Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Tue Mar 02, 2021 5:58 pm  

MattyB wrote: As per the Manchester Evening News link below. Wigan to go straight into the new season (against Leigh) with no friendlies behind them. It's certainly a gamble, Leigh will have already played Saints (Tommy Makinsons Testimonial). https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... x-19944052 It’s a gamble either way. Nothing worse than a player picking up an injury due to a friendly, I’m still smarting from Luke Davico!

MattyB wrote: As per the Manchester Evening News link below. Wigan to go straight into the new season (against Leigh) with no friendlies behind them. It's certainly a gamble, Leigh will have already played Saints (Tommy Makinsons Testimonial). https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... x-19944052 It’s a gamble either way. Nothing worse than a player picking up an injury due to a friendly, I’m still smarting from Luke Davico!

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Tue Mar 02, 2021 6:22 pm  

Pre-season injuries already stacking up across the league - Gale and Lui out for the first couple of months of the year, Jack Walker done for the year, Joe Burgess 2-3 months.

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Tue Mar 02, 2021 6:49 pm  

MadDogg wrote:

Pre-season injuries already stacking up across the league - Gale and Lui out for the first couple of months of the year, Jack Walker done for the year, Joe Burgess 2-3 months.

Must be nothing worse than getting a bad injury in training, so frustrating for the players and clubs. Fingers crossed we’ll be at full strength come the start. I’ve not heard of any major problems so far (touch wood).

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Tue Mar 02, 2021 7:51 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Must be nothing worse than getting a bad injury in training, so frustrating for the players and clubs. Fingers crossed we’ll be at full strength come the start. I’ve not heard of any major problems so far (touch wood).

Other than our 2 best attacking players being on the other side of the world

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:25 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

Other than our 2 best attacking players being on the other side of the world

I’m fully confident it’s all in hand

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Wed Mar 03, 2021 9:01 am  

MadDogg wrote:

Pre-season injuries already stacking up across the league - Gale and Lui out for the first couple of months of the year, Jack Walker done for the year, Joe Burgess 2-3 months.

Injuries can strike at any time but it’s gutting for the lads to pick them up before the season starts.

Feel for Burgess as he looked like getting back towards his best last year and I hope this doesn’t hinder his confidence as he is definitely a confidence player.

More gutted for Walker, just hope he can make a full recovery after such a long time out as he is a very talented young man who in future years could be pulling on an international shirt. Would be a shame if this hampered his development.

In relation to friendlies vs in house games they have their pros and cons from my experience.

The biggest plus this year is the lack of exposure to Covid from outside the group.

As others have said and also from my personal experience as a player and coach whenever you play against your team mates the intensity ramps up significantly as comp for places and also pride is on the line.

A negative though as Grimmy has said is the opposition know the patterns of play so it’s more of a challenge to see if certain things work against a defence that knows what is coming at them.

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:37 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Our first choice lads only got 40 minute against Leeds last season from memory so there’s not a huge difference.

Great point.

It’s a long season with games packed in. We don’t need to add anymore.

We may not hit the ground running at the start of the season but round 1/2 games against Leigh and Wakefield aren’t really relevant at the business end of the year. All about building.

Same reason I’m not bothered about Hastings/French still in Aus. All the combinations are the same as last year I’m sure they’ll hit the ground running when they return. But as long as we keep ticking over before the late cup rounds and the playoffs.

The usual suspects will be calling this a disgrace though.

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:37 pm  

NSW wrote:

We may not hit the ground running at the start of the season but round 1/2 games against Leigh and Wakefield aren’t really relevant at the business end of the year. All about building.

Interesting post and I've seen a lot of chat this week in regards to how certain NRL teams approach it. The Storm for example, always hit the ground running and haven't lost a Rnd1 fixture in 20 years. The Roosters are the opposite and build into the season. Both have been incredibly successful too.

I'd prefer us to hit the ground running and to really establish our credentials. If there is ever a time to rotate, or ease off a little then it's mid season imo.

Get a good bank of wins and we'll be flying.

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Wed Mar 03, 2021 8:35 pm  

NSW wrote:

Great point.

It’s a long season with games packed in. We don’t need to add anymore.

We may not hit the ground running at the start of the season but round 1/2 games against Leigh and Wakefield aren’t really relevant at the business end of the year. All about building.

Same reason I’m not bothered about Hastings/French still in Aus. All the combinations are the same as last year I’m sure they’ll hit the ground running when they return. But as long as we keep ticking over before the late cup rounds and the playoffs.

The usual suspects will be calling this a disgrace though.

In a normal season I always want us to play more but if it’s a choice now between 40 risky minutes or none, I think the lack of a fixture is the way to go for sure.

A couple of solid weeks training with a full deck of players would be nice though.

Re: Wigan plan no friendlies this season. : Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:11 pm  

Friendly now announced haha