Exiled Wiganer
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Posts posted by Exiled Wiganer
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38 minutes ago, north yorks trinity said:
You said that Leeds name was dragged into the gutter and I wondered where you thought it started from. It was an off the cuff late night attempt at humour. Probably not that funny and wasn't meant seriously anyway.
I thought it was a funny joke.
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2 hours ago, Action Man said:
Was that the Wigan side of the 80's who were all professional whilst all the other teams were part timers. Saints are easily the most successful club in the Super league era!
I agree with second sentence - and the scale of their success is an absolutely damning indictment on the efforts from the other clubs, Wigan included, who have not been intelligent enough or worked hard enough.
As to your first sentence, that’s not true, but it is often stated as fact because let’s face it, with my WDL helmet on, if Wigan did something it must be wrong.
May I suggest you start a thread called Why Saints are the Best Ever Team, and post on it every day, so it stays on the first page? Tbh, I’m surprised fearthevee and Saint Toppy haven’t already done so…
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3 minutes ago, Damien said:
1st post, with this username anyhow, and repeating the same tired old myths. No it wouldn't be that Wigan side because the Wigan side in the 80s certainly weren't all professional.
It’s a coping mechanism.
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53 minutes ago, dkw said:
It's good that Saints doing well isn't upsetting you in any way...
Actually, it does bother me.
Well spotted. -
The Guardian report concludes that this is the greatest team ever to play rugby league (I assume in the NH, given that I recall St George had a bit of a run a while ago…).
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6 minutes ago, SalfordSlim said:
You've only posted 3 times about how great your team is in the last 20 minutes fella, I think you need to tell us a couple more times.
Sky told us 1,000 times that this was the greatest group of sportsmen and the greatest club in human history, so if anything telling us how brilliant they are 4 times in 20 minutes is damning them with faint praise. Sadler wrote an article last year about them having the best board, the best commercial set up, the best coach, the best juniors and the best recruitment. It is an absolutely damning indictment on the rest of what is supposed to be a salary capped “level playing field” sport for them to be so far above everyone else. But, to the victor the spoils, and so there’s no arguing with any Saints fan who wants to tell us how good they are in everything they do.
I can’t see any other winner next year, but now my heart issues have hopefully been sorted out, I have high hopes I will see the day I see someone else win a GF again.
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4 in a row, and multiple LLSs. And that’s with a fair amount of injuries this year. Coming into the season I couldn’t see any reason to think we’d see new champions before 2024, and that’s certainly the way it’s looking. Great for Saints, worrying times for non Saints fans.
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17 minutes ago, Dave T said:
Particularly as it's a game between two of our biggest clubs, following an absolutely superb playoff series with four absolutely compelling battles.
I'm not sure how anyone can be negative right now - apart from the disappointed losers of the semis naturally.
Thank you for that! I am disappointed about the game because I think we made some self inflicted errors. However, what i would say - and I have said this over the years in other contexts, honestly - is that I follow our game from the first game, and watching an entertaining team with interesting stories and great potential for the 6/7 months prior to the GF gives me more fun than watching a team bumping along for months and then emerging at the end. I have seen great, entertaining Wigan teams fall short and dull dull Wigan teams (late era Mr Wane, I am looking at you) prevail. Give me the first any day. So, from my perspective, I am delighted with our year, because it has exciting week after week after week and there is the promise of more to come next year.
I would not swap places with a Leeds fan, even if they win next week, as for much of the year they have been poor to watch. I am not sure I would even swap places with a Saints fan, given that they seem to have ground out largely joyless process driven victories a lot of weeks. There were many times when Wigan were better than Saints when it was clearly more fun watching Saints play. Not this year, in my opinion. As for Salford, I can imagine how righteously indignant they feel at the moment having been robbed of another GF appearance (I haven’t watched the game yet, but I am sure that’s what happened), but their style of play has been sublime week after week for month after month. And I hope they’ve got a lot of joy from that.
I will watch the game - the worst game of rugby league is better than anything in any other sport - but with interest rather than a sense of particular excitement. That feeling is particularly so this year, as the main event of the year for me hasn’t even started yet.
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Cracking performance by Leeds. Superbly coached, but superbly executed. And that’s after a hard trip to Catalans. I hope they can lift themselves again next week.
For us, Peet has made few mistakes, but playing Powell was a massive one. There are at least 20 better hookers in SL, including 2 at Wigan. I am not saying we would have won, but with O’Neill our attack would have been a lot better. Fingers crossed Peet susses that.
This has been a far far far more enjoyable year than I dreamt it would be, and with the right recruitment (and as importantly retention) we will go well again next year. For week after week, month after month we have played fantastic rugby.
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9 hours ago, bobbruce said:
Can we quote you.
Of course you can. Indeed, you just did.
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18 hours ago, FearTheVee said:
The mood has shifted since the squad announcement. Prior to it we knew 100% we were missing the three you mention (Walmsley, Dodd, Hopoate) plus Grace and Norman. Then there were doubts over Percival (who hasn't played in a long time) and Matautia who has been out also. Plus rumours around the availability of Lees.
So take all of them out on a worst case (and fans tend to extremes!) and that would be pretty dreadful.
Having 4 out isn't anything like as bad obviously. We have had problems in the backs but we now hope to name 4 international three quarters plus a good young player in Bennison behind Welsby and Lomax in the halves. It is comfortably the strongest position in the backs for a long, long time and it is in the backs where most of our recent issues have manifested.
It's a big improvement on recent squads and is a squad capable of winning the semi and the GF if it performs (as all the remaining teams are).
No excuses, bring it on.
No excuses? Can we quote you on that?
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Being at home and having a week off (with Leeds having to go to France and back) should see us through. Leeds are very dangerous and can get on a roll, and thrashed us recently but I reckon that we will be fully focussed. Especially as we will lead into battle by Field Marshall French.
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8 hours ago, Chris22 said:
I should rephrase... no advantage over second place.
I agree, and you’re right to be cross.
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For lots of reasons, I think we will win this, and set ourselves up well for the home semi. Finishing second in this system is huge. I am surprised Sky are showing this, though, as there isn’t anything particularly riding on the result. Let’s get everyone through fit and well.
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2 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:
The 'play acting' has been creeping into the game more & more over the last few years, not just in SL but its in the NRL as well, all clubs have players that regularly try it on, not just Leeds. The governing bodies need to clamp down on it by handing out bans where its clear from the footage that the player has deliberately feigned injury to win a penalty or get a player sent from the field. Head contact usually gets a player a 2-3 match ban these days, so maybe faking a head contact should carry the same punishment.
Hudds & Watson shouldn't complain too much they have players who consistently play act. Levi did it in their recent game against Saints when the replay clearly showed absolutely no head contact in the tackle at all
Ah, yes I remember the game Sirenen won through getting a player sent off while pretending to be injured. Top “play acting”!
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We need one win to finish second, from 3, and the home games are the best way to achieve that. As our motivation will be higher, I think we’ll win.
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23 hours ago, The Rocket said:
I`ll tell you what, if you go to Campbelltown looking for a new stadium you`re in for a rude shock. Might be better off going to Parramatta.
p.s. that`s if you can squeeze it in between any meetings at NRL HQ.
I meant Campbelltown for atmosphere, and SFS mark 2 for newness. Any jet lag tips?
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4 hours ago, Mr Frisky said:
For jet lag, I usually just stay up when I get there and spend a few days just getting used to the time difference- usually about 3 days in all is good.
Aways head to a Roosters game but its not been the same at the SCG - roll on the new stadium.
Thanks - there’s just no magic pie to dodge jetlag. I try to stay in Paddington, so I can stroll over to any meetings at NRL HQ, and see anything at the SFS. I love all the grounds there, though I found the Olympic stadium too big. I would love to go to Campbeltown one of these days. It will be interesting to see whether the new stadium is as good as Suncorp. We’ll know soon enough.
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On 07/08/2022 at 13:09, Mr Frisky said:
No NRL is stronger overall, that's obvious but a team like Saints could finish in the top 5 in the NRL, after say Wigan and Cats on their day there is a big drop off.
Its your blinkered NRL amazing and SL weak that isn't right - I attend both each season ( with work im in oz for 2 months a year so attend Roosters games) - there are some amazing players in SL.
Completely off topic, but do you have any jet lag tips? I tend to go over for about a week a year on business (I stay longer when taking a holiday there), and still feel I haven’t cracked it...
Like you, I agree that clearly the NRL is overall a higher standard, but there are plenty of excellent England players in SL. We have a very large pool of full time professional players. When we combine that with having access to some NRL players, being at home, and having our crowds behind us we can be very competitive. Fwiw, if for some reason there was a combined SL/NRL league I think SL clubs would take up 12 of the bottom 15 places for a couple of years, but would then adapt.
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Bateman, Knowles, Radley is some back row.
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Toulouse have the Brev. He’s a game changer!
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1 hour ago, FearTheVee said:
It’s charming that you actually think you lost the game because Sironen didn’t bounce to his feet after a direct shoulder to the head (the first “man” in RL history to look like he’d taken a direct shoulder to the head after taking a direct shoulder to the head) rather than blaming Singleton for reacting to being bullied the entire game (racking up his usual 3m average gain) by trying to be tough second man in.
He was fine. He took a dive. As did Farrell later on.
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5 minutes ago, Waynebennettswinger said:
Second time you have made this sort of comment about a “man.” Perhaps you need to address your own insecurities?
Err, maybe. Please do send your bill for psychiatric services to the usual address…
I am not sure if you remember Paul Sironen, and I am not sure if they are related, but the contrast between the behaviour of the 2 of them could not be starker.
As it happens, I was watching the game with a friend over from Sydney, who mentioned (once I had picked up my toys and put them back in the pram) that if that was the NRL some teams coach their players to take a dive till the Bunker takes a look and others don’t. But that if that had been reviewed it would have been a definite yellow because of the point of contact but not a red as he couldn’t do much/anything about it (reckless/careless rather than deliberate). Interestingly, with a yellow we would have been back up to 13 at a time when we were in the lead.
As EEP says, it may well become the norm for players to lie down. I know that Farrell takes a dive, and think it’s rubbish that he does so, but with a combination of a draconian crackdown on all contact and having seen Saints win the game off the back of it makes it inevitable that this will be a staple unless clubs and players choose to play the game.
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6 minutes ago, Josef K said:
I know what you mean #TheGameHasGoneSoft
#ImDoneWithTheGame #SaintsAreCheats
To the victor the spoils. You’re entitled to win any which way you like. Had Farrell got away with his milking it, I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest. It worked for him, and them, so it was worth doing. If you love seeing it, good on ya.
Ralph's grovelling apology
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
It was clearly a stupid slip of the tongue. He has worked year in year out for the entire international game. As long as the Fijians accost it, a grovelling apology is proportionate,