Everything Salford Red Devils coach Paul Rowley said after Wigan Warriors defeat

Salford Red Devils coach Paul Rowley met with the media in his post-match press conference after his well-rotated side went down to a 64-0 defeat to Wigan Warriors, who clinched the League Leaders’ Shield.

Rowley paid tribute to Wigan on their achievement, was asked about his squad rotation, his duty to rest and protect his senior players, the club’s eight debutants and milestone man Adam Sidlow.

Here’s the review and rundown of everything that Rowley said in the Red Devils debrief.

Overall assessments

“Obviously it’s Wigan’s night so we acknowledged first and foremost that it’s Wigan’s night. It’s been their year, they’ve been the most consistent team.

“We obviously picked a young and very inexperienced side to come here and face the world champions, so they approached that with excitement and enthusiasm and I thought they displayed that in bucket loads out there – not just the young players – but the senior players who have been coming back from injury and not had much football because we’ve got no reserve games, so there was a lot of players in there who have not played for a while but the youngsters in particular I thought were fantastic, I thought they competed for everything, clearly playing against a superior team there in Wigan but I was very proud of them.

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From your perspective, it was the exercise you needed to protect your senior players…

“100 per cent. My objective is to have a fit squad going into the big games, the play-off games so in that respect we were able to do that by utilising the squad and the youngsters: and preserving our senior boys.”

Any players in particular who impressed you?

“I think it’s unfair to pick people out but we had a couple of props that did long minutes, Charlie Glover in particular, and Jamie Pye has been on a journey. Jamie hadn’t played for three years before joining us this time last year. He lost 25 kilograms and now finds himself at the DW playing against the world champions.

“There’s a couple of good stories in there, I’ve picked those two names out, but I really do think they’ve all applied themselves brilliantly and they’ve enjoyed the experience and it will give them some clarity of where they’re at in their career paths.

“Some will go off in different directions in the future, some will stay and some will do great things, but they’ve all get a heritage number and an appearance against the world champions in front of 16,000 people so it was a great night for them.”

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When does the preparation get underway for next week?

“Obviously we need to find out (who we play) before we start getting into the detail but it’s an ongoing process, making sure our players are fit and well and looked after, but they do that themselves, they are good professional players so we manage our squad and they manage themselves extremely well so it’s already ongoing.”

Was it a case of Jack Ormondroyd getting minutes under his belt for the game ahead?

“Jack is one of those who has not played and there are no reserve games so it’s very difficult when we’ve been at a cliff edge for the last two weeks against Catalans and Hull, they are not the games that you want to start throwing players in to get minutes so it’s very difficult in that respect, same with Adam Sidlow and Ben Hellewell. It ticked a few boxes today, it enabled us to do that.”

The senior lads can take a lot from the way they led the youngsters…

“Their approach was brilliant. Chris Atkin was captain, he epitomised what the senior players are about. Their approach all week was that they looked forward to playing and they applied themselves brilliantly, I thought they led the youngsters tremendously well and I’m proud of the senior players and the younger players. I just thought they represented the badge extremely well.”

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It could possibly have been Adam Sidlow’s last game for the club on a special milestone…

“It was his 150th appearance (in Super League) and I thought he was absolutely fantastic. It might be his last (game), it might not, but I thought he was great. I just thought it looked like he was enjoying himself and I think that’s probably what I’ll take from that, that our team looked like they enjoyed themselves albeit in bizarre circumstances. Nobody likes losing games but I think sometimes on a rare occasion you can really take some positives out of the experience and the opportunity that the majority of our squad have been given today, so I’m pleased with them.

“I thought our fans acknowledged it, I thought our fans were great today as they have been every week but a big nod to them as well.”

With the club securing an Elite Academy Licence next year, that gives more young players the opportunity to play at this level in years to come…

“One thing that our club has done now for a few years is give opportunities. That’s a fact, the numbers are there and the players are there and that’s without a pathway. So whilst the pathway will take several years to bear any fruit, there is opportunity at any given point within a season. Our club has proven that we’ll dig deep, we’ll give opportunities so there’s a big plus to joining our club, whether that be a youngster in the coming months and years on that pathway or as a senior player.”

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