For me it is, I don’t care about beautiful rugby, entertainment value, flashy players, or the like.

Just give me the victories in whatever fashion we can get them



Hopefully Steve Price gets the message.

It’s what Shaun Wane was/is about and he was labelled a pariah by a lot fans, yet not so long ago some of was calling for him to be our coach.

I think we’d find ‘boring rugby’ exciting if it was leading to trophies. ‘At least we play interesting rugby’ is a rationalisation of losers.

Yes, winning is what matters most. Learn how to do what matters first and then worry about doing it with flair. You don’t see F1 teams getting lapped every week bragging about their paint jobs.

The best teams, [ichampion[/i teams can do both, as needs dictate, switching between flair and shirt sleeves rolled up tenacity during a season and even a match.

There was a discernible shift in style for Saints and Wigan in the final months of last season as matches got tougher, conditions heavier and stakes higher.

An inability to adapt belies our poor coaching, preparation and one dimensional thinking.

I’ve been satisfied with periods of effort and a good fight tbh. We’ve no given right to win and be successful all the time. If it was all about winning, there’s plenty clubs with fans that wouldn’t say it was.

Well done "rubber. The voice of reason.
Happy Xmas.

Why was Shaun Wayne 'moved on' from his position at Wigan ? Didn't he win 3 SL finals during his tenure ?

Not 100% sure but thought I read about a disagreement about the Hardaker signing.

Was he moved on? I thought he might just fancy picking up a decent salary for much less work. Union has much more money.

It could be although he was 'only' Scottish high performance coach, would that have paid more ? I don't know perhaps it would. As Karetaker said, there were a number of rumours floating around as to why he left, but we never heard a " I am bored / have achieved everything at Wigan and want a new challenge" statement from him. That put me in the 'he was moved on' rumour camp.

Over the next few years with the financial difficulties that the game will face we may well have to face reducing the number of franchises and looking at mergers again. I wouldn't want us to merge with Widnes but how would you feel about a joint venture with St Helens? It would bring us in with their management and youth development and their more ambitious fans who would not tolerate failure in the way that ours do.

I expect at first there would be a lot of opposition but if a merged Saints-Wire team won Grand Finals people would come on board.

I think they would have paid more (quite a bit I reckon) & he was only working something like 3 days a week. He also had the potential, if he became flavour of the month, that he could make very very big money elsewhere.
We lose lots of coaches to Union and God knows how many good players decide at a young age that Union has to be the game for them.
I really doubt he was moved on and I am very sceptical of League rumours ... some make anything up.

Sally have you been on the lunch time sherry. No No & No. Stop please & go and have a lie down.

If we were doing it this off season we could go in to 2021 with this line up:

Coote
Grace
Naiqama
Inglis
Makinson
Lomax
Fages
Walmsley
D Clark
Hill
Thompson
Currie
Knowles

Cooper
T King
Philbin
Ratchford

I would have more confidence in that line up being able to finish the job in a Grand Final than our current side. They would probably play better rugby too.

This board has gone quite weird over the last few weeks, but this has gone beyond the pale. Take it back right now or I’m telling my big brother and then you’re for it!

Very good, probably too good for here.

Well to be fair Smiffy, you have just started a rumour that he moved for the money and a 3 day week.

Your struck off Santa Wolfie's good boy list.

You would have to ensure the identity of both teams was reflected fairly. I wouldn't do it like St George-Illawarra Dragons, where the kit remained the same and they just shoved Illawarra in the name of the St George Dragons. The name would be simple enough - just follow the SGI model with St Helens-Warrington Wolves, it keeps both clubs full names in. I would be happy to drop the Wolves bit but the brand people will probably want a nickname so keep it.

For colours, the red and white and primrose and blue clash so you can't put all the colours in, it wouldn't look right. So take one colour from each club: white and blue. In the debate around whether to use a Saints style vee or Warrington style hoops for the kit I think we would have to concede the vee, otherwise we would look like Halifax. A blue vee on white background works best as a white vee on blue looks like Swinton.

The club badge would have to be redesigned, if we are going with Wolves as a branding name then just do a blue wolf's head on a white background, could have the club motto in curved writing around the outside (find the Latin for 'always our year').

Tough choices would need to be made about personnel which always happens with a merger. Keep Eamonn McManus and Simon Moran as joint chairs and then make a decision between Mike Rush/KF for CEO; Woolf/Price for coach etc. Most likely the majority of the retained staff from the coaching set up and academy would be from St Helens.

We would immediately be the biggest club in rugby league and have the largest fan base. Play half the home games at the Totally Wicked and the other half at the HJ. We would immediately be the favourites to win SL. If Wigan were the biggest rivals for the title it would cement the merger with the fanbase as both sets of parent clubs fans would be fiercely determined to see us beat the pies.

Shaun Edwards was recruited to replace Wane.
Wigan only had a verbal agreement with him, which he later reneged on.

I know that were a broad church on this board, but it sounds like you're starting a radicalisation programme.

I can't remember why he 'reneged' on the move, but in 99% of cases a contract is needed (and even then it can be broken) to seal a deal. (There may be a point morally but there's probably two sides to the story).

That's something in football when The Championship found out to their cost a few years ago. They thought they had a deal with a TV broadcaster (can't remember who) for ludicrous amounts of money. Contracts were drawn up but at the last minute the broadcaster pulled out.
Stupidly The Championship took the broadcaster all the way to the high court. Their case collapsed on day 1 when the judge ruled there was no car to answer. Incredibly stupid.

I can only think of 2 instances where no formal contract exited - both in F1 in the late 60's.
Stewart never had a contract with Ken Tyrell but won 3 world championships with him.
Jochen Rindt never had a contract with his manager Bernie Ecclestone.
In both cases one wasn't needed because each couple had so much faith in one another.

I wouldn't want to get picked up by "Charlie Winslade" for spreading rumours again but ... I would suggest the money that France RFU could find would be eye watering compared to little old Wigan.

You already started on the cooking Sherry.

That’s the essence of it.
Take one game at a time and do what it takes to win it.
Once the game is deemed won, then think about adding a cherry or two
A close scoreline is no place for risks.