I see no reason why Ben Davis should not be picked. IMO it would be the perfect game to give him a run out.

1. Without wanting to disrespect Celtic, they are (based on last year’s form) the poorest team in the league and it would be easier for him as opposed to the Leeds pack. They will also be rusty together as a squad as a fair few of their players have only recently joined.
2. It would give MM a chance to put the frighteners right up some of our forwards. They have all heard the pre-season rhetoric about players being picked on form as opposed to reputation. In fact a few of them have alluded to the new policy in interviews.
But!......... How many of them actually believe it?. They have heard the same talk from Noble over the last few years and it never materialised then...why should it now?
MM could shake them up right from the first game by setting a new precedent and selecting a young lad who could do a good job in front of the established members.
3. It will show Ben that there will be a place for him and give him the hunger to be in the team next week.
It could IMO opinion be a masterstroke of man management.

Don't totally disagree and TBH I don't think it should matter 1 jot which 4 of those 5 play against Celtic.
I just think that moving forward and playing to their potential Coley offers more short term and his mere physical size & Presence will help us out more than O'Carrol's undoubted enthusiasm.

Obviosuly if Coley's error rate/missed tackle count continues to be a problem then fair enough and TBH if O'C did get the nod over him it wouldn't bother me that much.
Saying that, moving forward, theres no way he will be better for Wigan than Prescott each given the same luck with injuries etc.

If it wasn't the 1st game of the New season and my belief that we need to go in full guns blazing then I would agree with you!
Unfortunately it is the 1st game and I think we need to respect them at this stage and go with our best team, in that case Davies doesn't get in.

i think that this would be a good idea because this is our first game of the season. Imagine the horror coley (for example) would feel to see a youngster picked before him for the the opening game of a new campaign. it could shake him right up and that could only be benificial to the team in the long run.

saying that though. i have no idea how Coley has perfomed during pre season training. for all i know he may have been the hardest grafter of the whole team and is just a little ring rusty. However if there are any niggling doubts about any of our props commitment from MM this could stamp it out before it becomes a problem.

This is all hypocetical of course, but it is big desisions like this i would like to see from the new and improved managment

i cant believe that riddell is going around again?
Leuluai would have been a great 9 next season with deacon playing at 7

How did Richards go against Wire, he was shocking against Wakefield in my opinion, if he did not have a strong game against Wire and MM is as good as his word then he may be under some significant pressure, especially with Phepls looking on good form with the boot.

Great post

And if one got injured? We can afford both in the squad and we have depth just incase. Riddell has been brilliant in the pre season friendlys, we have looked better with him at 9 than tommy.

Riddel is our best starting hooker :S

Especially if we learn not to have 3 winger scoots at the start of our first few sets in a match

Seems Riddell will have stick off opposition fans whatever he does.

Yesterday, because he passed the ball from the play the ball instead of scooting with it for abit some Wire fans near me were calling him lazy

guess they are used to one trick Mick by now though.

A lot better than against Wakey, I also thought Carmont in tandom struggled at Wakey and our Left side defence has struggled far more in pre season than our right for me.

I am sure Carmont & Richards will sort it out and both will start the season. If things go anywhere near to plan then there are others who will be under far more pressure than Richards in the Short to Medium term.

I'm sure when we all spoke about players being picked on form last year even the most un-patient fan wasn't calling for guys to be dropped after an iffy preformence or 2 in pre season. They're trial games to get peoples fitness up and even though you want players to look like they're somewhere near the money skills wise it's not the be all and end all. Some players just need competative rugby.

Since the Wakefield game i've read on here that Phelps should be under pressure and then unbelievably read that Sam Tomkins could be under pressure if he didn't up his preformence from Wakey and now mentions of Richards having to up it from Wakefield aswell.

I'm just waiting for the criticisim to come Maguires way after 3 or 4 games if we've struggled at any point and he's not dropped 4 or 5 players.

Or it could be better. I really don't get this "he's the best we have got" or "he had a good season in 2009" justification of his place in the side. He was shaky in defense last season and if he remains shaky in defense it's an issue that needs sorting out as soon as possible. Being better than Mathers is no great recommendation either.

I am sure he will start the season as our full back but if he proves not good enough his "body on the line 100% effort approach" won't save him from being dropped IMO.

As to the rest of the side isn't Prescott still recovering from an injury? If so the props pick themselves. The half back hooker situation looks interesting because if Deacon gets a chance at 7 and does better than Tommy then it's how best to use TL, Riddell and McIlorum. Good competition for places here.

It's good to hear Roberts has seemingly found some pace because I don't think our wingers and centres worried anyone for pace last season (meaning the senior players we expect to play).

Dave

Good points but I don't think MM will do this.

One of the reasons he got the job was IL was as fed up as the rest of us with the poor starts to the season. It's therefore a high priority for MM to ensure we get off to a good start and he won't risk sending out anything but his strongest side for that reason IMO.

Later on in the season if we have got that good start and are well placed I am sure MM will give the younger players a go for the reasons you state. I also don't think we will wait long to see players dropped if he doesn't get a good start. I don't expect him to "do a Noble" and stick with under performing players just as I don't expect him to ignore the need to give younger players game time at some point.

I just don't see the game against the Crusaders as the right time to do this.

Dave

Again Dave, go look at the highlights freely available for last season (and 2008 but it's not relevant here) on the superleague website for all teams. Watch them again closely now there's no emotion involved, and you might find a different perspective on several of the views held on various players.

It's the bits inbetween the highlights that can be more telling !!!!!!!!, a game lasts 80 mins not just the few shown on the clips.

I personally mentioned Richards as Ainscough is really pushing for a first team place, and sits third rightfully so behind Richards and Roberts, but Richards had a stinker vs Wakefield where Ainscough looked very lively.

All established players if it is a 50/50 call in my opinion have earned the right to benefit of the doubt, my only concern would be if Richards had as poor a game as he did vs Wakefield against Wire then he should rightfully so be under real pressure to perform early door or should rightfully so be looking at a spell on the sidelines.

I think the back 3 and secondrow players are all under massive pressure to perform, if they do not there are SL standard players ready to step forward and take a chance, nobody in these positions can afford a 2 maybe 3 game loss of form, if they do then I think they will be the first to be dropped.

Maybe i'm wrong in thinking this way but I just see a select few players places being safe even if they hit a bad patch of form because they've earned that right over a sustained period. I wouldn't put many in that bracket but there are a few. I'd include guys like Richards, Leuluai, S Tomkins and O'Loughlin in that because I know they've got great attitudes and they're sure to find form at some point.

After that though I totally agree about the second rowers and the other 2 bar Richards of the back 3 being under pressure. I do belive they all deserve at least 4 or 5 competative games to be judged though. If after 5 games or so they're not preforming then guys like Ainscough, Pryce, Farrell etc will really come into contention but I don't think there quite there yet.

As much as we all want to see players being picked on form we've at least got to give the lads with first crack at a shirt the chance to find that form. We can't just expect them all to hit the ground running and put them under that much pressure to preform in there first games in 3 months that they fall to pieces.

I fully agree that Phelps form does not currently mean he deserves to be looked at as the "Long Term" option for FB. If he doesn't improve defensively over the next 3 months or so then we will need to look at other options.
As it stands though I believe Phelps/Richards/Roberts is our best option & the extra dimension that Phelps brings to out attack provides far more positives than the negatives in his defence for me.

With regards to the H/B's & Hooker then as far as I see it Riddell has been in the pre season & IMO last season a far more effective "Starting 9" than Leaulia so for me that picks itself.
Bearing in mind Deacon has only played 40 mins of a reserve game so far then for me that means Tommy has to start at 7, leaving Deacon looking for a Bench spot.
Wether Long term Deacon can force himself in fron of Tommy I don't know, but if he does then Tommy will have to improve his game at 9 to push Piggy out of the starting line-up although that does not mean he doesnt provide that something extra moving into 9 against tiring defences ala You know who.
As for MM then I belive he is still injured? Once he's back in the fram then we really are blessed for options.

Prescott is recovering from an op but in theory so is O'Carroll?
MM should IMO pick the best player to play on Friday and IMO that is Prescott.
O'Carroll has done ok (Not brilliant BTW) in both pre season games but then again so has Prescott!

Leuluai 7
Riddell 9

Deacon on the bench

Thats a no brainer for me. Theres not a cat in hells chance i'd ever have Leuluai on the bench. He may be more capable of adding impact from the bench then Riddell or Deacon but Tommy adds impact in everything he does from the first minute to the last.

Riddell's been very good in pre season and has worked very hard on his fitness by the looks of him. He gets us good early distribution from dummy half aswell so we can start on a solid footing.

What has to be taken into consideration is that Maguire has not yet seen us play a 'real' competative game, the pre-season games are not played with the same intensity of a league one, I'm sure he's watched DVD's of last season and has an idea of what he has to work with, but he needs to see us in action when he is calling the shots and his gameplan and tactics are being employed, he will see how players react to his onfield decisions when put under pressure of an actual match, I would expect him not to make to many changes to last years line ups until he's confident in his selections.

You have a pretty weak bench IMO.

Yeah Ok!

Our likely bench for next Friday is-

Prescott
Feka
Mossop
Deacon

I wouldn't call that weak tbh and is probably better then what 90% of superleague teams will be able to put out.

Spot on.