Wire away for Catalan next week too. But then again if Cas have genuinely improved tonight then there are no easy games (barring the face about Salford tomorrow)

Anyone know what the weathers like in Manchester in October?

What a game

If you ask some of the players from last season how they felt tonight , I guess they’d be Amazed.

They had at least one General in Sezer directing play.
What a difference to last season where we looked like headless chucks.

I said weeks ago we could finish 6th if Carty got it right.
Not a bad start to the season.

We defended well but Catalans were poor v Halifax and we will play better teams starting next week then Leigh.

I’m in 7th heaven currently and jumped off the sofa a few times watching the game.

Let’s see where we are after 9 games.

Hail The Barometer.
Long live The Barometer.

I think we should not keep raking up his past. We all have them. Great that he has a direction in the latter part of his career not getting into the international team but developing the youngsters around him . An astute acquisition long may that opinion remain valid

The lads look infinitely closer as a group than they did last year. It was probably hard for them last year to build a bond amongst themselves when they were only in training for a few hours a couple of days a week. When you see the stuff the social media team puts out (which I admit can be carefully chosen and edited) then they really do seem to enjoy being around each other.

Yes decent stats for Hardaker last night

23 tackles
15 carries
126 metres

Rapana, Barron and Martin well over 100 metres and Briscoe not far off on 96.

Asiata 43 tackles with just one miss.

Martin did an unbelievable amount of work.

Really restricted TPJ metres, we did a really good job on him.

Potentially 3 playee out for next week though, so a little costly. Hopefully Chamberlain or Holmes back.

Hooker could be an issue though.

I’ve said it loads but even last season it was absolutely night and day difference even with just Ben Reynolds in the side who while not a world beater had the confidence and experience to take charge a little bit. No disrespect to him but he’s spent the majority of his career in the championship as his level but made big difference in the few games he played. Sezer with his NRL pedigree and experience is exactly what we need in a halfback for the short term.

In his interviews he also seems genuinely honoured that the players picked him as captain. He gets the history of the club and how big a responsibility it is. Could be a wise move, let him be the leader on the field he’s that type of player, it then takes a little bit of responsibility off Asiata and allows him to play his natural game.

We played well, particularly in defence but catalans attack isn't great. Stats are interesting, we only had 5 ptb in their 20 and they had 36 in ours. If we give wigan that much ball near our line next week we won't give ourselves a chance.

Cartwright mentioned Ashworth and Bourouh went off with HIAs last night. Not sure if they passed them

Ashworth did as carty said he came back on but said there were still protocols to follow. Burough failed his. I was surprised that we didn't bring balmforth on earlier anyway tbh. Maybe the coaches think there is still be some work to do on his defence and didn't feel confident enough to bring him kn earlier when the game was more in the balance