Rumour has it that Wane was seen in the changing room pre-match injecting the players with some unknown substance.

I know what that substance was. It was the testosterone of Kelvin Skerrett.

If you're handing out league positions after 1 game, I assume you don't think Wigan will make the 8 either?

Just as playing with no half backs can also do a team no favours against 12 men...wonder if Wigan fans still think we are champions "by default" or has it suddenly become harder to beat 12 men over the off season?



Joking aside, sad that yet again we are focussing more on bad refereeing/negative incidents rather than recognising the character and determination shown by Widnes to fight back from 16-0 down with 12 men and rescue a point against "the strongest squad in SL" according to pre-match comments. It was a great comeback for them and thought Heremaia & Mellor in particular were outstanding, well done Widnes

TBF to Child with regards to the red card. Should a player be allowed to stay on the pitch if the player he has injured with a high tackle has to sit out of the rest of the game?

No

You can't really go there, as then depending on personnel involved in an incident, some coaches may deem some players to be nfit to carry on to get someone sent off. Anyway they have 15 minutes. What do you suggest, get sent off 15 mins later if a player "can't resume"?

I think it's fine as it is, the ref can and rightly does take the outcome of the incident into account, sure Child couldn't "know" how bad Charnley was but made the same judgment as all other speccies, aided no doubt by his earpiece, and the result was the same as what you suggest.

Look at it this way, Ah Van does exactly the same thing, but marginally misses contact, he doesn't get sent off.

But looking at the incident retrospectively, The decision was correct because Charnley could play no further part in the game.

Look at it this way. If Sutton's challenge on Brown was high, should he be sent off? He would literally have just taken out Widnes main play maker for the rest of the game.

Poor performance by Wigan, in more than one respect. Nothing less than expected though these days.

The decision was correct (just about, on balance) because Ah Van recklessly swung his arm and made contact with the head of another player. The consequences for Charnley should have little or no bearing on the punishment for Ah Van.

I've seen Rob Burrow cop plenty of head shots that he's just bounced up from. If you start encouraging people to stay down because it'll influence how the referee punishes the offender, you're heading down football's slippery slope.

What's more disappointing is that despite three on-field officials and a VR, Matty Smith wasn't given a red for lashing out at another player with the boot. Indeed it appeared that up until Robert Hicks decided to get involved at the restart, the rest of the officials were quite happy to turn a blind eye to the offence.

Why wasn't Farrel carded for his late high shot on the kicker

Not even penalised

I think you've answered your own question there.

But they should. As I pointed out elsewhere, if Paddy had done exactly the same motion but missed the head, he wouldn't have been sent off. And it's not just the RL disciplinary. Any court will always take into account the consequences for the victim, if Paddy did that to a stranger in the street, it would be an assault, if the stranger had an eggshell skull and died it would be manslaughter. Same act, wildly different consequences. And that's as it should be.


Well yes, I saw Paul Deacon take more, but absolutely nobody is advocating that. The ref is experienced and I've watched a bit of rugby in my time, and it was plainly obvious that Charnley wasn't doing a performance.


How it "appeared" isn't worth a comment as I don't know what was said or by whom. If Smith had been sent off he couldn't have complained, he kicked out at the player but "lashing out" is exaggerating it. Personally i would have sent him off as I don't want to see that on a rugby field even half-hearted, but I don't go so far as to say a yellow card was unjustifiable so i'm not bagging the ref for it, especially as I don't know just how much teh officials saw. But personally I hope the disciplinary is able to look at it and he cops a match and a fine, as it was ridiculous, and wants nipping in his petulant bud. I suppose if they can depends on what he was carded for, exactly.

It should be - and I believe is - part of the sentencing guidelines. I don't think it should form part of the on field decision making of a referee though. It's the act that needs to be dealt with, not the consequences which are to a certain extent subject to random chance anyway. Two virtually identical high tackles on the same player can have very different short term effects. If a player is high and reckless - which IMO Ah Van was - then it's a red, whether the recipient comes up with a cut, a concussion or without a scratch.



IIRC the ridiculous rule that if a referee deals with it you can't use video which the FA apply isn't yet part of rugby league, and the match review panel can go back and retrospectively apply a punishment?

Can't work, though. As I've said, Ah van does that exact same thing but misses, he would almost never be sent off. That's random chance - but that's how it is.


Certainly hope so.

of course they can retrospectively deal with it, as can be seen by previous panel outcomes (Flower was dealt with by the ref and then the RFL panel dished out a 6 month ban). Sending off sufficient in Ah Vans case, Matty to get a ban

For as long as the Wigan fans continue to revel in their team trying to prove how tough (stupid?) they are and wane trying to prove how passionate (stupid?) he is, they will find ways of reinforcing an already well established grub club reputation.

Eventually the penny should drop that the reputation of a proud club is being damaged, but I'm not holding my breath as they'll just fall back on their "everyone is just jealous" routine rather than seriously thinking about how embarrassing some of their antics are.

Christ, if you're blind to the criticism Wigan fans have dished out to the likes of Ben Flower and Matty Smith when they've let us down then you're a lost cause. I suppose next you'll claim Gaz Hock was the most popular player at the club.

Hate the use of the word 'Scum' to describe professional sportsmen playing a tough game. You only have to look in the newspapers and what's going on in the world to know that there's a lot worse people out there.
As a fan of a team that has featured the players like Sonny Nickle, Vila Matautia and many others who 'played the game hard' you shouldn't be so quick to get on your soapbox. ( also check out Alan Hunte trying to take Offiah out of the game on Utube, many would be demanding police action on here if Joel did that these days)
It gets on my nerves when players are called Scum. Far too harsh a word

Worse when it's aimed at a whole set of fans.

Exactly. Most Wigan fans here have made their unhappiness with Wane's apparent tactics (?) clear. Like most fans, I guess, I expect to see Wigan play with a bit of style and quality. That was sadly lacking against a determined Widnes side who fully deserved (at least) a point. The worst thing is, we are in danger of making a rod for our own backs for the rest of the season.

I've got my ticket for the Hudd game, and have been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks now. Bur some of the shine has gone off that expectation now. Ire member the same fixture last year all too well, and if we play like we did against Widnes, Brough and co will take us to the cleaners.

Like most neutrals, too, I reckon.
Wigan have got some good players, with enough skill to challenge any opposition on their day, which makes it all the more disappointing to see that they appear to be more interested in winning by constant niggling, laying on, moaning at the ref for penalties, etc.

I'm with you there. There's plenty of pies who hate to see the clubs reputation tarnished.

Are the current Wigan squad a victim of their own success? For a few year now, they've lost players and everyone's said they'd be weaker for it, but they've managed to stay on top. Other teams' supportors (including myself) have claimed that the Wigan players on the whole are not so special, but it the effective way in which Wane had them playing as a unit that was the ultimate key to their success.
Have they slipped a bit and are struggling to get back on the right line - exposing the weakness in various players? They know they need to play the game as hard as possible, as they were doing a couple of years ago, but are struggling to do that while keeping their cool? Is the fact that older heads like Hoffman and Lima have left and the younger firebrands of Tomkins, Farrell and Batemen can't quite get the orders right without things going skew-iff? All these young men, trying desperately to recreate the success of the last 5 years when, as a squad of 25-30, they might not be quite as good as they think?

Add in the more recent losses of Green, Taylor and Harrison from the 2013 winners and you can see the experience has been depleted and they guys above all tackled above their weight. They are missed and you can't expect the younger guys to fill their shoes straight up but they are trying to play that style and don't have the physique or skill set to be hard as nails and it is showing

Yes, our structured style has been key in filling the gaps left by seemingly irreplaceable players, and perhaps there is only so much that structure can help before inexperienced lads start to feel the cracks appearing, but I wouldn't go so far as to say we have reached a point where they are frustrated and losing their cool.

Besides the Flower incident our players have done nothing really out of the ordinary where discipline is concerned. Other teams still have their own hot heads, I've seen players from other teams twist joints, attack the head, and kick players in the face as they struggle free from the tackle, but it's fashionable to focus on Wigan right now and ignore the usual suspects as they carry on as normal.

Probably correct.

How confident are Wigan supporters about this season?