https://www.superleague.co.uk/articl...-2020-signings
Haven't Salford been busy.
https://www.superleague.co.uk/articl...-2020-signings
Haven't Salford been busy.
not much quality though. Think they have had their season in the sun
Warrington the ones to watch out for, strengthened again and with a 1, 6, 7, 9 of Ratchford, Widdop, Austin, Clark they'll be contenders.
Wigan have made a couple of good signings but with Hastings replacing Williams they are still short in the halves. Burgess will make a difference but their 9-13 is still poor compared to Saints and Wire.
Salford will struggle without Hastings and Jones with no real replacements for either of them.
With 16 points separating 1st & 2nd and 2nd & bottom I think that said a lot about how average everyone else was and I don't see where a challenge is going to come from outside of Warrington.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Warrington may have a good 1,6,7,9 next season, but that is not without its own issues, Widdop has well known shoulder issues, 3 dislocations in little over a year hint at a deeper problem there, didnt Hooper have to retire because his shoulder kept popping out, Blake Austin had a year where he missed a lot due to injury. Ratchford missed a long time last season as well, how many games are all 4 going to be on the pitch together, if they can stay on the pitch they may be contenders, if they dont i do not see them having the people there to cover adequately.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
You could, i agree, Lomax has had prior issues but the last couple of years he has been fine, Fages as well, Coote missed most of last year a small part through injury, the rest as they had another fullback, Roby has missed games over the last few years through a variety of issues, not a specific one like Widdop. Mamo and Patton are nothing to write home about, both played consistently this year and offered little, Patton especially considering where he was playing. As TYG says they also dont have the quality of centres around them to implement moves, Gelling is a decent player, but King is bang average as a centre.
Wigan will finish above Warrington comfortably and it’ll be between us and them for the major prizes. Warrington are in a mess. Widdop is a quality player but as mentioned above there has to be serious concerns over his shoulder and whether his best days are behind him. Steve Price is a poor coach, has them playing terrible rugby and despite having the likes of Clark and Austin they look clueless in attack. Throwing Widdop in isn’t going to change that so until they get rid of Price and appoint a decent coach who’ll bring new ideas (they should have done already) they’ll struggle. There’s no chance of them going from relegation form over the past 3 months to league winning form. Not to mention apart from Widdop their recruitment has been crap as usual. Gelling is a shocking signing and it says a lot when even Widnes fans couldn’t care less that he’s left.
Price masterminded a CCF win over us. Yes, refereeing decisions and luck went against us all game, and too many of our players panicked and choked on the big stage, but he still put into place a gameplan that was effective in stifling our attack, and alleviated some of the impact of the heat for them (ie, gaming the HIA system).
I wouldn't choose him as our coach, but he isn't 'poor'.
And Wire aren't poor overall. They put the cue on the rack after the CCF win to a large extent; I think Hill is on a downward curve now, Austin overrated, and Widdop is a huge gamble, but they still have some very decent players.
I think they'll be up there in the 5 - but whereabouts depends on a few things.
Disagree with this to be honest. I think Wigan will go ok in the halves. They've got Hastings and I expect the kid, Harry Smith to see game time next year. With Leulai there as well they should be ok in that position. If Manfredi comes back to anything like the player he was then they have a pretty good back line. Whilst I think Burgess was a touch overated, he's a decent signing in the pack. With kids like Smithies set to take over from O'Loughlin I think they'll be a threat. As you say however, whether all this amounts to 16 points worth of improvement is questionable.
Conversely, I think Warrington's back line is pretty average; players like Lineham and Charnley are overated in my opinion. There's some decent players in their squad but some bog average ones as well and they look an aging team. Signing players like Gelling was massively underwhelming. Hull should be challenging them for third if Radford can coach properly.
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Wigan from 2-5 are decent but Hardaker was pants last year at full back. Their pack, even with the addition of Burgess, is still powderpuff. You could have put the 1st choice Australian backline in the Wigan side for that play off game and we'd have still battered them.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.