid in the Widnes game, so hopefully it's not a big injury.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sat Feb 03, 2024 11:03 pm  

On that showing…
We will get pummelled at Catalan.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sat Feb 03, 2024 11:07 pm  

Can someone find that ‘first 6 games’ topic.
Be good to revisit it and discuss where we see this seasons first 6 games going.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 9:29 am  

I wouldn’t get too carried away. We started 2018 with a fairly average squad and slowly got into the grind, finishing up with two finals. If we see steady improvement over the first 6 rounds with a few victories and signs of being more resilient, I will keep the faith.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 10:05 am  

We have essentially given most of our 1st team players 1/2 a game as a preseason warm-up, and it looks like we will be entering the season undercooked.

Leigh were very dominant in the 1st twenty minutes, then they ran out-of-steam and Wire did OK for the rest of the half.

The numbers of the Leigh players were a bit obscure, so it was difficult to see how many of their initial squad was rested in the 2nd half and when.

It`s far too early to interpret how our season will go yet, but our pack will need a bit more grunt to go with the welcome return of Paul Vaughan.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 11:12 am  

Familiar times. Poor pre-season showing and we'll reach for the cope of "its just pre-season".

I have a bad feeling about 2024. Average squad and a coaching appointment which I was sceptical about from the start. I'm hoping for mid table stability with us being in the playoff conversation but fear we might have one of those turbulent years scrapping around the bottom.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 11:37 am  

I know it was "only" a pre season friendly but I would have thought the players would want to set a marker down and show how they have left the shambles of the last 5 years behind with a new determined approach. But then I should know better, this is Warrington we are talking about. As for 6 games - that's unfair. Powell only got the 6 game judgement after a year in the job.

We will have to improve or there will be absolute fireworks, Burgess won't want to be seen failing so early in his career so the results will have to come or there could be an explosive parting of ways.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 4:43 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

Familiar times. Poor pre-season showing and we'll reach for the cope of "its just pre-season".

I have a bad feeling about 2024. Average squad and a coaching appointment which I was sceptical about from the start. I'm hoping for mid table stability with us being in the playoff conversation but fear we might have one of those turbulent years scrapping around the bottom.

Maybe, but the last time I felt that way was at the start of 2018 with an unknown coach and a much poorer squad. We looked terrible in the first 3rd of the season, and despite being particularly boring all year we actually won a lot of the games that counted. We just didn't have the quality game-breakers in the two finals.

When we recruited Burgess I was as sceptical as anybody, but the alternatives available would definitely have been 'same-old, same-old'. One thing you can't accuse Burgess of is a lack of drive or passion or a reluctance to drop those out-of-form. The other pleasing thing is that finally we do seem to have some decent back up talent waiting to displace anyone who isn't 100% on their game. Burgess has made no secret of his desire to let those guys step up.

Even back in the 'golden period' of Smith, did we actually look that good in pre-season? I guess we'll know by the season's half-way point whether this result was a harbinger of doom.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 4:48 pm  

easyWire wrote:

Even back in the 'golden period' of Smith, did we actually look that good in pre-season? I guess we'll know by the season's half-way point whether this result was a harbinger of doom.

I would be less worried about looking rusty in pre season if we had a squad with Briers, Morley, Hill, the Monaghans, Louis Anderson, Bridge, Grix, Carvell etc.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 5:04 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

I would be less worried about looking rusty in pre season if we had a squad with Briers, Morley, Hill, the Monaghans, Louis Anderson, Bridge, Grix, Carvell etc.

Absolutely, can't disagree with that, but there hasn't been a squad in Northern Hemisphere RL for a good few years with that luxury of abundance of quality. Even the Saints squads of the last few years haven't been outstanding on paper. They've just worked very well as a unit.

No idea if Burgess is the right guy, but I do know that having the current Wigan / Saints / Cats squads wouldn't make a blind bit of difference with the weak culture we've had in recent years. And I don't think taking any old NRL coach just for the sake of them being NRL would make a difference either.

This season's a 50/50 for me. Worth the gamble - not many options available and a coach who we know is the opposite of soft and cushy.