Re: Forward watch : Sun Feb 27, 2022 11:12 am  

Well said Jukesy.

Re: Forward watch : Sun Feb 27, 2022 1:37 pm  

Well said indeed. I've said the same before about Mago; I watch every NRL game, and have done for a number of years now, hence I've seen his entire NRL career (also true of French, Cust, Field, etc), and I always thought, and said, he would go just fine. As you say, people pick up on one passing phrase.

As for the anti-Powell stuff 'over there', much of originates from one source. And he's here too. Actually, on Powell, one other point; he seems t have got his kicking licence back this season, and no bad thing, because he can kick quite effectively, and another last-tackle kicking option is always handy.

Re: Forward watch : Sun Feb 27, 2022 2:24 pm  

Jukesays wrote:

Last year after we signed him there were a few who were relaying stories about their mates watching him in a game saying he was blowing out his backside after 10mins etc in a particular game leading to IMO a stereotypical assessment of him as a player of that heritage. My mate watched the same game, and said he did 60mins (in fact he'd played the whole of the 1st half I believe) and that He will go "Just fine" for Wigan.

That was me and in fairness after now watching him in the flesh, the assessment that he looks to be absolutely knackered during games is a fair one ‘but’ I’ve said on here last week that I now realise that’s ‘his look’ and he is so unique in that he looks ready to drop to the floor one second and the next he’s taking a ball up, carrying 3 defenders with him and slipping offloads left, right and centre and then just comes back and does it again and again. It’s unusual but unusually brilliant and I’ve been chuffed with him so far.

I think realistically it’s about balance in your side. Not everyone can be a steady grafter, and you need a varied prop rotation and we certainly look to have that this season. I think we could still add to that with one more front line starter over this next year or so but we’ve taken a big step in the right direction and Mago is playing a big part in that.

Re: Forward watch : Sun Feb 27, 2022 11:01 pm  

nathan_rugby wrote:

Yes or No - did you watch Wigan vs Hull and vs Leeds?

Irrelevent.

I was talking specifically about his first involvement in the game, which was 18 minutes with half time for a breather, and that I was disappointed that he couldnt manage more than that.

For an interchange, I'd expect him to come on at around 25 mins, give 15 minutes of big hits, have a 15 minute half time breather and be effective for 10 mins in the 2nd half, then have a 20 minute breather before knocking hell out of the opposition for the last 10 minutes. 35 minutes of full-on hits. His "opposite" can do 25 mins, have 40 mins break (inc half time) and then another 20 or so. (45 mins total)

Is that unreasonable?

Re: Forward watch : Mon Feb 28, 2022 1:18 am  

muttywhitedog wrote:

Irrelevent.

I was talking specifically about his first involvement in the game, which was 18 minutes with half time for a breather, and that I was disappointed that he couldnt manage more than that.

For an interchange, I'd expect him to come on at around 25 mins, give 15 minutes of big hits, have a 15 minute half time breather and be effective for 10 mins in the 2nd half, then have a 20 minute breather before knocking hell out of the opposition for the last 10 minutes. 35 minutes of full-on hits. His "opposite" can do 25 mins, have 40 mins break (inc half time) and then another 20 or so. (45 mins total)

Is that unreasonable?

Without getting into an argument about it, as it really doesn't matter what you and I think, that's exactly what he has done in the previous two games where he's been excellent! Moreover, in the 1st preseason game, he did an hour straight; the whole of the first half and the first 20 of the 2nd. He was also excellent from minute 1 to minute 60 with no dropoff in intensity whatsoever.

If he didn't in the 3rd game, there was presumably a reason for it. However, that reason isn't because he can't. Your description of 100% of the money for 25% of the work is so far removed from what we've seen in his start to the season as to be insulting. He's made a major contribution to our excellent start and has provided more entertainment in the 3 games he has played so far than most props do in an entire season.

Re: Forward watch : Mon Feb 28, 2022 8:10 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Without getting into an argument about it, as it really doesn't matter what you and I think, that's exactly what he has done in the previous two games where he's been excellent! Moreover, in the 1st preseason game, he did an hour straight; the whole of the first half and the first 20 of the 2nd. He was also excellent from minute 1 to minute 60 with no dropoff in intensity whatsoever.

If he didn't in the 3rd game, there was presumably a reason for it. However, that reason isn't because he can't. Your description of 100% of the money for 25% of the work is so far removed from what we've seen in his start to the season as to be insulting. He's made a major contribution to our excellent start and has provided more entertainment in the 3 games he has played so far than most props do in an entire season.

Spot on.

He clearly didn’t watch Wigan vs Hull or Leeds.

Re: Forward watch : Mon Feb 28, 2022 12:09 pm  

muttywhitedog wrote:

Irrelevent.

I was talking specifically about his first involvement in the game, which was 18 minutes with half time for a breather, and that I was disappointed that he couldnt manage more than that.

For an interchange, I'd expect him to come on at around 25 mins, give 15 minutes of big hits, have a 15 minute half time breather and be effective for 10 mins in the 2nd half, then have a 20 minute breather before knocking hell out of the opposition for the last 10 minutes. 35 minutes of full-on hits. His "opposite" can do 25 mins, have 40 mins break (inc half time) and then another 20 or so. (45 mins total)

Is that unreasonable?

The player doesn't get to pick and choose when they get game time that is up to the coaching staff, maybe, just maybe, they wanted to see if the player who he was going to replace could hold their own for a longer spell, or the stats/gps tracker was telling a different story about the other players on the pitch and the coaching staff wanted to reserve Mago for a bit longer, or maybe they just forgot he wasn't on the pitch.
But all joking aside, the coaching staff do the interchanges so you can't blame the player for when her gets onto the pitch, he may have been sat there with gritted teeth cursing the coaches for not getting on

Re: Forward watch : Mon Feb 28, 2022 1:32 pm  

The key to success at Wigan will be balance and Whilst it is great for Saints to have a Walmsley there is a really good balanced hardworking pack to complement him, however when he doesn't play it is noticeable.

We saw last year that despite having one of the best players in the comp in Hastings we struggled to create opportunities as there was no balance to our play. Deal with Hastings deal with Wigan.

In signing Ellis and Mago we brought in a good grafter and a bit of Xfactor/impact. Mago will have a defined role and be used as part of an everchanging strategy within a match as it evolves. I think our philosophy is slightly different to a good few of our coaches who have gone before recently who used to sub by the clock. I used to hate seeing a player go off who was having a good game simply because we have hit the 18th-20th minute of a match.

Mago will be used tactically and his game time will revolve around how others are performing and potentially what the scoreboard is looking like. More importantly if he is out we should hopefully be able to cope without him as we have other options and whilst they may be of a different style to Mago won't detract from performance.

For me we are a prop and a strike running secondrow away from having a very well balanced pack and I would expect to see that addressed in the coming offseason. There was simply too big a rebuild required over 1 offseason.

1 thing is for sure though our pack is significantly improved this year with the inclusion of Ellis and Mago.

Re: Forward watch : Mon Feb 28, 2022 3:28 pm  

Good posts earlier - sums up how I feel at the moment;

We are no longer an easy target from opposition fans ridiculing how pedestrian we are in our attack and how lightweight we are in our forwards.

Not the finished article, but a hell of a lot more balanced in the forwards, we are working off the ball in attack, hell we even had a choice of support runners for a number of the tries we scored v Hudds.

I still think we need to work on our line speed in defence.

Interested to see how some of the players waiting to come into the side will fit in when we change the side up a little - especially how Smith goes in a much more balanced team.

Re: Forward watch : Mon Feb 28, 2022 4:08 pm  

Mago looks done in from the first minute he's on the pitch but he always makes it back to the defensive line and when he carries the ball he really carries it.
Maybe that's the thing with Mago, he just "looks" like he's unfit, doing a great job so far IMO