Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 5:37 pm  

Got to keep our chins up and work with what we've got. Can't sack 'em all & start again as we know that doesn't work. Would love to have started season with a full squad but unfortunately we have to start in two weeks time. Get behind 'em & encourage can't really see another way.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:30 pm  

What did people think of Musgrove.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 6:58 pm  

Boss Hog wrote:

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.

You are right about our numbers, like yours should have been white.

Don’t think we ran out of steam, Leigh changed all our first choice pack at about 30 minutes just before you scored. As far as I could tell we played the second half with just Hardaker, Moylan and Lam, from our first choice 13. I was a bit surprised that none of our starting pack came back on as this is our only warm up game.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Sun Feb 04, 2024 10:57 pm  

glow wrote:

You are right about our numbers, like yours should have been white.

Don’t think we ran out of steam, Leigh changed all our first choice pack at about 30 minutes just before you scored. As far as I could tell we played the second half with just Hardaker, Moylan and Lam, from our first choice 13. I was a bit surprised that none of our starting pack came back on as this is our only warm up game.

Agreed glow, we never ran out of steam, our boys are fitter than a butchers dog. I went to the game yesterday, and i was totally impressed with what i saw.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Mon Feb 05, 2024 11:10 am  

Wires71 wrote:

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.

What perplexes me is that surely the whole point of a friendly like this (apart from the testimonial aspect, in this instance) is to prepare for Round One as well as possible, by giving the likely 1-17 match fitness and enabling them to work on their combinations in a match setting rather than just in training. I'm not sure how making wholesale changes at half-time is beneficial in that regard. Losing the match doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things, I suppose, but it feels a bit deflating all the same, at a time when we should all be excited for the new season. As has been said earlier, though, we won the friendly against Leigh last year and it turned out to be a very poor indicator of the seasons we would both go on to have.

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Mon Feb 05, 2024 12:54 pm  

drinkwater being left out the entire game says a few things

[Winslade's Offload]

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Mon Feb 05, 2024 1:12 pm  

This may be sacrilege considering he is a home grown player and exciting in attack, but from the highlights I am not sure Connor Wrench's defence has improved much from last year.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Mon Feb 05, 2024 1:13 pm  

Were there any clues about 'how' we intend to play this season?

Provided we have enough fitness to avoid picking up a raft of injuries in the first few games, I don't mind us being a bit undercooked early on as it is a ridiculously long season and many a promising opening has burned out mid-season. But it is important that there is some kind of plan for what team we want to be and when we will be it, as there are also precedents of coaches saying 'we will come good' and nothing obviously changing from one game to the next.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Mon Feb 05, 2024 1:44 pm  

Fantastic Mr Catpiss wrote:

drinkwater being left out the entire game says a few things

I can only think that we are more concerned than we are letting on about injuries. If all the squad were fit surely our "first" team would want to play together for more minutes.

Re: Leigh preseason friendly : Mon Feb 05, 2024 2:01 pm  

Don't worry everyone, we're just lulling the rest of the league into a false sense of security and superiority before we steam through the season unbeaten (Copyright Rubber Duckie Enterprises)

Seriously though, if we're 8 games in and there's still no visible difference to last season then no amount of fresh coaching blood will change things, be it Sam Burgess or Wayne Bennett.

Let's wait & see.....Come on you Wire!!