Peet is absolutely right to emphasise the importance of "community"—re-engaging the fan base, attracting more interest, and building regular support. The club has done fantastic work in this area & should be applauded.



However, I sometimes feel that the weekly die-hard fans get the short end of the stick. This fixture, at 19:30 in Sheffield, is a prime example. The official coaches are leaving at 15:30—how does that work for people with jobs? Pushing KO back thirty minutes might not seem like much, but if you finish work at 5, it makes a world of difference.



Beyond that, I support the idea of Vegas, but it means one fewer home game with no reduction in my season ticket price. The club is getting it both ways there. Likewise, we don’t have a home Friday kick-off until Good Friday— we've instead got one Thursday night, one in Vegas, and two on a Sunday. That works for some, but it feels like the balance is out. Personally I want a Friday night under the lights and a few beers after to talk about the game. I don't want the "it's work tomorrow" convo going on in the back of my mind whilst I'm watching the game.



Tiny things in the grand scheme of things & it all stems from the fact that - I’m excited to get this season started. I’ll still show up, it’s just I can’t shake the feeling that it could have been [igreat[/i - a meaningful cup tie or warm-up game on a Saturday in Sheffield, a 20k+ crowd for a big game against Leigh at home on the Friday, and then on to Vegas.

He does indeed. It makes sure everyone is earning a place and not being given freebies anyway.

Sounds a really bad one. Peet has said it's going to be a few months 'at least'

Full match up on Wigan TV already, well done to the club on getting this game up on such a quick turn around!

I watched the full match last night, decent performance for a pre-season. A few hiccups but that's to be expected at this stage.



Wigan were very poor under the high ball, almost every try Wigan scored resulted in Sheffield managing to reach touch from kick-off. That's the significant issue I noticed, we struggled against Leeds with kicks, too. The wind was terrible according to the commentators, causing havoc every time the ball went high.



It was a forward-orientated game, the pitch was very narrow and wingers on both teams couldn't find any space at all. However, this highlighted how good our forwards are. Many of our forwards seem to have shredded some of that puppy fat and gained a few kilos of muscle.

- Walters was outstanding and was the MotM for me, I recall three drives post-contact in which he made an extra 5-10 metres. Very powerful on the edges, and looks to be getting back to his Leeds form.

- Hill was brilliant, he was a handful all night and made lots of metres going forward. He looks to have bulked up a fair bit in the pre-season.

- Byrne was another standout, his try was great. He bulldozed straight over the top of the Sheffield player Joel Farrell, who isn't a small player, to go right near the sticks.

- Mago had a good game and played some long minutes which is nice to see. As usual, takes three players to take him down and always getting a quick play-the-ball.

- Leeming is such a classy player, created the first try of the game with a scoot from dummy-half and a quality kick to set up the opener.

- Tyler Dupree, like Hill, looks like he's shed some weight and bulked up. Victim of an extremely harsh sin-binning for an accidental hair pull on Sheffield's Farrel, whose hair was nearly between his shoulders.



Seriously looking forward to the season now!

Our kick defence has been poor for a couple of years, I think it's our biggest weakness by far. We concede a lot of tries from grubber kicks inside the 10m. Miski and Field are ok at best under the high ball (Field has improved a lot though).