Wigan Warriors: The 18th Man - ‘New stadium name is a great gesture’

David Bailey:

The Warriors returned to winning ways with a decent win against Catalans Dragons. I was going to use the word workmanlike, however, after the brilliant pass from Jai Field for Adam Keighrans try, the brilliant awareness and execution of Harry Smith's chip kick, and then Bevan French's beautiful kick chase for Field to latch on to, which set the platform for Abbas Miski to score, I felt that was unfair.

A decent result back at the now named Brick Community Stadium before another batch of trips on the road. The stadium naming itself appears to upset a few. I'm not sure why, it's a great gesture, DW is firmly in the past for both sides now. It gives Danson et al time to get the structures and visions right for both clubs to enable a decent commercial partner to come on board in 2026. One thing Danson does know about, is generating income.

The Warriors head to Huddersfield after regaining top spot and this one will be a right battle. The Giants whilst having a mixed bag of results, have been competitive and structured. In Esan Marsters and Adam Swift, they have two excellent strike players too.

Whilst I'm not overly worried about results at the moment (barring the cup semi) I want to see Wigan perform. The pack is as strong as I've known and if they can lay a decent platform, the backs can take care of the points. If Wigan can hang around the top three places until Round 15 against London, I really believe they will take the League Leaders’ Shield convincingly, such is the nature of the run in down 'The Brick'.

I'll be watching Tiaki Chan and Sam Eseh from afar hoping they can show their potential as I'm sure they both have big futures at the club and deserve to be playing Super League rugby.

Darren Wrudd:

Let's be honest, the way we began the game against Catalans Dragons, we all thought ‘Oh No, Not again!’ But when you looked at the errors they were different from the KR game. Mistakes like dropping the ball or penalised for a ruck infringement, I will always forgive. We all try the referee’s patience at the ruck and no one drops a ball on purpose. But high tackles and poor decisions in defence cost us the week before and there was not much of that about at all. So a scratchy first 30 minutes followed by a dominating next 50, I’ll take that any day.

Catalans were a good test but once we got back to controlling the ball they were no match and certainly found it difficult to break us down. With Steve McNamara at the helm, I wonder who they will buy for next year as although they need to promote some young French blood so that they can say what a huge success it is, everyone knows that to be competitive he will need to bring in other nationalities. Wigan on the other hand have a well honed balance, from bringing in some of the highest quality players like French, Field and Thompson, to looking after the next generation coming through and promoting from within.

Almost an embarrassment of riches at times sees young players like Jacob Douglas and Harvey Makin loaned out and now Tiaki Chan off to Hull FC for a while too. These lads need high quality game time to progress and we seem to have a good plan in place to offer them that experience. Don’t forget some of the big name players like Josh Charnley, Joel Tomkins and many others were out on loan for the same reason, so the pathway is clearly there if they work hard enough.

A tough game tomorrow against a Huddersfield side who I predicted to be a dark horse this year. They are well drilled and keen which is always a great combination and we will need to be on it from the start to keep them contained. But with a healthy squad and a great competition for places, we should have enough to get the job done and stay top of the league.

What a great news week this is for the club, a new name for the stadium no less and although both Wigan Athletic and Warriors will be looking for a major corporate sponsor from the end of 2025, to promote our local charity by naming the stadium after The Brick I think is awesome. Although I have always quite liked the initials DW Stadium, strange that.