https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/08/ ... rington-3/ Minimum disruption would be Shorrocks at 9 then same as last week week except for Singleton in probably for Partington. More adventurous sees Cust to 9 Field to 6 French to 1 with either Bibby/Miski on the wing, reckon we'll go with option 1

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/08/ ... rington-3/ Minimum disruption would be Shorrocks at 9 then same as last week week except for Singleton in probably for Partington. More adventurous sees Cust to 9 Field to 6 French to 1 with either Bibby/Miski on the wing, reckon we'll go with option 1

Probably on Wigan TV, but I wonder when the missing guys will be back. Initially Bateman was out for a month and it will be 4 weeks after this game week.

I really hope he keeps Isa in the pack and we go at them with a bit of (legal) nast. Really rip into them upfront and limit any space Williams has to work with.

Bateman back against Wakefield mate. He also confirmed Powell has a slight crack in his foot, hoping it won’t lead to anything major but don’t think he’ll play for a few weeks.

Confirmed it’ll be Cust and/or Shorrocks at 9

I’d go

French
Miski
Halsall
KPP
Marshall
Field
Smith
Cooper
Cust
Singleton
Isa
Farrell
Smithies

Ellis
Bryne
Mago
Shorrocks

Not sure who he’ll go as starting props.

Yeah it was more the likes of Thornley and Tommy who've been out for a while now. We've got some good squad depth, but always good to get people back and fighting for spots.

No mention of them two. He did reference Thornley a few weeks ago saying it was a worse injury than they initially thought. I’d guess we won’t see him for the rest of the year.

He said Tommy would be about 6 weeks after the Wakefield away game on the 3rd of July. I’m guessing he’ll just turn up just before the playoffs.

I know there are quite a few people who don't seem to like/rate Miski but I personally don't mind him. He's an odd use of a quota spot granted but he does bring the ball back like an extra forward.

I'd be going with French at 1, Miski at 2, Field at 6, Cust at 9 (Shorrocks bench).

If you look at Warrington's squad, there's no way that squad is a 10th place or worse squad. They are underperforming at the moment but you feel as if it'll click for them at some point. They usually raise their game significantly when playing against us so I'm not buying into the doom and gloom over on the Wire forum too much. There's a few folks on there and Wire fans on social media expecting us to give them a real beating but I think it'll be a very close game and could go either way.

Even if Toulouse win tonight and it's a big IF and we get the win over Warrington, I still think Warrington will be safe. I can't see Toulouse winning many after tonight's fixture to be honest.

That's pretty much my assessment of the guy. If he wasn't on the quota, then he'd be an absolute diamond of a signing. I'd also guess he's on a low wage too.

That being said, I'd be worried if he's replacing French next season though. He's good to call upon in situations like this, but over the course of a season we'd missing out on more than we'd gain.

Teams can often get into a rut like that, where the fans just can't see where the next win will come from. But one thing you can be certain of is that it WILL come eventually.

You're absolutely right. There is no way Wigan should succumb to what's been a perennial problem for them in recent years, which is complacency in the face of opponents they feel are already beaten.

Whatever the state of mind, neither side in a Wigan v Warrington derby will roll over.

Wire will fight hard for this one. We need to be up for it.

Is the South Stand sold out? I really don't think we should be in a situation where £30 is the only price for adult match tickets. Be a long time till we get a packed East Stand in front of the cameras at that price.

Very strange the South stand situation. Absolutely loads left yesterday and now none whatsoever. My mates sit in the South Stand, so I logged on to get a ticket this morning and they’d all gone. I’ll just watch it on the tv now instead, which is a shame that the club has missed out on some income.

Sorry to hear that. Will be interesting to see how full it is tomorrow.

In different circumstances I’d have been more disappointed. Go on holiday in a couple of days, so gives me a bit of time to sort some stuff out. Usually I’d have probably gone and sat on my own in the East stand. I’m guessing maybe the tickets have gone to amateur clubs to sell but you’d think they’d keep a few back. There’s no way they’ve gone from what they had yesterday, to it now showing as sold out just on standard sales.

Don't you like sitting on the side, NK?

Don’t mind but it’s bit dull sitting on my jack, waiving at my pals in the South Stand.

Last week the South Stand 'sold out' an hour prior to kick off. Physical bums on seats were about 60% at best. I can understand some season ticket holders not making the game due to summer holidays but its very strange.

This was me last week, wasn't going to say anything but now it's been brought up. I don't mind giving the club an extra fiver but what I do mind is being blagged.

Hasn’t realised it was an issue before now. Had it been the usual 2 mates in the South with season tickets but me, my dad and another mate paying in, the 3 of us would’ve had no issue going in the east/west but it’s my situation that will cost them. My dad and mate are on holiday, so it’s sit on my own or don’t bother. As it’s on tv I’d rather not bother and will watch at home with family and a few beers. I’ve gone in the Fan bar before most games as well, so they’re down a ticket and a couple of rounds in there and for what I’m not too sure. If it’s a tactic to try and fill the easy stand up a bit, that’s poor form but I genuinely have no idea what the deal is.

It is a strange one this, because if it really was sold out a few days in advance you would have expected a social media post from wigan as they have done for the couple of other times it "sold out" in advance this season.

I think we should be discussing the elephant in the room when it comes to attendances. They gave it out as just over 11k last week when in reality it was clear there was no more than 7.5k sat in the stadium. That's a massive difference, now if the club have 3k-3.5k who have paid for their season ticket and for whatever reason they are not attending then that's one thing. I don't think the club are making it up but I do think they possibly handed out a couple of thousand cheap kids season tickets at the start of the season when they promoted the rugby sessions and these kids are just not turning up. It's quite worrying, actual attendances are the lowest I've seen since we've been at the DW.

When was the last time anyone was there and thought, wow... this is a decent crowd (ie. over 15k physically in the stadium), definitely pre-covid. Early 2019?

Edit - Just looked back, Good Friday 2019 we got 22k, we also got 21k against the Sydney Roosters early 2019. Other than that it was 12k against Wire.

Bizarrely there are now two south stand tickets available on the ticketing website.

I suspect there were a bunch of tickets given out for the fixture when it was due to be played on a Sunday - maybe they were counted in the attendance figure. The fixture was moved from Friday to Sunday to Thursday which won't have helped.

We hit a real low point in 2019 - I suspected we were starting to recover in 2020 with the new signings and the fanzone (think we got an 11k+ crowd for Hull before lockdown. Covid then came into play and Lams 2021 no doubt put a few off. Pretty obvious we've given out a lot of freebies this year. Hopefully the improved performances, community work and marketing appointment might help to improve ST sales next year.

If we can't increase attendences on the back of a trophy winning year, where the rugby has been the most entertaining it has been in a long time, then the club really is on a hiding to nothing. The stay aways are running out of excuses.

Add on to the other stuff the club has massively improved on that you mention and i don't see what more they can do.

The other big elephant in the room is the lack of away fans. How many times this season have we seen the away stand open? It makes a huge difference to both the attendance and the atmosphere. Sadly we only see that stand open for Wire, Saints and Leeds. Is that really good enough?

We must be the mugs of SL. Produce loads of players other teams pinch, bring a strong away following to most games & promote the game outside of the heartlands.

Didn't Wire roll over last time we played them?

Reckon the Toulouse result last night as taken a heap of pressure off Warrington, really hope we're switched on tonight or a Leeds type result beckons