overtheborder

I think they looked like they had some of the makings of a top side tonight. Fair enough that looked nowhere near their best but if they nail the discipline and they get it right it'd take a great performance to beat them IMO.

In fairness you've pretty much sold League One to my shamefully ignorant self here (who happily watches Super League, Championship, National Conference, anything but for some reason not L1!)... Well done sir.

In fairness I have always questioned why Wigan seem to have 2 friendlies (one of which they seem not to play the bulk of the more experienced players),while respecting the fact the staff know more than I do. Must be more common than I thought though. That said, a Wigan-Saints Boxing day game in modern times would be brilliant in my opinion speaking as a (relatively) younger person. Closest I've been was a called off 28/12 friendly a few years ago due to ice/snow.

Wigan norweb one (1995) was first to mind until I read "not your own club", great kit. Aside from Wigan, pretty much any Cas shirt from the past 20 years for me.

Nice stuff, hope it goes well. My only criticism is that there seems to be no option for saying I mainly get my rugby league news off club websites/rugby league websites generally rather than forums/social media.

It gets the money in - I'd be interested in seeing some analysis on how much benefit the companies actually get from stadium deals like this, particularly (no disrespect here) when the clubs aren't huge global names.

I'm not sure about that - on paper maybe it isn't packed with superstar names but I think the young lads, particularly the likes of Pearce-Paul, Shorrocks etc. can do a job and have been impressive at times. I wouldn't be so sure its a bad side to be honest - if they lose the first three on the bounce heavily though feel free to drag this post up! But in short I'm not too worried at all with the squad.

I'd further that by saying (as an outsider looking in) that staying in one place for a while might help in terms of attendances - for me a team that constantly moves about just looks unsuccessful and unattractive to the casual fan/neutral. That said I like London as a club and genuinely want them to be successful so not a dig at all.

I enjoyed watching him play, no drama, just got on with it. Hope whatever he goes on to do in future goes well.

Great career, great player to watch IMO. Hope he enjoys retirement and looks back on his time as a player with fond memories.

When it comes to expansion, I do wonder whether going for a "slow burner" approach might actually be more successful than targeting relatively far-flung, larger areas. So for instance you set up a club in an area that's next to established RL areas (for the sake of argument say Chesterfield). Some people there may have an interest in the sport/be familiar with it already - build it there then expand again etc. I'd imagine it like the expansion of country building an empire almost. Of course I might also be talking complete ######!

In fairness I'm not a huge fan of team nicknames in general. I think some of the more historic clubs might benefit from not having a seemingly mandatory nickname associated with them. There might well be a reason football teams kick against it (not sure if anyone remembers the Hull City Tigers story).

Absolutely - should be all about results... You win enough, you're up. There's infrastructure behind the team on the field that's been managed well enough to filter onto the field for positive results. I'm neutral here in terms of the P and R arguments but fair play to any team who wins promotion IMO.

IMO I think whoever it is, whether they're prepared for it or not, it surely benefits a club as a whole to go up, give it as good a crack as they can, and even if they do get battered every week the increase in revenues from clubs like Leeds, Wigan, Warrington, Hull visiting will hopefully help them build, improve and maybe (even after two or three attempts at this cycle) become strong enough to establish a footing in SL. I say this having zero experience chairing a club, but for me the key maybe is growing organically over a longer period of time rather than overspending to try to stay in SL first time round.

I think on the subject of gameday experience, you can for example have the best band in the world, but if they're playing to an empty ground then it won't feel like much of an experience. I think full stadiums really help the gameday experience whatever the pre-match program is. What I do like personally is a decent half-time feature - Wigan used to do a few competition-type things that were nice to watch while waiting for the second half.

Great defensive display by Wigan who are starting to look like a side capable of challenging - that's the first time I've thought that all season, and if the attack clicks that's a dangerous team. Catalans might be a different proposition in a play off game though, granted.

Great signing IMO for Huddersfield - experience, quality, professionalism. Been one of the most consistent players in SL for me over the past few years and would be an asset to most teams.

Sounds brilliant!

Edit: double post

I'm not sure about disillusioned - I think part of it may be to do with who you watch regularly. It's been a close season and while a lot of teams haven't been that consistent, I don't think it has been poor/uninteresting. Maybe the RLWC stuff has put something of a downer on things in some people's minds, but it's still a quality game to watch. I have noticed a drop off in attendances from what I've seen, but what the solid factors are for that I don't know. Leeds for instance still seem to be doing OK, whereas yeah at Hull laat night there didn't look like too many were on. I can only speak for myself - I'm not personally disillusioned.

Quite right too - as a Wigan fan, I watched the replay of that intently and there was no chance he kicked, no follow through etc. - think we should just put this one to bed to be honest.

Still seems to be there on the website for me (on desktop if that makes a difference). I generally tend to buy the games about 5 minutes before they start if I'm watching it (Championship usually in fairness).

Absolutely, it's a nice to see teams you don't normally see paired up playing one another. Hopefully it'll give the so-called lower league sides a good boost as well in terms of players being willing to play for them, experience etc.

Bit late to this one but just seen it - great thread! 5/7/21 Leigh East 0-20 Wigan St Pats Really warm, played on astroturf, must have been difficult for the players (not a dig at East, just saying). First half mainly played in the East half, and they did well to keep Pats out for long periods. Second half was a bit more even but Pats were that bit more clinical and capitalised on the smaller share of possession they seemed to have.

Yeah I think this is it really - I'd personally like it to be longer, show more of the highlights etc. Have to admit I don't really watch it as you don't (IMO) get much extra than the few mins highlights available on YouTube anyway. That for me might be a difference maker.