No Mik, Smith or Holroyd but Fusitua back

The squad in full is:

1. Lachie Miller
2. David Fusitu'a
3. Harry Newman
4. Paul Momirovski
5. Ash Handley
6. Brodie Croft
7. Matt Frawley
9. Andy Ackers
11. James Bentley
12. Rhyse Martin
14. Jarrod O'Connor
15. Sam Lisone
16. James McDonnell
17. Justin Sangare
18. Mickael Goudemand
21. Jack Sinfield
25. James Donaldson
26. Corey Johnson
29. Alfie Edgell
30. Tom Nicholson-Watton
32. Ben Littlewood

Jarrod to LF I assume, but our prop options look threadbare to say the least. TNW to get a game? Nevertheless, looking at it in the round, the Pies must be licking their lips.

I really can't see us winning this one to be honest. Be interesting to see the effect on the side of Cam Smith being absent - he does so much good work in D but I do feel he stifles our attack at times.

Miller, Fus, Newman, Mom, Handley, Croft, Frawley, Sangare, Ackers, Lisone, Bentley, McDonnell, O'Connor; Goudemand, TNW, Littlewood, Edgell/Johnson.

We could get monstered down the middle, and we're going to have to see way tighter games from some players to stand a chance.

Absolutely left field here, but how about Fus into the back row and Edgell to start on that wing, Bentley on the bench again?

Fus isn't quick enough for wing any more but he is big and skilful, not sure if he has the lungs for the pack but he might actually be pretty good... although it's a big ask to change position for such a big game.

Too soft for the pack. Be going off injured after 5 mins.

This is a wind up right he's got biscuit bones and a heart the size of a pea he would do himself a mischief in his underpants at the very thought of playing in the pack.

I am always the optimist, but even with Wigan on their 3rd game in just over a week I cannot see us winning this. We may play well in patches But at best Wigan win by a couple of scores.

Just too many poor quality players in our side.

I’d like to see us go into this game with some kind of pre arranged game plan. You hear coaches talking about “the grind”, “winning the ruck” and “the process” etc, etc, waffle , waffle, but how many think of a tangible strategy game by game to undo their opponents ? Watching Hull.K.R last week I had to take my hat off to Willie Peters, he went there with an obvious plan to pepper the right side of Wire’s defence with a little kick to the corner at the end of just about every set and it worked a treat. Wigan have a couple of midgets on their wings, and with Fuisitua back along with Handley we have a distinct advantage if we kick to the midgets. Momorovski is a dud but his one attribute is that he seems able to climb and catch a ball well enough. If you’re reading the forum Brad, there’s no charge for this advice. We have absolutely no other advantage over Wigan apart from towering above them out wide. It would be foolish if we don’t exploit it.

There’s some on here that having been giving Okedski stick, i think we’ll find out how much we need him on Saturday, no other of our props constantly make over 100metres or play as many minutes.

Given Wigan played on Tuesday we should have a good advantage. The fact most of us think we have little chance and will likely be slaughtered down the middle highlights yet again what a total mess our squad is.

Getting into the Wigan 20 to enable a kick to the corner will be the big problem

We need a game plan to enable our main game plan.

From the players we have available I reckon it'll be

1. Miller
2. Fusitu'a
3. Newman
4. Momirovski
5. Handley
6. Croft
7. Frawley
8. Sangare
9. Ackers
10. Goudemand
11. Mcdonnell
12. Martin
13. O'Connor

Subs
14. Bentley
15. Lisone
16. Donaldson
17. Johnson

Our pack looks so weak with Oledzki, Holroyd and Smith all missing. This is why I personally thought sending both Ruan and Hudson out on loan was a poor move by us our pack is already a small group and sending 2 of our big bodies out to play for other clubs is a mistake for me. We can even afford to carry Edgell on the bench with all our forwards missing and no doubt Fusitu'a won't last a full 80 mins but he'll still get picked ahead of Edgell if we can keep within 12 points of Wigan I'll be shocked.

Our lightweight pack is now a featherweight pack.

With the squad picked you could upsize with TNW at 13 and Littlewood in the mix. I don't see the need for a small guy at 13 when we have a small back row already. We definitely need to avoid having too many of the smaller guys on the field at the same time, but its probably unavoidable given the very limited minutes of Lisone and Sangare.