If he wasn't going to play them he wouldn't have named the fringe players in the squad. I don't think any of the senior first team players will play.

I agree that there are too many changes really and freshness is not as big a thing as momentum in sport IMO. I think we could have brought 7 or 8 in and still have a very good chance of winning.

I disagree about the lls if we win it but nothing else its hardly a consolation and if we pick up one of the others (especially the superleague trophy) I don't think anybody will care if we don't have the lss to go with it.

I understand all of your comments and I appreciate your points of view.
I know my view is in the minority.
Unquestionably there are some reasonable points, but like I said, I think we can win this without impacting the future games with a half decent team (rather than a full 2nd tier team - no offence intended to the fringe players) and don't want to throw it.

Anyway, we'll see.
Let's hope it's a good match and the guys stand up to be counted.

There isn't even home advantage in the play-offs to worry about.

It’s now very awkward and no-win situation. for Salford as they will be expected to win. Massive incentive for the youngsters playing for Wire.

Fez I'm not so sure that you are in the minority on here as I'm in the half way house camp with CW8, a bit of a rerun of the team selection perhaps with different criteria of who's in/out when we had 8-9 out but played through due to Covid

I'm still looking forward to the game and hope that it's competitive and we can get some positive from it beyond a write off result and a rest well earned though it is for many.

The question it really raises is who do we consider is still in the running for top 4 given as others have said there's no advantage being 1st or 4th

I reckon we will approach it like the Kangaroos used to on their tours. Have our first choice teams for the weekend games with a "mid-week" team for this Salford game, the Leeds game on the Wednesday before Wembley and Huddersfield game on a Sunday after playing Friday night and before Saints the following Friday.

That way our "weekend" team plays once a week from now to the end of the season.

It's looking like 4 from Wire, Saints, Wigan, Leeds and Catalan. Saints no longer have the cup to contend with so I would expect them to make it easily. We have to play all of the other 4 contenders, so it's very much in our hands.

Looks like Wigan are adopting the same approach as us judging by their squad.

And we took two points against Catalans (who are a threat to our top 4 aspirations) with a very strong team. The Salford game isn't a four pointer (or what the equivalent phrase is now it's on percentages), hence we have the shadow squad named and we'll revert back to a very strong squad in the semi final. The strength of the squad in my opinion fits the importance of winning that particular fixture.

It looks like Price is looking beyond the semi final. If we manage to overturn salford (and that is far from a given) then it's Wigan, Leeds then Wigan or Leeds in the final and then Catalan again.
Like people have pointed out, better taking points off Wigan, Leeds, Saints and Catalan if we can. Pundits always point out that it is the game after the Easter weekend fixtures when the fatigue Set's in so in this case that would be equivalent to the Wigan game.

There will be the equivalent of back to back "Easter weekends" with midweek and weekend games to come
. You cannot play your strongest team game to game in these circumstances, without major fatigue issues setting in.