Re: New signings : Tue Jul 16, 2019 6:26 pm  

He really mustn't have impressed during the week because he never really got a shot in the halves - did he believe he was the next big thing because he was a youth international?
I don't know, but the sport is littered with ambition never realized. Think his fit with London looks good though.

Re: New signings : Sat Jul 20, 2019 11:51 am  

fez1 wrote:

He really mustn't have impressed during the week because he never really got a shot in the halves - did he believe he was the next big thing because he was a youth international?
I don't know, but the sport is littered with ambition never realized. Think his fit with London looks good though.

It all comes down to playing sport in an age group, and then taking the step up to open age.

Her indoors has a cousin who was in in the top ten, nationally, within age groups in their particular discipline. Once in open age it was a struggle to make the top 50. There's a massive difference in any sport between under 18 and open age. A lot of kids are heralded as the next best thing without any form to back it up, and this is unfair to them.

The ambition that's never realised is usually due to the expectation of the public, or supporters, being unrealistically high from media headlines, prior to competing at senior level.

Re: New signings : Sat Jul 20, 2019 2:39 pm  

Priority #1 - Prop! I’d argue we need a prop more than we need anything else. If we can only bring in one player in the Winter, it has to be a prop. Not a squad filler or luxury comedy big man who lasts ten minutes at a time but becomes a cult favourite because he puts in a big hit, we don’t need a bench prop. For me, we need a starting, first name on the team sheet, leader on the pitch, prop. It’s time for the next Adrian Morley at this club!

I’d love George Burgess here!

#2 - Centre. Is it going to be Burrell and King next year or are we going to see Burrell as a back rower and a new centre come in? Neither are specialist centres though so I’d like to see our specialist wingers play outside at least one specialist centre.

Bill Tupou from Wakey would be ideal!

#3 - Loose. I’d like to see a ball playing big man. Westerman was good at this for us but not consistent enough. What struck me most in last season’s Grand Final was how the ball moved through O'Loughlin’s hands so much for Wigan. The creativity it brought to the game was the difference between the two teams. Burrell had good hands in rugby union and the transition from a union centre to a loose forward in rugby league is an obvious one. So maybe not a signing here but bring in a proper centre and have Burrell as the loose forward.

I think we’ll see the best of Currie back again next year though. He’ll have months of trust in his body and a proper pre-season preparing him for the season rather than rehabilitating him from injury. He’ll be like a new signing.

Obviously we have Widdop coming in. A very exciting singing, for sure!

I’d also like to see a new fitness coach too. I think we faded (mainly due to the sin bin of Hughes and going down to 12, but still...) against Saints a few weeks back after completely matching them for an hour. And we’ve looked absolutely gassed in other games this season. I think we overachieved last season with John Clarke having our players fitter than the opposition, we were never a double finalist team on paper for me last season, but we did achieve that. This season I don’t think we’ve looked as fit after losing Clarke to union.

[Fantastic Mr Catpiss]

Re: New signings : Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:56 pm  

Supposedly gardner had them fitter than ever before in pre season

Re: New signings : Sat Jul 20, 2019 8:46 pm  

Fantastic Mr Catpiss wrote:

Supposedly gardner had them fitter than ever before in pre season

Lol - sounds a bit like the old "they trained really well"

Re: New signings : Sat Jul 20, 2019 9:03 pm  

Mr Snoodle wrote:

Lol - sounds a bit like the old "they strained really well"

Seems better with addition of one more letter.

Re: New signings : Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:00 am  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

Priority #1 - Prop! I’d argue we need a prop more than we need anything else. If we can only bring in one player in the Winter, it has to be a prop. Not a squad filler or luxury comedy big man who lasts ten minutes at a time but becomes a cult favourite because he puts in a big hit, we don’t need a bench prop. For me, we need a starting, first name on the team sheet, leader on the pitch, prop. It’s time for the next Adrian Morley at this club!

I’d love George Burgess here!

#2 - Centre. Is it going to be Burrell and King next year or are we going to see Burrell as a back rower and a new centre come in? Neither are specialist centres though so I’d like to see our specialist wingers play outside at least one specialist centre.

Bill Tupou from Wakey would be ideal!

#3 - Loose. I’d like to see a ball playing big man. Westerman was good at this for us but not consistent enough. What struck me most in last season’s Grand Final was how the ball moved through O'Loughlin’s hands so much for Wigan. The creativity it brought to the game was the difference between the two teams. Burrell had good hands in rugby union and the transition from a union centre to a loose forward in rugby league is an obvious one. So maybe not a signing here but bring in a proper centre and have Burrell as the loose forward.

I think we’ll see the best of Currie back again next year though. He’ll have months of trust in his body and a proper pre-season preparing him for the season rather than rehabilitating him from injury. He’ll be like a new signing.

Obviously we have Widdop coming in. A very exciting singing, for sure!

I’d also like to see a new fitness coach too. I think we faded (mainly due to the sin bin of Hughes and going down to 12, but still...) against Saints a few weeks back after completely matching them for an hour. And we’ve looked absolutely gassed in other games this season. I think we overachieved last season with John Clarke having our players fitter than the opposition, we were never a double finalist team on paper for me last season, but we did achieve that. This season I don’t think we’ve looked as fit after losing Clarke to union.

I’m not sure on the Burrell to loose to play an O’Loughlin style role. 90% of SOL’s impact is between his ears. He knows when to run, when to pass and even when to just get out of the way (which is a big thing, how often do you see moves break down because too many cooks).

I’m hoping that Currie, with a good pre-season, can regain that sharp edge, and pace. But if he doesn’t, he would be the ideal to play that role.

Agree that we need a centre. The difference between Hiku and anyone else since Bridge is scary. The level between the best and the rest that have played centre for us is eye watering. Stop looking for the ‘athletes’ and get someone of class. Percival and Gildart have proved that you don’t need to be 6’2” and 100kg to have an impact. I haven’t seen much of Brand, but I hope he’s not the stereotypical Warrington backrower/centre hybrid but someone who is just a centre, but does that role instinctively

Re: New signings : Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:44 am  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

Priority #1 - Prop! I’d argue we need a prop more than we need anything else. If we can only bring in one player in the Winter, it has to be a prop. Not a squad filler or luxury comedy big man who lasts ten minutes at a time but becomes a cult favourite because he puts in a big hit, we don’t need a bench prop. For me, we need a starting, first name on the team sheet, leader on the pitch, prop. It’s time for the next Adrian Morley at this club!

I’d love George Burgess here!

#2 - Centre. Is it going to be Burrell and King next year or are we going to see Burrell as a back rower and a new centre come in? Neither are specialist centres though so I’d like to see our specialist wingers play outside at least one specialist centre.

Bill Tupou from Wakey would be ideal!

#3 - Loose. I’d like to see a ball playing big man. Westerman was good at this for us but not consistent enough. What struck me most in last season’s Grand Final was how the ball moved through O'Loughlin’s hands so much for Wigan. The creativity it brought to the game was the difference between the two teams. Burrell had good hands in rugby union and the transition from a union centre to a loose forward in rugby league is an obvious one. So maybe not a signing here but bring in a proper centre and have Burrell as the loose forward.

I think we’ll see the best of Currie back again next year though. He’ll have months of trust in his body and a proper pre-season preparing him for the season rather than rehabilitating him from injury. He’ll be like a new signing.

Obviously we have Widdop coming in. A very exciting singing, for sure!

I’d also like to see a new fitness coach too. I think we faded (mainly due to the sin bin of Hughes and going down to 12, but still...) against Saints a few weeks back after completely matching them for an hour. And we’ve looked absolutely gassed in other games this season. I think we overachieved last season with John Clarke having our players fitter than the opposition, we were never a double finalist team on paper for me last season, but we did achieve that. This season I don’t think we’ve looked as fit after losing Clarke to union.

Can’t really disagree with much of that, I don’t really expect us to sign a ball playing 13 given the way Price plays, but you never know.

Prop absolutely is the priority, without a doubt and we should have good cap space to recruit one. Currently we have Atkins, Goodwin & Tasi confirmed as leaving with no one yet taking their salary, with probably Westwood and possibly Sita to add to that.

Other positions we seem ok in, in terms of numbers. Full back, halves, back row seem to have enough quality and depth to challenge, prop and centre we seem to be on with. I just wonder if we are a little light in the wing department? Behind Charnley & Lineham we have Mamo, which is fine, but if he’s already covering for an injured Ratchford we seem short of options - unless Brand can cover wing too?

Re: New signings : Mon Jul 22, 2019 9:40 am  

It's alright lads cause we've signed Gelling

Re: New signings : Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:40 am  

Lord Tony Smith wrote:

It's alright lads cause we've signed Gelling

A better centre than we have right now.