After playing uphill both ways at Batley

I think we need a bigger boat !!! Only East stand tickets left and a scattering of West Stand.

Bring back Hilton Park !!!

The number of errors so far this season is probably our biggest issue but this is quickly followed by consistently poor starts, pedestrian ptb, inability to dominate opposing packs and the lack of urgency for the majority of minutes.

Cut out the errors and it goes a long way to fixing all of those other issues.

Another 13 errors on Friday which we were averaging before kick off.

At least we're consistent.

The lack of an effective attacking shape for the majority of the game was a big concern on Friday. On a number of occasions I think Harry Smith flung the ball to the centre on the last play through sheer frustration that the set had been completely ineffective. Would prefer him to start utilising the grubber kick through more.

That frustrated me. I understand they ask them to play what they see but the worrying part was what was he seeing. The one I remember was the Wardle one and it was a fully set Salford line. We showed we could hold Salford back to their own 20 why didn’t he at least kick for touch. He is a good player but he needs to become more consistent in his decision making . I say consistent as he had it in his locker aka the CC final. I’m sure she will be the only thing that brings it on

Same here a testing few weeks I fear]

Unless there is a significant improvement and if Leyth turn us over then 0 out of 3 wouldn’t be a total surprise.
If we do lose 3 then it could start to feel like 2021 again.
We seem to lack intensity and any sense of urgency at the moment.
Hopefully Leyth will reawaken a bit grunt form our protected pack. Cooper , Ellis and Byrne need to significantly improve their recent performances. I think Mago currently, is incapable of stepping up.
The first 10 minutes against Leyth will tell us how we will go in the next 3 matches.

Shorrocks back at Wigan, could be in the squad for Leigh. Even if he's not selected, it still weakens Leigh.

Would like to see him get a game vs. Leigh. Think this would be the best opportunity he will have had to prove his worth long term at Wigan and potentially cement his place as a first choice in the team. I have been vocal in my opinions of him in the past on here and i still think there is a good player in there somewhere, he has shown glimpses of his potential in the past just not consistently enough. He must be getting to a point with us though where it is now or never.

Would be up for him starting in that contested second row position or even loose forward with smithies moving over to the second row, surely the loan out to Leigh should have been enough to ignite the spark in him and push him forward, if there is one there.

Defensively we appear to be pretty solid, I think RG said we have the best in the league. We have plenty to work on in attack which doesn't surprise me with two new centres really I never expected us to be fluid, but I'm confident we have enough in us to get 2/3 and hopefully start to build some momentum. We've shown we can score points when we cut out the errors and complete.

The big question is whether we start with the Field/French 1 and 6 combo or keep that up our sleeve as a game changer.

He’s played backrow for Leigh and been decent so maybe he slots in there.

If he plays though I’d predict he’ll be in on the bench and come on for Smithies.

He’s got the best passing game of all our “middles” so could help our clunky attack and get the ball to the edges quicker.

I agree that his most likely position in the squad will be the bench, if at all. We may have brought him back solely for the reason that it stops Leigh from playing him.

His passing game is the reason that i want him in at loose working as an extra pivot, i did notice that leigh have been playing him as a second row after starting loose forward in the first game, i took this as playing him to fit the teams needs as opposed to where they see him best since he was getting praise for the first game. I could be wrong on that though.

Not trying to bag on Smithies in any way as he had a great season last time around at loose, but i don't think he is what we need in that role at the moment and would serve us just as well, if not better slotting into the right second row position. Whether it is Shorrocks or Powell to give us what we need at loose i don't know, but at this stage i think both are more interesting options that we should be exploring then Smithies.

Ellis at loose is our best option imo. He takes it to the line in a similar fashion to SOL and has a good passing and offload game. We need to persevere with him instead of giving little cameos here and there though otherwise we will have no continuity and we'll continue to be clunky for longer.

French 1
Field 6
O' Neil 9
Smithies 12
Ellis 13

The only caveat is the weather for this Thursday.