If both teams are reasonably healthy come Good Friday, 100% very rarely happens, it should be a fantastic occasion

It really should. With all the excitement about Saints' period of dominance coming to an end and our squad looking well set, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that some of their players are already over the hill.

Last season will have hurt their pride, and with a proper pre-season I expect them to start next year pretty well.

Exactly how I see it. They’ll need some luck with injuries (something similar to that period of about 3 years when they hardly had a cold) but get that and their first choice side is a) extremely talented and b) will be hugely motivated. We’ll take them lightly at our peril.

Write off St Helens at your peril. They came away with nothing this year but were about as close as you can get to winning all three. I don't doubt that if it weren't for the WCC they'd have finished top (which is why I'd prefer us to play Penrith in Wigan).

Quite a few of their big names are in their early 30s now but still have another season or two in them. They need Lewis Dodd to have a great off season and to come up with some new attacking ideas.

Ultimately they'll be in and around the top 2.

For me Penrith should come here but we all know they won't

If the WCC goes ahead I wonder what the script will be regards Field and French, letting them have extra time off in Oz knowing they'll look after themselves in preparation for the league season is one thing, giving them that extra time when an undoubtedly motivated Penrith are first up is a different kettle of fish.
PS, not saying Penrith didn't care last season, they obviously did but the old NRL arrogance of "it's only a SL team" probably played a big part in them not having a warm up game before they played Saints,

If we go to Penrith, the crowd will tell a tale as to how much interest their fans feeling actual jeopardy helps. Even if their team didn’t treat it as a friendly (and they did to a point), their fans certainly seemed to. The ground had been pretty much full for every Penrith game for ages, yet it was a poor crowd. I think that will change on the back of the Saints defeat.

Mike Danson will be wanting the match to be played where the club gain the most revenue and exposure, for me that means utilising another big crowd at the DW Stadium (surely it won't be long till that name is changed).

A 20k+ crowd at the beginning of the season gives us the best chance of a win, it also puts £££ into the stadium coffers and Robin Park fanzone pre and post match.

For purely selfish reasons, I've got everything crossed that it's in Australia. My old man isn't getting any younger and we've said that we'll both head out if it's over there.

On the playing side, it's also nice to see us going against different teams - especially if we go down the preseason friendly route Saints did.

I've seen League Freak on Twitter suggesting we play the game during their magic weekend. That would be a massive disruption, but would be more of a test Vs the start of the year.

On a side note, we've got two Penrith juniors in our 2024 side with Ellis and Keighran. I'm expecting a massive game from Ellis night night, regardless of where it's played.

That’s not selfish mate.

Seconded. The tales those occasions tell are everything and people will have different reasons for wanting to see the game in Wigan, Vegas or Penrith. I’m nailed on for Wigan, half a sniff for Vegas and no chance in Oz but what will be will be. All I’d urge people to do is go if you can, wherever it may be. Life is too short to say no to 50/50’s.

Spot-on. When you give it you have got to be willing to take it. We shall have to wait and see how that pans out going forward

The Smithies/Knowles debate continues on Redvee, this is the view of one eminent poster:

'I think the Wigoons were bigging him up at one point as the next SOL no 13 when in reality he is not smart enough or creative enough for that postion. As you say he's not fast enough for second row and too small for Prop. I had a heated debate last year on the RL Fans of Smithies v Knowles as they predicted he would be much better than Knowles by the end of this season gone and would an automatic England international player. Knowles is a defensive loose foward as well but is also an attacking threat, can play anywhere in the pack ... '

So let us look at some facts:

Too small for a prop - many on Redvee are saying that Knowles (who I like by the way - I am not totally biased against our biggest rivals, unlike some of the morons on Redvee), could play prop for them next season. Knowles is 1.8m tall and 96kg in weight, Smithies is 1.85m and 106kg.

Match stats 2023 - Tries per game (S) 0.04, (K) 0; Try assists per game (S) 0.04, (K) 0.05 Average gain (S) 6.12m, (K) 6.07; Average clean breaks per game (S) 0.04, (K) 0.11; Average tackles per game (S) 37.38, (K) 26.58; Marker tackles per game (S) 9.5, (K) 6.21; Tackle busts per game (S) 0.81, (K) 0.84; Metres gained per game (S) 77.19, (K) 69; Carries per game (S) 12.62, (K) 11.37; Penalties per game (S) 0.23, (K) 0.32; Errors per game (S) 0.23, (K) 0.32; Average number of missed tackles per game (S) 1.77, (K) 2.

I'll let you decide from the facts provided (rather than anti-Wigan bile), who the best player is, whether either is big enough to play prop, and whether one is a more creative and a more attacking threat than the other. By the way, one thing I do agree with is that Smithies is no Lockers. Finally, the Australians must see something in Morgan that our friend doesn't

I await our friend's response given that he has debated previously.

Not sure how accurate those height and weight stats are given as only yesterday- Wane (who can do no wrong in the eyes of Wigan fans)- actually said that Smithies wasn't as big as Knowles?

Also Zig if you are going to quote stats it would be useful to see average mins per game played, total number of games played etc.

Ironic though that Wane chose Knowles over Smithies for England. Its only now that Knowles is injured that Smithies has been called up.

Makes you think doesn't it.

Mean does help if Knowles was on the field. Lad can’t stop being banned the dirty get