I can’t understand this disliking of a team, I can fully understand wanting to beat them though.

Think I saw that it’ll be on our league or maybe YouTube from 9.15pm.

Its on our league

Me too (unless it's Warrington)

Welsby is there

The tribute video from the Wigan staff and team for James Roby was a class act.

Healthy rivalry yes, hate and dislike no. Perhaps I am mellowing in my old age!

Makes good reading

Magic Super beetle

So having sat down and put some thought into this, I can at least see a glimmer of optimism/ straw to clutch.

Let’s suppose the problem is that Dodd is continuing to agitate for a move to the NRL. I can understand the club halting all other recruitment until it’s resolved. Sure, Mbye drops into the 7 role (I have deep suspicions that was always going to be the plan), but the 14 role is also critical as Clark isn’t an 80 minute hooker, and there’s no one putting pressure on the rest of the spine to perform/ cover any sort of injury (and we have gotten lucky this year with players in the spine). As bad as the option of Bennison/ Ritson is for the wing, that’s still a step up on what? A couple of 18 year olds, yet to make debut, playing out of position in the 14 role? No someone would have to come in to replace Dodd, and spine players aren’t cheap. That’s why we haven’t announced anyone thus far, despite them being well known.

So then there’s a matter of who. The immediate response would be Croft, the only reason we wouldn’t go that route is a) we’re not willing to pay a transfer fee, or b) we want to use our non-fed spot for something else. Given Ackers would also command a fee, and I doubt the amounts are so hugely different that one is doable and one is not, we must clearly still have someone in mind for the other non-fed spot. Of course it’s also possible we distracted Leeds with Ackers to get ahead of them with Croft, as it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.

Of course who would want Dodd after the stinker of a season he’s just had is a complete mystery to me, especially with Croft, Smith and Williams all running around SL as well, but that’s another conversation. Either Dodd stays, we sign a non-fed winger and the rest of the rumoured players, or Dodd goes, he gets replaced by someone non-fed and have to put up with Bennison/ Ritson on the wing again, but hopefully with significantly more service than last year. Depending on how expensive unknown spine player is, we may or may not bring Whitley/ Eseh in depending on the cap space we have left.

Also, as much as I dislike his Dads commentary, it’s another where I would be getting the ear of O’Connor.

They are a funny lot over there

Not one Wigan player good enough to get into their team but they are throwing names around like Jared O'Connor and Joe Burgess as signings they would like

You need to factor in that the core players such as Makinson, Lomax, Percival, Walmsley are on the wane. The rest of the squad will need to improve in order to offset their dip in standards. To be fair they have all set the bar high but age and injuries are not going to be their friends.

Agreed, we are coming to the end of this era of players over the next couple of years and we will need to manage that transition really carefully. Those 4 players are all still producing quality performances though and especially in the case of Makinson and Lomax they're still highly dependable in terms of how many games they play. (Lomax was an ever present with 33 and Makinson 27). Obviously Walmsley has had issues over the last 2 years but has still played 23 games a year on average and Percival played 23 this year too.SO whilst I agree they're all approaching their final years; they've not dropped a cliff just yet.

Having said that I'm not naive to think this can go on forever. I believe we have some highly rated lads who are maybe a year or 2 off so we may get lucky and they fall into place. I believe Dagnall, Vaughan, Robertson and Stephens are best placed to replace those 4 positionally plus one or two others as well. There's another half back I can't remember the name of. But again, it would be naive to think it will be that straightforward and we may need some short term signings to bridge the gap (see Daryl Clark for example).

Rugby League and sport in general has always been about cycles and we've just had a magnificent one that has come to an end this year. We will no longer be favourites in 2024 which will be the first time for 5 years we haven't been; but I'm confident we won't fade away into an "also ran" like we have seen with Leeds and Warrington at times. We'll be there or thereabouts for the foreseeable I'm sure.

Wigan now appear to have the strongest squad on paper going in to next year but this notion that Saints are a team of old men on their way out is wishful thinking. (That isn't aimed at you by the way).

Whitby is the half mate. Very good player and tough as old boots. Was doing great on dual reg too playing against men then suffered a knee injury