i cannot believe that team is going to have hock, richards, lima and finch to come into it. scary thought

I wish I knew how they afford it!

Sam is a truly exceptional player - just amazing to watch. How the hell you tackle someone with his skills is one big question.

With the space we gave him today, it is nigh on impossible. Any side facing Wigan this year need to dominate their forwards and control the speed of their PTB. Easier said than done though.

Just seen the highlights on the Super League show and I counted 16 points we gave to Wigan through either team or individual errors.

Massive improvement needed for the trip to Wrexham on Saturday.

I believe Fielden has taken a pay cut and Paleaaesina was one of the highest earners at the club, which cleared a lot of cap room.

It's Wigan though, you know the RFL are watching our finances like a hawk looking for a slip up. It'll all be above board.

they can afford it because alot of that team have come throught the juniors so arent on much ££. Players like fielden and bailey were taking up a lot of space but arent anymore. Im guessing the youngsters they have just resigned have got contracts loaded at the back end.

Correct and as I said yesterday during the commentary, you have a prominent Wigan class of 2006, being Darrell Goulding, Joel Tomkins, Paul Prescot with Lee Mossop and Sam Tomkins joining the ranks two years later.

Think back to Leeds and the year 2000 when they started playing Burrow, McGuire etc, it was 2004/2005 before everything clicked the titles started coming in.

It all bodes well for the young players at Odsal that we've been forced to play from an early age (last year).

He looks to be getting better too

I'm still not convinced about Tomkins. If he genuinely was as good as some fans we're making out, he'd be playing at 6 in the middle of the park on a regular basis. As it is he's playing at fullback, I suspect partially to mask a defensive deficiency, whereas from an international perspective I would much prefer him to develop as a stand-off (when was the last time GB/Englad had a genuinely classy 6!?)
For those who will no doubt question this viewpoint, in a one-sided game Tomkins could (and should) have been directly responsible for his side conceeding 2 tries (Royston and Scruton) due to the inability to challenge for the highball.

That said - he was a country mile above all other players on the pitch, and was the significant difference between the two sides. I thought the Bulls forwards didn't play to badly and held their own (my recollection is that the majority of the big hits were coming in from bulls)... we're just lacking a bit of defensive structure at the moment which I hope will come with time.

Tomkins biggest asset is his speed and quickness (yes, they are two different things). A lot of the time yesterday, he would do something before anyone had even noticed he'd done it, and then he was off, while everyone else was still looking the other way. He'd then exploit that and pull out a pass which took everyone else out of the game.

Excellent talent, but I can see where you're coming from Ginger. Also see what people mean about his attitude. He is a thoroughly unlikeable person when on the pitch, in the mould of Briers and Brough. Dummy spitting and tantrums aplenty. The biggest problem I have with him is that "trying to win a penalty all the time" bit though. The reason I watch hardly any football these days is because it's more about cheating and getting away with it, than it is about the actual game. Too many players "doing a Tomkins" would start to make RL go that way too, and that's the last thing I ever want to see. I would like the RFL to clamp down on it personally. That way we stamp it out of the game, and people can just talk about Tomkins' talent instead of his histrionics.

I've not problem with halfbacks having a bit of nastiness about them. The best British halbacks I've seen all had plenty of devil in them (Gregory, Goulding, Edwards etc). The best of the lot was a complete pain in the Harris on the pitch - Alex Murphy. I think it's a requirement of the job.