Saw the Super League Show last night and there was a discussion about the Huddersfield loss to Hull KR - 4 days after playing St Helens last Monday. The short 4 day turnaround was commented on and Ian Millward said in the NRL no team that played on a Monday would have to play on a Friday but their game would be on the Saturday or even Sunday. Huddersfield were certainly fatigued in the second half.

Wigan's next game is against Warrington on Monday 24th - they then have only 4 days before playing Castleford on Friday 28th. What exacerbates the short turnaround is that Castleford who would normally have played on Sunday 23rd have had their match brought forward to Friday 21st - again thanks to Sky! So instead of a 5 day turnaround they will now get a full week which will give them a considerable advantage over Wigan.

SW may well have been alluding to this situation when he said he would be making use of the "kids" and even giving more debuts when interviewed after the Widnes game.

The Cas game may not be that important, but looking ahead (and not counting chickens before the Widnes Q/F), Wigan play Saints on Mon 22nd July. The following weekend is CC S/Fs - prescience is a great thing and I do hope the RL authorities will allow Wigan to play on Sunday rather than Saturday. Or, depending on who Wigan play in the S/F, maybe quite a lot of the "kids" will be featuring against Saints. That might even make it a closer game.......!

Totally agree with what you say. But I would go one further and say the I think the Monday games are just another gimmick that the RFL are following on with the NRL.
Should never happen on a Monday as there will always be conflicts, but then there looks like conspiracies to give certain sides a better chance. Huddersfield did not complain ( publically) and good on them for that, but I think it is just another case of the RFL mismanagement of our great sport.
They don't deserve the support they get and unless there are big changes in staff, we will always be a minority sport with no good ideas, just little headline grabbing gimmicks like this.

I'm sorry, but I would hope that we would beat Cas with a 1 day turnaround.

Didn't we beat Cas midweek in 2011 after a short turnaround? I'm sure we had a Wednesday night game at the DW that was on Sky?

We are good enough to beat Cas with a 4 day turn around and a loss just makes it easier to make excuses. Regardless of the result against Warrington on the 24th June, I fully expect us to back it up with a win against Cas.

play the B team against Cas, should be enough to win it

As previously stated, it's not the Cas game I am particularly worried about, but the potential CC S/F, 5 days after playing Saints.

I think SW will play the "kids" quite frequently in the next few months - we need to look after Sam, MM, Richards, Lockers and Green particularly and hopefully all will be fresh and fit for the crucial CC games and play-offs. We have enough props to enable SW to rotate them as well without weakening the team that much.

The Monday games are nothing to do with following the NRL or anything like that.
They are simply a schedule filler for SKY TV during the soccer off season.
Don't see how the RFL/SL can do much about it really at present.

Is there any difference to playing on Monday and Saturday, as there is Sunday then Friday? I don't think so. Besides, in the weeks leading up to that, our turn arounds are 9 Days between Bradford at home and the QF; then 7 days between the QF and the Saints game; then at least 5 days before the [Potential] SF. I don't see the problem. The 5 day [At least as the SF will be either Saturday or Sunday] is no different to playing Sunday then Friday.

Loosing bums on seats at matches is the main concern for me . The will i wont i fan who might go to a match at the weekend will be sat on the sofa watching it on TV on a Monday night and might be lost to RL in future weeks . Mucking the fans about will also cause regular fans to drift away . I will need 6 days leave from work to watch Wigan's 3 Monday night games.

Bad for our game and only a fill in for Sky during the non football season.

You have a valid point here, but what I meant in the original post was that we have probably our most important game of the season so far (CC S/F) which could be against very tough opponents ( Warrington, Huddersfield, Catalans or Hull) 5 days after facing Saints in a tough derby - with a turnaround 3 days shorter than it should be. Hence the possibility/probability of SW using some of the "kids" and resting some of our indispensible stars ( Sam, Micky Mac, Richards, Green, Lockers) and keeping them fresh for the S/F.

Of course, we have to beat Widnes first and then we may get drawn against London or Sheffield in the S/F when all this becomes less important.

So the game against cas is not on sky so its our choice to play it on the friday isnt it?

The only thing they need to do is schedule the games for the two teams playing on Monday night to Sunday.

Monday night RL is a great idea - lots of people have nothing to do and tune in because it's on.

Posted this several weeks ago and after Friday's performance it is probably relevant to raise the issue again. Just read the other threads about Friday and yet the under par performance was almost predictable with players like Pat and Matty Smith making a lot of uncharacteristic errors.

As mentioned before, though, IL should be insisting now that Wigan's CC semi-final is on Sunday rather than Saturday to give the players an extra day's rest ( or just play almost an entire reserve team aginst Saints - that really would get Eddie and Steve going!)

A few obseravations about Friday - why let Spencer play for Leigh on Thursday when we were always going to be short of props? On the teletext it said Spencer and Logan both failed fitness tests. Logan may have but Spencer didn't - he just played on dual reg the previous evening.

It has been shown time and again that if Wigan only play with 3 props, they struggle. As they did against Warrington when to compound matters only 3 of the 4 subs were used. (A fit and fresh Williams may have made all the difference in the last 10 minutes too, but that is pure speculation!) SW may have had his reasons for not having Spencer and Greenwood in the 17, but it was a mistake in my opinion. Similarly, Green should have been on from the start - not coming on after 25/30 minutes with Wigan 12- 0 down. If he is fit to be in the 17, surely he is fit to start, help set the tempo of the game and if necessary come off for a breather. Powell as sub would then have allowed Micky Mac to have been interchanged more effectively on his first appearance in over a month.