Salford away, then Hull at home, a two week break, then Wire away and I'd be reasonably confident of three wins. Like other posters on here I have zero confidence of three wins as it stands, especially as we will quite literally get smashed by the Rabbitohs.

Of course the Wire game is on TV and as Wigan/Warrington is usually one of the highlights of the season we couldn't expect TV to leave it so we could play on a Sunday. But for the sake of the players health that is exactly what should happen.

I hope the fans (both clubs) that travel over to Oz have the trip of a lifetime and that everything goes to plan .

Can't help feeling tho that the club is starting to ram this trip down the throats of they many that could not afford to travel also the others who don't travel for other reasons. The teams performance against Wire on return if not up to scratch could cause a bit of fallout with many fans (i hope not) especially if we take a tanking. This trip might make money but at what cost .

safe trip to all

Regards , EW

This to replace Magic Weekend? Give over. The MM is absolutely brilliant and a fantastic weekend and method to showcase the sport,

You’ve mentioned about edging Aus/NZ players to sign for us rather than another SL side - I see that as completely irrelevant, SW wants a team of homegrown/developed players and he is quite near to getting that. Furthermore, if this is a other reason for the tour then it really is farcical.

I just cannot fathom why we go on this tour when we needed a big season off the back of what was essentially a poor season last year. I’m also flabbergasted at why we as Wigan feel the need to take on SL promotional roles - this tour, Millwall, Capital Challenge (aware it was Broncos before Wigan). That isn’t our job or our responsibility, it’s the RFL’s.

It's not often you and I agree but I do agree with the above. There is obviously one home game less whichever way you look it at. If we get the "extra" home playoff game then had we not gone to Oz we'd have had the Wigan v Hull game at home as well! For me the worst aspect of the one less home game scenario is the way the club tried to pass it off as not the case [iif we got the extra home playoff game[/i and that meant the price of season tickets this time were in effect frozen (as the extra home playoff game = same number of home fixtures overall) when in fact due to one less home league game they have really gone up in price. I can't remember the exact words but they really were disingenuous are were taking fans for mugs.

The reason why the club is doing this? Money. The club expects to make £400K out of it mainly from sponsorship. Probably will make a profit as well because if a loss was forecast I just can't see the club going ahead and I'd have expected it to be cancelled or just not got off the ground given the club made a £600K loss last season.

Is it part of some grand plan for SL and not just Wigan? I don't think so. It's opportunistic in that there aren't any Auckland 9's this year and so there is a gap in the calendar and therefore an opportunity there for a fixture and the friendlies.

Which brings me to the worst aspect of this mini-tour and that is the completely pointless friendly. What a complete and utter waste of time that is. Just an opportunity to pick up injuries and add to the fatigue of the trip in a totally meaningless game.

Maybe the club have reasoned that even if we lose to Wire on the teams return one loss won't matter in the grand scheme of things given the league structure. That might be true but if so it disrespects that fixture and just reinforces what I believe is a growing view that the league is a badly devalued part of the competition. They must surely have considered the effects of travelling and the friendly on the Wire game and have deemed it worth the risk.

At no point did I say this should replace Magic weekend. I’d rather this than magic weekend which I really hate. The concept of it is in theory a good one but I despise the imbalance of the fixtures which is more likely to impact on a clubs season than playing a home game on the road.
I don’t subscribe to your ‘Shaun Wane only wants home grown players’ theory though as the club has clearly demonstrated that we will bring in players from anywhere if we can afford them and more importantly, if they will improve our squad. The fact is, it’s financially beneficial to have home grown players and we can’t get away from that in our salary capped sport.
I think your view on the Sydney fixtures is narrow minded but time will tell. If the club makes a profit in the long term then it will be worth doing and if not, it won’t.
As for promoting SL I disagree on that too. If the RFL aren’t doing it properly then we all as RL fans, clubs etc have esponsibility to promote the game as best we can. We can’t just sit back and let the RFL drive the game into the ground.

I agree with your views on the Magic Weekend. I don't think it's ever made a profit (though I am not entirely sure about that, just recall reading it somewhere maybe in relation to something about Nigel Woods departure) and it stopped being a vehicle to expand the game after about two seasons once the novelty outside of RL circles wore off. The extra fixture is just daft.

I also don't think Wane or IL want an entirely homegrown squad. I also don't think in recent years we have been very successful in scouting for overseas players but I don't see this Sydney game doing anything to rectify that. It's a one off game that will be forgotten once the NRL season gets into full swing.

As for promoting SL the actions of individual clubs are never going to do that and certainly not by taking a game to the heartland of RL in Australia.

There is only one motivation for this trip and it is money. All the others mentioned, helping recruit players and promoting the game are at best an afterthought but more likely just dreamt up to help excuse the fixture and give it a more laudable reason to take place other than money.