Re: Champion Qualities : Thu Jul 07, 2011 2:33 pm  

canonrebel wrote:

Cant beleive this hasnt turned into a willy measuring thread yet.

Bilko makes some good points there concerning Warrington this season, we have lost a couple of games this year that in reality we should have won with ease, we have not really had to grind out a win against the top teams.

Wigan or Warrington will win the league, it pains me to say Wigan will edge it due to the slightly easier run in, the cup game will have a bearing on the outcome as the winners of that will be favourites to go on to win the final which will detract slightly from the league, however if Warrington win the cup game our 2 games around the CC final weekend are the biggest of the run in Cats away week before and Wigan the week after, 2 potential slipups which will give Wigan the league.( the reverse will happen if Wigan win CC game).

We really need to keep our mental approach to all games at the intensity of the big ones (something that we have not done on numerous occassions with disasterous results).

You are talking a lot of sense, I was confident of the league win last year knowing that Wire would be side tracked by the CC. The games the week before and the week after are killer games for the CC finalists. If you look at the SL fixtures you would say Wigan have the easier run in with more home games. A challenge cup semi and final would in my opinion then pass the league leaders shield to the Wire. A Wire win on friday will make it a clear two horse race for the top spot.

The constant bitterness between some of the Wigan and Wire fans takes the gloss off the fact that the two premier clubs in SL at the moment are Wigan and Wire and after so many years of Saints/Rhinos and Bulls dominance its a welcome change

Re: Champion Qualities : Thu Jul 07, 2011 2:57 pm  

canonrebel is spot on with his comments, its a great post. I said exactly the same thing on the wire site but it turned into the usual nonsense.

Wire have played some brilliant stuff this season but as has been said earlier Wigan have ground some ugly wins out when not playing well just like all champion sides in any sport should do. When Wire have been off colour there have been shocks, eg Salford.

Re: Champion Qualities : Thu Jul 07, 2011 3:15 pm  

gray wrote:

canonrebel is spot on with his comments, its a great post. I said exactly the same thing on the wire site but it turned into the usual nonsense.

Wire have played some brilliant stuff this season but as has been said earlier Wigan have ground some ugly wins out when not playing well just like all champion sides in any sport should do. When Wire have been off colour there have been shocks, eg Salford.

We've been beaten by Hudds twice, this season that's not too shameful considering Hudds early form, beaten by Catalans who look very strong and physical.

Salford was straight after the Exiles game in which i think none of the top teams won that week.

Hull FC has been our only real blip, first 20 minutes looked like we were going to batter them, then for some mysterious reason dropped off and were rightly beaten.

Close games Hull KR at home and Saints at home both could have gone either way.

The thing is we have actually had plenty of bad games this season yet still put in big scores regardless.
The last game Cas away for instance, the players, coaches and fans said we looked flat and off yet still scored 48 points.

A bad day at the office see us concede easy tries, going forward we have had flashes of brilliance even on the worst of days, the Hull FC game had us in numerous try scoring positions with dropped ball and errors at key crucial points which on another day could have seen us take 2 points.

Re: Champion Qualities : Thu Jul 07, 2011 3:18 pm  

Horatio Yed wrote:

We've been beaten by Hudds twice, this season that's not too shameful considering Hudds early form, beaten by Catalans who look very strong and physical.

Salford was straight after the Exiles game in which i think none of the top teams won that week.
Hull FC has been our only real blip, first 20 minutes looked like we were going to batter them, then for some mysterious reason dropped off and were rightly beaten.

Close games Hull KR at home and Saints at home both could have gone either way.

The thing is we have actually had plenty of bad games this season yet still put in big scores regardless.
The last game Cas away for instance, the players, coaches and fans said we looked flat and off yet still scored 48 points.

A bad day at the office see us concede easy tries, going forward we have had flashes of brilliance even on the worst of days, the Hull FC game had us in numerous try scoring positions with dropped ball and errors at key crucial points which on another day could have seen us take 2 points.

yeah but we drew, n u lost

Re: Champion Qualities : Thu Jul 07, 2011 3:21 pm  

Brilliant, simple yet profound, informative and grammatically correct to boot.

My point being that even though we lost and you drew, we were all off colour that week.

Re: Champion Qualities : Thu Jul 07, 2011 3:30 pm  

Horatio Yed wrote:

My point being that even though we lost and you drew, we were all off colour that week.

Spot on.

Wigan, Wire and Saints all suffered immensely from that game - 0 tries scored between us in the 2nd half.

We only drew because Kirk Dixon missed 4 out of 5 conversions.

Re: Champion Qualities : Thu Jul 07, 2011 4:14 pm  

shambawangy wrote:

Yeh i thought so, shows how important having a cool head and a bit of expirence in close games is

As you say these are the qualities of champion teams

Quite right. A couple of years back it was Saints that always managed to sneak the win. Used to drive me absolutely mad