I think the additions of Perry and LMS to an already decent Saints pack makes their pack better than Wigans imo.
I agree the signings of Hoffman and Lima are good but i'd back the Saints ones overall.

on another day the 1st 4 tries of the game could have been disallowed
sinfields looked a strip, goulding looked to have crossed behind gleeson,donald was caught in the air[ just look how he twists just before the ball reaches him,carmonts tryu could have been a knock on

wigan probably deserve the win overall and theres no doubt they have been the form team of the competityion but in terms of injuries they have been one of the luckiest too, i dont recall many injuries apart from robers broken leg while nearly every member of the leeds team this season has missed games at some point
lets hope leeds have better luck next season and we can try and reclaim the crown

I'll take your knowledgeable view on that.

Time will tell and if we are discussing things like grown ups leave the sarcasm at the door!

This annoys me. They've made strong signings, we've resigned players who've spent a large part of the last two years injured/sliding in form.

Leeds have certainly been unlucky with injuries this year, particularly in the early part of the season. I guess you wouldn't really notice our injuries this year unless you'd been following the team. Cameron Phelps, Amos Roberts, Martin Gleeson, George Carmont, Thomas Leuluai, Stuart Fielden, Mark Riddell, Harrison Hansen, Sean O'Loughlin, Paul Prescott, Mike McIlorum, Phil Bailey, Paul Deacon, Eamon O'Carroll, Lee Mossop, and Darrell Goulding have all been out for significant periods this year.

I think outside of Graham, Perry and Puletua then Saints back still looks fairly ordinary to me. Obviously those 3 make it probably the best back in the league, but I think Wigans second row is the best in the league already and the addition of Hoffman will only make that better. Fielden and Coley have been in the tier or props just below Graham and Morley this year and in Lima we should have a more effective Feka.

The one area for me where Saints gain the most ground is hooker, Roby is quality, and how we deal with the loss of Riddell is going to make or break our season imo.

Overall, fairly even i'd say. Our 2nd row more than compensates for their front row.

With the addition of LMS also that allows Puletua to revert back to his natural Back-row position and he's as good as anyone in this league in the back-row.

That's probably true. It depends on which LMS turns up - sometimes he can be fantastic but other times goes missing. It also depends if Fielden and Coley can keep up their form from this year, rather than repeating 2009's mediocre form. And also if Jeff Lima will be Palea'aesina but with twice the on-field time!

hit the nail on the head. there are several people who have been supurb servants but are bloody lucky to be here next year. this is a professional club and sometimes you have to be ruthless

Good points and i guess it depends on who replaces Eastwood and IF Ambler and Burgess can step up another level next year.
I really hope that Watkins can step up if we don't sign a centre and that we don't have to over-rely on Senior next year i think if we can rotate him on a regular basis he could add something to our back-row and i also think we'll need to rotate Kylie ,jp and Buderus more next year.

Whatever you have to say. I can respect an opinion but your dead wrong re the sini kick. I was right in line with the kick It went between the sticks bang on.

I know, i'm talking about the pack as a whole. I just don't rate Wilkin or Flannery that highly.

Hoffman Tomkins
O'Loughlin

is a lot stronger than

Puletua Wilkin
Flannery

Imo at least.

If you have watched Lima you will know as some pies have said on your own board he has been crap for a big part of the season.

As have a lot of the storm side.

Surely we've more reason to be confident about these signings than usual as our coach knows each player extremely well, and the fact they are coming as a group should help them settle in.

It may have something to do with them not having anything to play for this season. We'll find out next year I guess.

Yep I can see what you are saying

I think the point your missing here is the seriousness of the injuries sustained and the number of weeks missing and also the key nature of the positions effected, not disputing all teams have injuries, just some are for a lot longer than others, the only one of note for wigan that I can remember is the amos roberts one ???, nearly every member of the first team have missed games, however most have been for long periods ???

Pleease tell me if I am wrong !!!!!

I don't think I did miss your point - I acknowledged you have been unlucky with injuries this year, probably more so than Wigan.

However, I felt I had to correct your view that Amos's injury was our [ionly [/isignificant one this year. I could go and find out how many weeks all those players were out for but it'd take much too long! I can remember Paul Deacon only played 10 games or so. Several others have been out for 10 weeks or more I think.

The forwards are two decent signings, but Brett finch is pants dont get too excited, he is not a top earner at melbourne and theyb are happy to let him go when they are in deep siht next year, as we all know with the cap

Please be more specific I will then find the info

Quote ="rhinogonemad"Please be more specific I will then find the info'" The info is here: wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... ge_id=1483 Of course just because a player hasn't played 32 matches doesn't mean he was injured, some were dropped, but Lee Mossop has been out 14 weeks, Cameron Phelps was out for about 10, Phil Bailey for about 10, Harrison Hansen for about 14, Eamon O'Carrol for about 16 weeks. I don't think there's a need to examine it in too much detail because I have acknowledged that Leeds' injuries this year have been worse than Wigan's.

Quote ="rhinogonemad"Please be more specific I will then find the info'" The info is here: wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... ge_id=1483 Of course just because a player hasn't played 32 matches doesn't mean he was injured, some were dropped, but Lee Mossop has been out 14 weeks, Cameron Phelps was out for about 10, Phil Bailey for about 10, Harrison Hansen for about 14, Eamon O'Carrol for about 16 weeks. I don't think there's a need to examine it in too much detail because I have acknowledged that Leeds' injuries this year have been worse than Wigan's.

Like I said earlier, Maguire knows what he's getting and I trust in Maguire.
He won't be on huge money here either, but he'll bring something different to the halves, a wealth of experience and a personality to add to the team.

As has just been said, we lost Hansen for about half the season, same with Mossop. Roberts missed a massive chunk of the season when he was playing the best rugby in SL at the time.

McIllorum was also out for long periods, as well as Deacon missing the first half of the season.

We've had our injuries, they just haven't been to Sam Tomkins or Fielden.