rain forecast for friday night atm, it may rain in, (no pun intended) wires' expansive play, although we were pretty shat v leeds in the wet weather

When the trophy cabinet is as devoid of silverware as ours, I will take the tea tray thanks!


It's embarrassing having it full of Championship play-off winning trophies won by our co-tenants ffs!!

Whilst I might settle for 2nd right now and perhaps more importantly with a big gap to whomever ends up 5th, I would sooner finish 1st as I think it is a good achievement. I wish it had a higher profile and more recognition, it certainly doesn't deserve to be sneered at.

Looking forward to Friday's game and of course a reverse of our away fixture

id rather us have a big gap between the teams 5th and below, even if it means not sitting first at the split, bigger the gap less pressure to win all games in the 8s, maybe even resting a couple of bodies for the semis' (if we make them of course)

If you guys win on Friday, its either you or Wigan to finish top. You'll be 4 clear of us and we have Catalan the week after which is another tough game. I just want enough clear distance between the current top 4 and the rest to guarantee being in the playoffs.

I favour Hull to win - one key reason is that we can't afford to play players who are not at least 95% fit against them.
We looked good against Saints but they were really gash and offered very little in attack even though they had more of the ball for the first half.
It'll be a different story against Hull if we repeat that.

There are battles all over the park - I'm loving watching Houghton play and Clarkey is coming back to his best so that should be great to watch.

I understand those who've said you've not put in an 80min performance yet - we've only done it a couple of times though, and we still suffer from unpredictability. (The loss to Cas was really poor though).

Hope it's dry even though the weather says not.

Warrington will be rightly favourites which suits us. Takes the pressure off.

Jake was right in saying it's a 'free hit' in that a win is a huge bonus but a loss is nothing to get concerned about.

Absolutely.



Would still prefer a win, mind.

I agree with bringing in Pryce. The thing I like about Thompson is that he brings impact off the bench, in the same way as an interchange hooker would.
Michaels doesn't deserve to be dropped.

james child will referee the game!

wtf are the RFL thinking, top two, entertaining teams, on sky and they put one of the worst officials in charge

Maybe drop Hadley rather than Thompson?

Gunna be tough on a few players but I'd to with

Shaul
Talanoa
Yeaman
Fonua
Michaels
Carlos
Sneyd
Taylor
Houghton
Watts
Manu
Mini
Ellis

Washbrook
Frank
Bowden
Thompson

id keep hadley in, maybe for thompson, he seems to steady the right hand side when coming on

He seems to make decisions and back himself rather than asking the video ref everything

Child never seems to get on top of niggles but then pings teams for not being square or offside, he never seems like he's fully in control.

I'd stick with Carlos. As others have said, it's a bit of a free hit, so the only way to see if he has what it takes in big games, is to play him in one and see how he goes.

its not the awarding of tries and video ref im bothered about, its his confusing interpretations of the way he officiates games, awarding penalties and decisions that leaves everyone, including the players confused

Their left edge attack against our right edge defence is gonna be a concern from previous weeks. Be interesting to see if we stick with the same team and we've worked all week at it, or we make a tactical change for this match.

Think LR would go with Hadley over the two. Will help keep things tight, but lacks the impact of Thompson.
Suppose it depends which game plan they go with.
A few players are going to miss out, and you could make cases for all of them.
Good position to be in I suppose.

I agree, think he'll stick with Hadley.

I'd play thompson personally. We need to have impact off the bench IMO not a steady player. If we go with a half back as interchange we also need bigger forwards with better go forward.

Bowden and Frank offer pretty good impact.

Don't be fooled Yed.

Wire are all out to finish LL.
A defeat to Hull will all but write top off, furthermore the defeat could really be a belly blow and send negative signals throughout the CC too.

In many the game v Hull is the first part of winning the Shield, Cats the follow game being the final second part.
If Wire let that slip, it'll be the worst collapse since loosing the league under Ashcroft.

Hull won't get a hangover from a loss, they won't really have expected a win, and I'm fairly sure, pre season their goal was to finish in the top 4. I know ours is much higher than that.

In my opinion, anything less that 1st at the split is a failure.

Wire win for me because we need it more, and because at near full strength we are a better team than Hull.
Hull away required Gidley missing and in all actions Lineham missing...3 of them, from a win.
I hope Hull finish in the top 2, they have earned it but not above Wire.

Just to clarify, weren't Warrington at near full strength in the game against Hull earlier in the year? Gidley, Russell and Dwyer were missing, anyone else? Genuine question, I thought your team looked pretty strong that day.

FYI, Hull were missing Fonua, Talanoa, Tuimavave, Pryce, Pritchard, Manu, Minichiello and Thompson, all of whom will likely be in the team for Friday (depending on who Radford decides to play at stand-off).

Lineman bombed a couple, but so did Hull. That said, I don't think that result will have any bearing on Friday.

Think Friday will be a great game between the top 2 in the league, on merit. Warrington seem to have come out of their dip with two strong performances (coinciding with the return of Sandow). Hull have been winning, but seem to have lulled a bit performance wise following the tough Catalans, Saints away, Wigan away run, possibly showing some signs of fatigue. I am hoping Hull can raise their game (we'll need to) and come away with the 2 points, but I am taking nothing for granted. Two excellent teams, could go either way.

We beat you with literally our 2nd team? I agree you have more superstars on paper in your team, but we have a better balance and overall better team. If you picked a wire and FC combined starting 13 I'm sure we would have more. Looking forward to the game as it is a real challenge for both teams!