I don't think Mamo cuts it in defence, maybe this has something to do with it.

That's questionable about Hughes

I think Matautia holds the cards in terms of size and ball playing ability vs Mamo, Powell also already knows him well - so he must see something in him to bring him over, at this point I think we need to trust his judgement. Mamo is a small centre and he does concern me sometimes with his defence, although I'll admit to being impressed with his improvement over the past month or so - he's took his chance well.

I still don't see Mamo as good enough as a first choice centre for a club that wants to win a grand final - his likely destination seems to be Castleford rather than Leeds, Wigan or Saints. His best chance of a top 4 club is as a squad player, which understandably he doesn't want to be and i'm not sure we should be spending a quota spot on.

100% agree, Hughes should be at 13 rotated with an impact prop in my view. My only slight concern is that Holmes is a left sided player, or at least he has been. I wouldn't really like Currie moving sides, so hopefully Holmes can transition on to the right.

As opposed to Jack Hughes, who isn't very good.....

I'm pretty sure we oddly seem to miss that "isn't any good" player though when he's not in the team.

Cas fans not bothered about Matuatia saying he has 1 good game out of 5 and must say but just my opinion he’s not wowed me when I’ve watched him.

I don’t think him being dependable is enough, second row these days needs to offer an attacking threat - he just doesn’t. Put him in a position he can get stuck in at 13 and I think you have a different player.

Hey, I'm open to be persuaded, but personally, I find him massively underwhelming. Think he contributes significantly to the fact that once we get close to an opposition's line we begin to look clueless, as when the ball reaches him, then very little explosive or positive seems to happen, which is surely what you want from a quality back rower.

Basically, he's a modern era Gary Sanderson - dependable defensively, mediocre in attack.. suppose it depends what you want from your second rower?

the moment i pressed submit on this, i knew how it was gonna go, i should have got in first really.

I'm very much of this opinion, and i'll start this next bit by saying, i've been very open for my dislike of mamo when we signed him, i still dont want to see him at fullback or wing, if i can avoid it, however at centre, the lad has been wonderful, he's become a real strike weapon just purely being able to outpace his opposite number, and thats off his own back, as we're not creating any space for him.

Someone said he's not good enough for a title winning team, i'd argue he's one of those lesser value players that you need in your squad, you can't have superstars 1 to 17/21 but his pace and acceleration are his x factor to make defences take notice, outside of inaction man hughes and blakes you can see it from the moon dummy.

i''ll be disapointed if we let him go. which is looking kinda likely.

Good luck to them both - it’s a short career.
At the start of the season I was hoping we’d retain Mata’utia, but he’s been very poor so far this season (the semi-final aside). Some of his defence has been atrocious and he’s taken to running sideways from right to left with the ball for some reason.
Ollie Holmes is playing well at the moment. I don’t think there’s much doubt about his ability, just about his consistency and injury record.
Neither will take you to the next level and we’ll replace them pretty easily with new players.

This.

I don't see matautia as a good signing really. Still I think we need to judge him by what he does in a wire shirt.

Holmes is better than Hughes in that position, we don’t need to sign (and can’t afford to sign) world class players in each position to win a Grand Final, plenty of average players win grand finals. It’s about Powell assembling a squad to win it, clearly he feels these two can add to the squad and are better than players already here. We have to trust that judgement IMO, including Matautia for Mamo.

I’ve worked in situations where a new boss has brought some of their previous employees into the team.
They are never trusted, because their loyalty is to the boss rather than their team-mates. Everyone is careful what they say around them because they think it’ll be straight back to the boss, and also that they are the boss’ favourites.
Be interesting to see how it works in a RL context.

And not all signings are based on a players ability. These two may well be bringing a work ethic that Powell wishes to instil. I like Holmes, would prefer Mamo to Matautia but it's not a huge difference. Plus if we have Widdop and Williams in the halves we could probably get away with Paul Noone in the second row and Ronnie Kettlewell in the centres.

I'd like to know who they are replacing, it would help to form an opinion.

I see now why you're so warmly received on the Wigan board.

A lot of the current Warrington first team won’t be here next year anyway, so if your theory is true it’s not going to make much of a difference when most of the players are in a new environment.

I doubt there will be any spilt in the camp.

This wins the internet for me today!!!! Genuine lol.

I could see Lineham going and Mamo taking the wing spot outside of Matautia. Heard it's a done deal with Cas re: Mamo but i wouldn't mind him staying considering Matty Ashton hasn't had a season without injury and looking at the wingers across the league OOC this year.

I don’t think I’ve posted on the Wigan board for a very long time,
When I did, it was to point out that Zak Hardaker was a risk - within days this was proven true with his drink driving incident.
I also think I commented that Mitch Clark was very poor - I notice he has moved to Gateshead today, so that’s pretty much proven to be correct too.
To be honest, I just speak the truth. In this case, having watched them every week, you’ve signed a bang average centre and a good but injury-prone back-rower. Both of whom will be seen as Powell’s favourites and his spies in the camp,

Quite content with these signings, been very much what we anticipated after the last couple months of speculation to be joining ‘Powelly’

Holmes for me will be a better running forward then Hughes, my preference would be him and Currie as our starting second rowers with Hughes/Philbin fighting it out for 13. He will give us abit more grunt and go forward on the edge, can’t say I’m the biggest fan of Hughes at second rower as he doesn’t do much going forward and just defends his off like any solid second rower should… still not convinced he’s captain material from what I’ve seen so far.

Mamo for Mata’utia is a tricky one, we will get more of a ball handling threat and a better defender then Mamo, Charnley should be getting more of the ball too. But Mamo has surprised me how good he’s gone this year at centre, his pace off the mark and willingness to try to take people on the outside has caused a lot of issues for opposition defence.

Another point to consider is that Mamo covers the wing spot pretty well, if we are losing Mamo & Lineham next year we will be light on wingers. Thewlis, Ashton and Charnley to cover the wing spots leaves us with one serious injury away from being in the mire…

You must have been watching a different Mata’utia to me this season.
Poor in defence, especially against Hull KR, Leeds and Hull FC.
He also has no ball-handling threat. He takes some decent carries and he’s pretty strong so wins collisions, but I can count on one hand the number of passes he’s made all season.

Oliver Holmes i'm buzzing with, he's been brilliant for a few seasons now, he's like Westwood in his prime. He hits like a truck in defence and attack, plays 80mins, accelerates in to a tackle and is aggressive. Exactly what we've been missing.
Mata'utia is solid and dependable with a kicking game, i've got no issue at all with him slotting in to right centre. Mamo has speed on Mata'utia and that's about it. He's not flashy but i'm happy with his signing