What are people's opinions of the lad?

He was great Vs Cats, but careers can't be made or broken in one game. Is there more to him?

His name doesn't seem to be brought up when talking about current & future options at the club. We talk about Smithies, KPP, Partington and even Nicholson has started to get some traction for down the line too.

Looking at McDonnell's frame, he reminds me of a young Josh Jones & he ran with intent Vs Catalans. I wouldn't be surprised if he's a latish bloomer, a player who adds some natural size and starts getting more noticed around 24/25 etc.

The worry is something will have to give in that back row area and as you say he seems to be down the pecking order. The good thing is from his POV is that Lam goes and a new guy comes in (even though it’s internal) and it’s a fresh start. A lot of people don’t like the conversation around players moving positions but a guy like him would be silly IMO to not discuss options with the coaching staff. Is there an option of bulking up and playing more centrally or even moving wider and playing at centre? The games history has been littered with examples of players moving positions successfully and other than a couple of these lads doing that, they will end up playing elsewhere. I’m sure Warrington, Catalans and Salford will be watching on with interest.

Truth be told I haven’t seen an awful lot of him but from what I have seen, and read of him from people on this forum, is that there’s something there worth keeping. I’m interested to see how he develops in SL as I am KPP.

Farrell is out of contract at the end of next year I think. Will be interesting to see opinions and what happens if he continues his poor form until renewal time. With KPP, Smithies and McDonnell waiting in the wings and the possible lure of Toulouse/Catalans it could be his last season for us. There is no place for sentiment with the way our current squad is positioned.

Whose been in poor form? Faz? He’s been a bit quiet towards the end of the season by his exceptionally high standards but he’s been absolutely brilliant most of the year. I’d give him a new 3 or 4 year deal yesterday if he wants it.

Ok poor form was a bad choice of words. Quiet is probably better, as you say.

Maybe I just don't have the confidence yet in Smith to exploit Farrell as much as our previous left-sided halves have and whether it's worth having an (assumingly) larger salary almost wasted there.

I watched Smith with interest in that Leeds game last week and the timing of his passing (particularly to Farrell) was dreadful on the night. He hasn’t worked out Farrell’s lines at all yet and that’s worrying. He hit him way too early loads of times or give it him too late.

We’ve got issues at the moment without any shadow of a doubt but Farrell is literally at the bottom of my list. He’s our best player IMO, he’s been our player of the season and he’s made the dream team. I’d be worried he’d want to leave us and would be genuinely staggered if we had any sort of thoughts about moving him on. I love a good stat and again like Bateman Faz hasn’t been at his very best these past few games but his last three games were against Leeds, Hull and Wire (at magic). He made 60 tackles against Leeds and ran for 100 metres, he ran for 139 metres at Hull and against Wire at magic he made 180 metres

That’s on form that probably is a little below his best.

The last thing we need IMO is to lose another top quality experienced performer. We’re stacked with kids in the back row but they need to play with guys like Farrell, not replace them (yet). The best ones will make their way and this debate may be a good one in 3 or 4 years time but certainly not yet, not in my opinion anyway.

Poor form?he’s just been named in the dream team.

Absolutely no disrespect to Faz who is a wonderful player however no way he should be in this years Dream Team.

McMeeken has been outstanding this year and for him to miss out is laughable.

I await someone potentially rolling out some stats to try say Faz has had a better season (not sure if they can “prove” it or not as I’ve not checked) but McMeeken has for me a big part of Catalans success this year. He has genuine strike the likes you don’t really see anymore.

I was never a huge fan of his, he had one great season in at Cas but then seemed to stagnate. Moving to Les Cats has kicked him on.

He and Whitehead for me should be the England SR partnership on current form.

Back to the original topic I think McDonald has bags of potential and I think it’s important we keep hold of him for 3 more years at least.

Isa and Faz are towards their latter years. Isa will probably retire after ‘22 and I genuinely see more in McDonald than I do Smithies to take over from Isa.

MsDonald is a natural “edge” where for me Smithies is more a natural “middle”.

I hope he gets 5-10 games next year at least.

Don't disagree about McMeeken and Whitehead.

McDonnell ran the kind of line for his last try that really reminded me of Faz. He has always impressed me.

I don't think there is any question that James has got the skill and ability to play at Super League level and having spoken with him on several occasions I have no doubt that he has the desire to compete at that level. For what it is worth, James sees himself as a forward not a centre.

Is he a Wigan lad?
Where did he play his junior rugby?
Thanks

He looked to have the size that some of our other youngsters are lacking.

Does anyone have height and weight stats for:
Havard, Partington, Byrne, Smithies, Shorrocks, McDonnell?

Havard - has the frame that can fill out - No worries here
Partington - Doesn't look very big in terms of height and weight to me.
Byrne - Looks fairly big, but not sure he could get much bigger
Smithies - On the smaller side, doesn't impact his tackling but only makes an impact running when out on the edge
Shorrocks - On the smaller side, doesn't impact his tackling
McDonnel - Looked big from what I can remember

Yes , played his junior rugby at St Judes or St. Pats? His dad is a big Irishman, used to speak to him in the Robin Hood Orrell when Wigan played their academy games there.

St Judes lad I believe.