Ellis: Thrive on Crowd

• Kaide Ellis spoke ahead of Friday’s Round 2 home opener against Wakefield.
• Ellis: “We’ve spoken before about how strong the squad is, the depth in positions means you can’t get too comfortable.”
• You can buy tickets for the fixture by visiting or ringing the DW ticket office or by clicking HERE.

Kaide Ellis says he’s looking to bring consistent performances to the team as he enters his second year with the Warriors.

The prop-forward featured as an interchange in Saturday’s 27-18 loss to Hull KR and says that the squad are looking to quickly fix what went wrong and move on.

“With the short turnaround, the best thing for us was to not dwell on it too much and to move on pretty quick. We’ve had a few conversations and we’ve gone in to training to fix the problems from last Saturday,” he said.

“Naturally we want to bounce back after we played a disappointing game but we spoke about when losing like that not getting too low or getting too high on wins. It’s been quite a normal week, deep down we know what we need to do. Individually when reflecting on the game we know what we did wrong and what we need to improve on, so its just taking that into Friday.”

This week’s fixture sees the Super League return to the DW Stadium for the first time since September and with a great atmosphere expected inside the ground, Ellis knows the role that Warriors fans play in pushing the team forward: “I think every home game last year was a different feel, very homely feel. It’s nice to see all the locals out and about and pumping” he said.

“I know they enjoy it and especially after a disappointing start to the season last week, hopefully we can give them something to smile about this week. I think whenever we’re at our best, when the home crowd and community are involved, we thrive on that.

“We play a different style of football, they’re very important. We do this for them so its important that they feel connected to us and that we give them something to cheer about.”

The 26-year-old, who was signed in the off-season of 2022, made 24 appearances in a debut season that saw Challenge Cup silverware return to Wigan, with Ellis saying that sort of success is what brought him to Wigan: “The reason I signed with the club last year, after speaking to Matty, was to win trophies. Every year I’m here I’ll be looking to win something. We had the Challenge Cup last year which was very special and if we could do that again this year it would be pretty sweet.”

The winning Warriors squad saw little player turnover ahead of the 2023 season, with the additions of Toby King, Jake Wardle and Ryan Hampshire, as well as the promotion of promising youngsters like Tom Forber and Logan Astley. Ellis says he sees the strength the squad has across the board and is looking to give himself that edge to solidify his spot in the starting 13.

“We’ve spoken before about how strong the squad is, the depth in positions means you can’t get too comfortable. Trying to do a little bit extra, speak with the coaches more and probably the biggest thing week-in week-out is the consistency in games. Last year I was very up and down, so hopefully this year I can try get the up performances a little closer together.”

Both the Warriors and Wakefield will be looking to get their first win on the board, with Ellis wary of the trouble the Trinity could cause as the sides go head-to-head: “(Wakefield) have got a quality team. They’ve got a good spine and they’ve got some new forwards from Australia so we’ll have to give them our full attention across the park.

“We haven’t spoken about them too much individually, but we’ve obviously got some problems to fix from last week. A lot of the training has been about us, it’s always about us. We won’t dig too much into them but we’ve got to give them the respect and the attention and try fix the problems from last week.”

Don’t miss Super League’s return to the DW Stadium, with pre-match entertainment from 90’s dance icon Rozalla! Tickets for the match can be bought by visiting or ringing the DW Ticket Office or by booking online HERE.