I agree about Okunbor. He looked okay when he did see the ball. Almost put Hoy in for a try with a lovely carry and offload. I do remember him making 1 daft error whem trying to take in a pass but after that he steadied up. I think Ock will go well for us once we get into the season.

Didn't go yesterday but the problem here is it shifts the doom ometer up already, we then play our big rivals in the opener and the clock could be set at a few 'minutes to midnight' before the season has got going.

We simply have to get off to a good start, or sadly the boos, early walkouts will start

As plenty have said it was only a friendly.
But some very worrying signs, can’t see any improvement in 2024 I’m afraid, 8th at best and that’s a big ask. Wigan will be the bench mark again.

The big difference yesterday, especially in the second half, was the speed of the play the ball.

We allowed Wigan to play too quick and they made sure we couldn’t get quick ptb’s.

It makes a massive difference.

It’s a lot harder to defend when you’re still retreating and players make rash decisions under greater pressure.

We matched them first half for this and it was a tight contest.

It was nice to hear Tag express his gratitude , pre match and I think most fans would agree he deserved the recognition. As for the game, Wigan looked like they were cruising in the first half, although I thought our forwards handled Luke Thompson well, who looked like he was keen to impress the Pies fans. I thought Okunbor played well first half and he surprised me with his strength and desire in the tackle. We did look rusty, in the spine, which was to be expected , Hoy looks to a decent six , although the combinations were a bit clunky, so it is hard to gauge what we'll be like until Truman is fit, as Brown played well, but it looks to me like he's a definite hooker with some great ruck speed, too. Second half was disappointing, Wigan went through the gears and we had no answer, but the young winger Martin showed up well. It is what it is, we are definitely going to have to sharpen things up, but Carlos and Sao will add something and Ashworth looked a good signing, albeit more as a middle for me, though. Cator tried , but he isn't a hooker, as we know and I'd hope when fully fit Balmforth get's more than just a few minutes, as replacement for Houghton when he tires, but that is Smith's call. We'll toil against the elite teams and need some more attacking threat, but they'll all be better for the run out and with Tindall and Smith to come in I'm not too disheartened; it wasn't worth any points so we'll see how we fare against Rovers, when it matters, as they have pace in their back division that may trouble us but our pack looks good enough to hold them in the middle..

The friendly left me feeling deflated, although tempered by a magnificent crowd to boost the coffers of Tag,

I suppose if you invite the best to compete with you, then you get what you deserve, Wigan, after a 50/50 first half upped the ante and we had no answers, Herman and Pele looked good prospects and up against a very good set of forwards, Thompson, Byrne, & Ellis, held there own, but when Leeming started to inject himself on the game, Wigan used the class of Field, Wardle and Smith to demolish us, with not a whimper of fight back, in truth we didn’t look like scoring, and with the introduction of Dupree and Keighran finding his feet, the game was up.

Wigan looked fitter, faster, and structured without the need for Bev French to get involved, the soaked up our pressure, and in second gear dismantled us.

Difficult to find any plus points from this fixture, although I usually look for positives, I suppose the home appearance of Jack Charles was good to see, he really did well, although when he ran on, he looked like the slight youngster he is, I hoped he didn’t get flattened, Lewis Martin made a couple of mistakes, but on the whole was very good in a difficult game, was beginning to wonder if Nu Brown could actually run, then he made his break down the left.

Plenty of work needed, hoping it was a bad day at the office, fingers crossed.

He may have only got 15 mins but I thought Balmforth was really poor in contact, he was getting bounced off a fair bit and was clearly targeted by Wigan along with Pele.

repeat what ive said before,we have not replaced cliifford.havent a recognised 7 on the books.brown is a 9.dont think trueman is answer either.we should have paid carlos off,waste of a quota spot.we need a recognised 7,also forewards look a bit better,but we still need another big second rower.

Ackers and Croft would have been perfect for us, shame we didn't put a bid in when they became available, we could have tried to offer Salford Hoy as part of the deal

Brown made at least a couple of breaks and generally looked a class above his teammates with ball in hand - I noticed he looked very frustrated on a couple of occasions at the lack of running off the ball.

Where not going to go from a bottom 3 team to top 6 overnight. It's ok saying sign him etc. But that's never gonna happen unless your a Wire team . I think we all know it's gonna be a slow process even though we would all like an instant fix to our problems. As I say let's at least give this newish team a chance.

Sadly we don't have cash and why would anyone want Hoy who at this point has a lot to prove in SL?

The problem is that the Baltimore Ravens seem to suffer with terrible injury problems every year and invariably choke at the business end of the season. Perhaps there's a link between that and how hard they go in pre season?

I thought he was a young Richard Swain given the clamour for him to play!


(I'm only having a joke before anyone flies off the handle)

Signing players gets harder the lower down the league you are and we all know the hours drive from anywhere to Hull puts some domestic players off.

Even with a growing NRL to SL pay gap some decent overseas players may fancy a trophy win at Wigan or Saints or a spell in the sun at Catalan, but here?? Nah

Leigh did it. Catalan have been to more grand finals than us despite only being in SL since 2006

It was a friendly against the best team in SL but to concede 40 points at home and not score doesn't augur well.

All I want from this season is a steady improvement. In truth with the squad we have assembled I cannot see us finishing in the top 6. We have to be realistic. If we are at least competing for a play off place come the final rounds it will be progress.

For me the most important measure of progress is how many of our young home grown players get a chance to prove they are capable at excelling at this level. That's the only way we will be competing against the top teams in the next few seasons.

Catalans have a bit of leg up when it comes to signing overseas players you must admit.
Leigh have done it, yes, but you have to wonder how sustainable that is going to be for them.
We've managed a couple of periods of being quite good but it's never lasted more than 2 or 3 years at a time and I suspect Leigh will follow a similar pattern tbh.

That is what makes me rue the opportunities we had to make the GF , with players of the calibre of Ellis, Sneyd, Mini, Tag, Watts, Manu, Fanoa, Talanoa and Kelly, they could have been the years that marked us out as a truly top team, whereupon recruitment and investment would have been easier, than that of our current situation. I agree that quality youth production is now the way we will compete again, unless I win the Euromillions, so we will all have to show patience, loyalty and a huge case of celebrating the modest highs that will happen until we are back in the mix. A win against Rovers would help some way in that, I know they aren't our benchmark but who'll remember yesterday, if that happens?

2016 feels like a huge missed opportunity. Plus that year Cas made the GF then had the Hardaker fiasco, we just got pipped by Leeds in the play-off. If we'd scraped through instead I'm convinced we'd have won the GF.

I’ll happily forget yesterday GB.

Yeah the post Wembley fall off was a a wasted chance of a Grand Final win. Had we beaten Warrington in the last round of the Super 8s instead of it being 1 Warrington 2 Wigan 3 Hull we would have finished top on points difference over Wigan and had a home play off for Old Trafford.

I agree with your comments.
We are now playing with no recognised half backs a front row at 13 and a very poor threequarter line.
That said we should not be conceding 40 points in a pre season friendly and getting nilled
Trueman is no world beater so we shouldnt be banking on him to change the team dramatically at half back when he is fit.It was obvious last season he had lost his pace since his injury which was a major part of his game.
Hoy is not a half back and Walker is a much better full back so i just wonder what Smith will do with him.Just because he is an Aussie import shouldnt be a pass for playing him if he is not cutting it on the field.
He has some pace which we need but cant think of any other position we could utilise his pace as he is not big enough for a centre but maybe try him on the wing in place of McIntosh and change the way we bring the ball out from the back on that wing.
Playing Cator at nine is just bemusing and like i said several weeks ago we will still be playing Championship level players like McIntosh,Cator,Lane and Fash in our 17.
London apart none of those players would get a regular place in other S/L clubs first 17.
There are some encouraging signs from the new forwards but imagine if we lost Pele and Essee for a long period with injury we would be in real trouble.
Hate to say this but i would rather see Brown at nine and play Houghton at 13

Quite obviously Wigan and Saints will almost certainly be in the six. For London I reckon the aim will be to win at least two or three games and not suffer the embarrassment of going pointless all year, which could happen.
The remaining nine all have varying chances of grabbing a play-off place, although Salford and Cas look even weaker than us.

It's not impossible for us to sneak into the top-six, but it will need an awful lot of things to fall in our favour for it to happen.
This squad will need to reach somewhere near its maximum potential limit (and stay virtually injury free all year), added to that we would probably need two or three of the other mid-table trundlers to underperform and therefore open up those 5th/6th spots for someone unexpected to nab.

It has happened before when a side has taken everyone by surprise and over-performs to elbow their way into the mix (seem to recall Widnes doing it one year?), so we aren't completely without hope!

But realistically, it's difficult to put a case for us being in the play-offs come September, all things being equal. We simply don't look strong enough, with a lack of both quality and squad depth being major hinderances to any serious challenges.
I'm just going to take it week by week and see how the season pans out and, like you, hope to see at least some signs that some progress is being made in the right direction.

Good post and I couldn't really put it better myself its all about trying to identify some signs of progress but when you part with players like Swift and have to see players like Clifford move on it's effectively two steps back and big boots to fill, before we even make any steps forward. Looking at our squad it's thin and still containing some players from last season that many have big question marks over. Hoping that some of our junior players can sustain anything like Super League form week in week out during times of injury is a massive ask and quite unrealistic, fixture wise it's a relentless and gruelling schedule that can just grind you down..

We've invested in our passes again many of us like me through our undying love of our club rather than with much hope of success, because that's what we do, however we have to be realistic and there are just too many 'if's' around the quality and depth of our squad and the most important part of any club the spine is in chaos and quite frankly it shows.

I hear all the excuses (pre season games don't count, too much chopping and changing, injuries etc etc) but to be nilled in any game is an embarrassment and in this one Wigan themselves made. a load of changes too. We should have at least crossed once but we didn't nor did we look like doing it if we'd played till six O'Clock.

You have to build a team behind a dominant pack but having just that wins few games if any. you can hold out and muscle it out for a half or so but then you have to be able to cut loose, play wide and stretch teams width and their mental strength. As I said in an earlier post we just have to get behind a coach (who, because of our financial situation is working with one hand tied behind his back), and look for progress, but unlike in the past that is hampered by a difficult market place and a lack of cash available to sign players to inspire the squad and the fans.

There are so many concerns around the squad and although our hope is our main motivation, its hard to see much more than total effort and passion across a season during which we try to weld together a team, identify what we still need and try and get it for next season. As long as the effort and desire is there it will go a long way with us lot. And who knows, as was said above we might sneek into the 6 but that will be it and that will only happen if we keep injuries to a minimum and as I said earlier in this thread its going to be another long and bumpy season. Its a good job we love em!!!