I know it's become a tradition to play Good Friday and Easter Monday but commonsense has got to prevail. There needs to be a rethink and a reschedule. One game is sufficient. To play two matches in three days is ludicrous.
We're going for quantity rather than quality. The second game on Monday invariably becomes something of a lottery.
We cannot let this kind of situation demean our game. Many other players and coaches will echo my sentiments.
We at Warrington kick off the Easter campaign at Salford on Good Friday. As a proud Salford lad, I love The Willows. I remember playing schoolboy finals there and I stood on the terraces with my dad and my mates cheering on the Reds.
Great
Salford are fresh from a Challenge Cup win at Hull. I'm told the front row was superb at the KC. I met up again with big Ray Cashmere last week - he's a great guy. I played against him in Australia when he played for the Cowboys and he is a very good tough forward.
Cashmere's sheer size means he takes a lot of stopping. Craig Stapleton is also another very powerful and effective front rower. Stapleton is an honest performer who rolls up his sleeves and plays hard.
There's not much more to say about Mal Alker at hooker. He's playing better than ever by all accounts. My old mate, Rob Parker, will no doubt want to put one over the Wolves having played at Warrington last season.
He was disappointed with the way the captaincy was taken off him but he's got on with the job and we miss him at Warrington. He has great sense of humour, he's tough and is extremely committed.
We will have Ben Westwood and Gareth Carvell back. They both went really well in the cup win last weekend.
Reunion
We're off to Featherstone in the next round of the cup. It won't be easy and it means a reunion with Iestyn Harris.
I'm somewhat disappointed to see Martin Gleeson leaving Warrington this week and signing for Wigan.
He didn't instigate the move, it came out of the blue. Wigan made an offer, his agent did the rest and the deal was done.
If Martin was going to leave, I would have put money on him going to Australia.
He has ties out there, he's very close to Ian Millward but rugby league is a strange old game and he'll be putting on the cherry and white shirt against Saints tonight.
I feel Martin will go well for Wigan, his home town team. He faces a baptism of fire but like I said last week, when he puts his mind to it he can still be one of the most effective strike players in the game.
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Adrian Morley writes,
"Playing two Super League games over the Easter holiday weekend is just plain crazy and it's got to stop." - "To play two matches in three days is ludicrous."
To begin with, the last time I checked the "Easter weekend" was for FOUR days not "three" - Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday - that makes four doesn't it?
If you change this to "two matches in four days", what's the big deal then for those poor fully professional prima donnas having to play 80 minutes rugby in four days? Not too many years ago clubs played THREE matches over the four day Easter weekend - Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday. Many clubs had traditional fixtures at this time. My club, Swinton, always turned out against Oldham on Good Friday, Salford on Easter Saturday and St. Helens on Easter Monday which was followed by the return to full time day jobs on the Tuesday morning.
Ludicrous? Plain crazy and it's got to stop? Absolute garbage! or as they used to say at one time, today's players "don't know they're born".
You claim you are a proud Salfordian and love the willows - why didn't you come and join us when you left Australia then?? You would have been loved by us reds fans being a fellow Salfordian, but you instead joined our rivals?? money i presume???
Andy, I think you're dead right on this one. "Morley the mercenary" - so much for hometown loyalty.
He's definitely gone soft in his old age boys, how many minutes of each game did he actually play? Are Salford whinging about the schedule, I don't think so. I reckon the reds would like to be playing twice a week every week if these results were the outcome.
Sorry Adrian, you might not think it but the fact is your not as tough as you were, thats why your not playing at Bondi any more.
just read the last bit of your column, you have to be kidding. Gleeson going to Australia, what a laugh. There was a bit of interest prior to the world cup stirred up by the nonsense that was written about the quality of the players and superleague competition. That was well and truly put to rest by his and the rest of the squads performances. There are a couple of back rowers that could do alright absolutely no halfbacks and definitely no outside backs that could achieve a first grade spot in Australia. All very sad, but reality like it or not.