Mate reckons the WCC shirt a load a tat, was going to get one, will wait and see..

Need a kicker, would like more bulk in the forwards but a decent game for the youngsters. Interesting that Wane says he dropped Charnley, there was plenty of talk today that's he's as good as gone along with Micky Mac and Scott Taylor. This would worry me; next season the 100k rule comes in for those who have been academy trained for three or more years, this really should be a massive boost for Wigan as they could match the offers for the likes of Charnley and only have 100k on the cap. If the drain does continue then I would be asking serious questions.

Yeah be careful Al, it's the mighty Wigan you're dissing.

What sort of reply is that ? You stuck for words ?

Well Al admits he knows nothing about RL yet feels free to troll..

Stuck for words? not really just can't be bothered, don't really care what other fans think our the club I support especially when all they can come up with is the 'wigan walk' not that I see any complaints when we take 1000's to away games giving some clubs their biggest payday of the season..

The link between Man Utd fans and Wigan fans is they both think they have the divine right to Lord it over the rest of the competition. When it doesn't go their way it's offski. They didn't name it the " Wigan Walk " for no reason.

I am not that up to date with the super league, but it seems that Wigan do produce a lot of young players. I think the Tomkins brothers came through the ranks, and there is a Farrell, who might be a son of Andy now. And a lot of others I cannot name at the top of my head.

It seems that there may be fewer ageing aussies not good enough for the NRL in the league too.

Liam Farrell is a distant cousin of Andy, Sean O'Loughlin is Andy's brother-in-law, full back Lewis Tierny is Jason Robinson's son. The Tomkins brother actually lived in Chorley before moving to Wigan. I think for a few games last season 13 or 14 of the 17 came through the academy.

You're not wrong Al.

Go on, how are we like Man Utd considering we don't spend the cap, the vast majority of our squad is from the academy, nine of the players who played in the GF and CC final were born in the Wigan area and we spend a massive amount of our turnover of community training for not just the Wigan area but areas such as Chorley? Any other fan who criticises Wigan are plain jealous and actually clueless, we won the double with a young squad of mainly Wiganers. The only comparison with Man Utd is that we have the biggest crowds and win trophies (which actually makes us less like Utd considering how they are going).

Wigan are the Manchester United of Rugby League. They'll buy their way out of trouble.

Go on, how does that work considering the vast majority of the Wigan squad comes from the youth system?

Don't you worry about Wigan, we wont be far off when it comes to collecting the trophies.

A hybrid game has been developed by Bobby Fulton and an international RU coach, surname Jones, embarrassingly cant remember his first name. Quite a few games have been played but every game has resulted in the league team sticking mega points on the Union side. I think Chorley Panthers u-15s played it last year against Chorley RU u-15s and put something like 80 on them.

Rads blog is an interesting read: http://www.wiganwarriors.com/WBlogp.aspx?id=21

Union is the only game where the fans in the stands handle the ball more than the players..

League isn't in decline, at grass roots it's thriving, there's 1200 amateur teams in the London service area alone. North of Midlands RL is miles ahead of RU in England in numbers. Cumbria, many parts of Yorkshire & Lancs, N. Wales all have huge numbers of RL clubs. SKY viewing figures show a massive difference in viewing figures when they've televised both codes, in favour of League. The major problem RL has and has had for the last 15 years is a board of total idiots at RFL HQ.

My prediction; Wigan, Warrington, Salford, the Hull clubs, Cats and possibly Saints will look to break away from the current set-up possibly with a cross-code game. I know for a fact that RU have tried, tried and tried again to get Wigan involved but would have to be some massive changes to the RU game before that happens.

Ahhh....the old league v union rivalry. I watched the England game and found it an absorbing contest between two very tough teams. Both defences were excellent. Union has a much higher profile now than league and more money too. Will league be irrelevant soon ? From England rugby union's point of view I hope so.

Irrelevant? Union is full of league coaches and players, many coming from the Wigan service area..

Terrible start, Bowen was awful and kicking needs sorting quick. On the other hand our very young team showed real promise at times. The sad thing is you know full well the RFU and NRL will pick them off one by one.

Showing your age there Koi, they've not played at Fartown for many a year now.

No I'm not that old! Their speccies call themselves Fartown, I had 80, sorry 75 minutes of Fartown chants.

The sound of nails driving into the RL coffin gets louder and louder..

At least you wasn't sat right in the middle of the Fartown fans Got a right earful when I left with five minutes to go..

Met garside once, briefly, felt compelled to check that my watch was still on my wrist and wallet in my pocket..

He went to NZ because they offered the most money and you pay less tax in NZ.

Yes we'll miss him but if Bowen carries on his form from last year then we'll have the best FB in the league by an absolute mile. Then you have the likes of Ryan Hampshire who is something else and better than Sam was at his age, then you look at Jason Robinson's lad Josh then Burgess... the list goes on.

Well I had to suffer The Lumineers last night at the Apollo as part of her birthday presents. Only good thing I can say is that it was full of fit birds. Just to rub salt in, The Temperance Movement were playing down the road, I sat there pervin' and thinking of the lucky keanards down the road. Oh well kept the missus happy.

Err, Who won the last final ?

Ha ha that's an epic fail!

You have widdop on the bench yet still play one HB who is actually slower than me and another who doesn't even bother looking where he's passing the ball, presuming he's not already dropped it. Mcbanana is an idiot. The only people who like him are in Red Hall.

Hard to call between Aus and NZ. Hopefully Slater will be fit and Sonny Bill is up for it. Not every day you see the two best players in the world on the same pitch.

Yet another woeful performance by McBanana's team. A battering next week beckons followed by an improved contract offer for McBanana from the RFL no doubt.

Wigan didn't 'tank it' they had serious injuries to a number of key players and I know that for a fact and to say the team from 8th can whilst technically true would never happen in a million years. Wigan could put out their academy side and make the top eight. Other than that I've already said many times that I think the RFL is a joke.

They're all on Premier. The NZ game was unbelievable, pity that wasn't on the BBC.

Billy Slater is the best in the world regardless of code, he does that week in, week out.

McBanana needs to ring the changes, Westwood, Sinfield, Chase and Mossop out. If Lockers is fit then he has to play at 13 with Sam B taking Westwood's starting place, Farrell on the bench. I'd drive Chase home and pick Matty Smith up on the way back. Widdop starts at six, Smith 7. McILorum starts with Roby interchanging. Graham replaces Mossop and starts.

Wigan head co ach and assistant coaches bar one are Wigan born and bred, one of them, Paul Deason is McBanana's assistant, I notice quite a lot of the Wigan back room staff are with Iestyn at Wales. Wolves coach, Tony Smith, is an aussie who has taken British residency, he was the GB coach and didn't do much but he had nothing like the players McBanana has available.

There's room for improvement in both teams but I suspect the Aussies will get better to a greater degree than we will.

They will but that's the worst HB pairing I've seen in Aussie shirts.

Wow, if what I'm hearing from the england camp is half true then McBanana might not have a job on Monday, either that or England will have no team to put out. The sooner that guy goes to RU the better.

Truly world class at times but the brains of a banana. He really took the p!ss at Wigan.

Thank the RFL, lunatics very much running the asylum.