Hope your players can back your fans !!

Wigan might well beat us on Friday. Every year we get one team that punches above their weight for the first five or six matches before dropping back down the table. It's usually Wakefield but they failed to sustain it this year, it was Hull last year and it's Wigan this year. So I can see them probably trouncing us on Friday.

Looking forward to this game. It's one of the only away fixtures that I lke to sit with the home fans (although I'd make an exception for 'Bradfords top lad'!

).

As to the game; drawing a form line through last weeks games where we both played a bottom 2 side I would have to expect a Wigan win. Someone has ridiculed the over-confident attitude on C&W saying "you'd think it was the team from the 80's". Well I've been watching for over 23 years and saw those sides week in, week out and whilst I would never make a comparison (trophies are the only marker of that!) I will say this is the best Wigan team I have seen since then. Yes, I know it's early days etc, but the blend of youth and experience, the way we can attack from any part of the field with pace to burn and particularly the ruthlessness in both defence and attack is something I haven't seen from a Wigan team since then. Time will tell if it can continue, of course, but from the games so far there is plenty room for optimism!

Here's to a great game! See you Friday.

Phelps is back for us so thats great news!

I can't see past a win for us. We have the best attack in the league and also have only let in an average of 8 points per game.

I cannot see Bradford scoring more than 10 and there is no way they will keep us below 10.

It would take one hell of a effort to beat us this week IMO.

For the poster saying we will be the hull and wakey of previous seasons, I disagree. We are so much fitter than those teams were and are completely dominating games. They dropped down due to injuries but I believe we have one of the deepest squads in the league.

My shilling is on Wigan lifting the pot at old Trafford.

Does not mean they won't trip up along the way, of course; and not necessarily where the pundits expect.

They have certainly started the season in good form. I notice that Saints are quietly going about their usual business since the Hull defeat as well.

Based on that theory my new prediction is:

Bradford 10 - 10 Wigan

Sam Tomkins MOTM who gives £100 to the RL fund and the other £100 to his nan.

I agree, the Wire game will have taken a greater toll on your players than the Saints game will have for ours.

However I struggle to see how going up against a Wire team that you only narrowly beat means they were tougher opposition than a Saints side who wipe the floor with you (since the standard of opposition I believe was kind of the point). Perhaps that's just the common sense side of my brain getting in the way eh?

We won't have the fog but the weather will turn cold in the eve after a sleety day, so we shall see if the Club are ready to keep the terraces fully open this time to save a second embarassing gap in the middle of them for Sky!

Without a shadow of a doubt! Thanks for the tip to lift the trophy too...unless you're one of those tipsters who's like the kiss of death!

I think judging by the first few rounds of Super League, that would be the safe bet. If someone offered me money right now to predict the winner of the Grand Final, I'd go with Wigan too (assuming all the odds were the same).

Leeds will be back, Wire look a very classy side and Saints since the Hull game have put the sh*ts up me with how comfortably they've gone about their business.

I'd be suprised if the winner of the grand final doesn't come from Wigan or one of those 3 but you just never know.

Huddersfield, Hull and yourselves will also feel they've got a chance.

That's just arrogance through and through.

Well after four straight wins for the cherry and whites it seems that many of their fans on their board are hailing this as a return to the glory years. Apparently we might as well not turn up on Friday given that:











But this arrogance isn't just confined to Friday's game. The whole SL is being dismissed by some of these fekkwits:

























Clearly it's as if the 1980s and 90s have returned after barely 4 games!

And who could deny that given that Wigan have WORLD CLASS in their ranks like the following players who are being lumped in with the likes of Inglis, Smith, Slater etc!

















You can tell they're rolling back the clock when you read the following posts, after only 4 league wins what happens if they make it to five?

As much as they do look good, judging from those posts quoted by Bullseye, some of their fans are setting themselves up for a BIG fall!

I was simply discussing how would people rate a 'world class' player. I said a system I would probably go off if pushed would be if a player was one of the top 10 players in his position in the world.

I then went on to say going off that system alone we had Richards, S Tomkins and O'Loughlin that would fall into that catogary and Bradford would have Matt Orford.

All totally fair going simply off that system.

The fact is the term world class is totally over used and hardly any teams in superleague contain truely word class players.

Their board is always worth a read for a chuckle, whether they are doing badly or well, I always get the impression it's full of excitable kids who get way too carried away whatever is going on.

It's strange because I used to work with a lot of Wigan fans in Manchester, and as a group they were amongst the most balanced, knowledgeable and realistic fans you're likely to meet. The couple I am still in touch with are both optimistic about their prospects, but nowhere near the levels seen on cherry and white.

Thanksfully the posters on C+W are not representative of the fanbase as a whole. I think RLFans attracts the most extreme thinkers. Talk about asking to be laughed at.

People read a few comments amoungst the excited kids(as you point out) and then conveniently miss out the fact 95% of people on there are saying we shouldn't go over the top.

Every club given a start to the season like we've had would have an element of fans that would go overboard with excitment. The fact of the matter is we're 4 games in and everything could well go ti*s up starting on Friday.

What system? Your "system" simply involves saying "he's in the top 10 players in his position in the world". How do you arrive at that opinion? Is it based on Test performances? Performances in finals? What? Or are you just saying it without really justifying it?

While Richards, Tompkins and O'Loughlin would walk into the Bulls team I'd be far less sure about calling them world class. Tompkins has done well over the last 6months of his playing career but he's entering his second season and has a lot to prove now he'll be a marked man. Richards hasn't ever been in danger of playing for Australia or I doubt he'd have stuck with Ireland (or the SL for that matter) so you can take it as read that there's a fair few better wingers around than him. As for O'Loughlin, when was the last time he proved his class against top quality test opposition?

As for your pal saying Cameron Phelps and Amos Roberts are world class I think he needs to sober up

I wouldn't swap Langley for O'Loughlin either.

I also said in the same thread that no real system would work because it's all a matter of opinion and who could decide so I totally get your point.

All i'm trying to point out is what I personally said wasn't arrogant. It was just a general rugby debate about who had more World class players(after a bulls fan said Halley, Nero, Scruton etc were world class). Like i've said theres no way of actually judging it for sure and the only real indications that matter are on the pitch both this Friday and for the rest of the season.

Looking forward to it.

Well said. Hope its a cracker, haven't been this excited for a game in god knows how long.

It should be.

We've not had a crash hot record at Odsal over recent times and it's always a tough place to go. Now your halfbacks have had chance to settle in it makes for an even better clash.

We've all got our fekkwits mate. I think our only world class player left last season. I don't think Halley or Nero will be world class while I have a hole in my backside. And by world class I mean likely to be able to match it with the best the NRL can offer.