We could do with hiring Kris Radlinski to coach Mathers in the role of fullback, seriously. Even if its just for a month or two and in that time for him to play in the reserves.

Coley should put some weight on (especially in his legs they are like chopsticks) and run the ball in harder in pairs with another forward with Tommy or Mathers on the back of them instead of one up rugby.

Sam Tomkins should have been on the bench for the Wakey game seeing as though their pack weren't up to much there was no need for all forwards on our bench, Riddell can play prop with Tommy to Hooker, Smith to Scrum Half and Tomkins Stand Off.

I love the kind of replies people put on here, 'Hey we could get Radlinkski in to coach Mathers' ... 'we could get Shaun Edwards to coach Wigan and f**k his big time salary in rugby union off!' ... Before I heard someone say put Pryce' at f***ing stand off... WTF!??! Some people have no idea ... Do you really think, that they will bring Radlinski in to coach Mathers? No way... It doesn't do any good for Mathers confidence for one... 'Hey ritchie, your mate, all your experience in Australia etc. and at Leeds has done f*ck all mate, so we're bringin radlinski in to teach you a few things' ...

Specialist coaching mate, doesnt have to be Rads but hes been the best the best fulllback in the superleague era and prob best ever Wigan fullback so I think maybe he could give Mr Mathers a few pointers to help with his game. Should have been done in the off season though.

Crikey, aggressive posturing is getting to be the norm on this website. Calm down, pal, or you'll have to spend every hour of every day writing essays on here to justify your opinions.

haha i know mate, don't know why i've joined up, people do me head in on here! lol

You are here for a reason



The club asked Radlinski to mentor players. So on that basis they must not know what they are doing Rocket?

Who needs Edwards? Do you want him?

I was being sarcastic mate.

Yes we do. All successful teams have 1 or 2 of such players

Mathers has no heart to play fullback. Rads had it in spades but he'll never be able to coach it into someone else. You've either got it or you haven't.

Indeed.

Mathers is to SL Fullback as what Audley Harrison is to Heavyweight Boxing.

No heart.

2 pictures to describe Mathers



pea heart

A perfect summary

are that desperate to try that, I just don't see him being nimble enough as leon, or even second row with more weight, just don't think he's got the grey matter too

The problems with our halfbacks were evident in a friendly where we played neither of our first choice halfbacks? Our halfbacks that day were O'Loughlin and Tomkins, O'Loughlin had a decent game and Tomkins had an awesome game, scoring a hat trick in the process...

We also played a bunch of school kids

Believe me, it doesn't get any better!

Is the not a facebook group yet requesting Sam Tomkins to start first team matches?

As if that'd do anything anyway. Besides I want to keep my facebook a happy place to visit, not miserable and depressing like this forum.

Is Sam Tomkins one of our best 17 players? Imo he is and added to the fact that we should be playing a back up hooker/halfback on the bench he should be walking a place in the 17.

The fact that he isn't is all down to age(and possibly size) and the fact that Noble places little to no trust in youngsters. He talks about not rushing them yet how long can you hold them back totally for? He surely wouldn't be rushing a guy of Tomkins talents by giving him 20-30 mins a match. He's been around the first team squad for a while now yet only has one 'real' game to show for it and that was only against a weak Whitehaven side when he scored 5 trys.

I've been a Noble supporter for a long while now but this weekend is massive for him. I wouldn't say in terms od result but it is in terms of selection. If he carries on playing 5 backrowers in the squad and shifting around 4 players positions just to rest Piggy and we lose badly i'm starting to think we may aswell write this season off.

Cant say ive seen much of Sam Tomkins play BUT, what makes people think that adding him to the team will make such a difference?

Ok for arguments sake he plays against Hull,lets say he starts at halfback. No matter how good he is or isnt it wont make one bit of difference if the players around him cannot hold onto the ball and they dont show any enthusiasm to run after loose balls and put the effort in.

Before people start on about Noble it should not be his job to get them players up for the first game of the season,and a home game at that! Noble should not need to teach pro RL players how to catch a bloody ball!

The blame lies with the players who played on Sunday,the errors were schoolboy stuff and things they should be able to do without a coach telling them.

The way people are talking Sam Tomkins is some kind of God who by playing will suddenly fix everything. The pressure put on him by the fans is now huge, im glad im not him.

Hold on a minute! Nobby is not getting off scot free here. Agreed the players selected didn't perform well but Nobby's selections were baffling also. He has to take at least some blame.

This is my line of thinking. The worse case scenario for Sam is to come in and be expected to "save the team". If the team defend as they did, catch (or not catch!) like they did and act like they did - what can he possibly do?

Its the players that played on Sunday that can fix things.

*BTW that's not me saying I don't think Sam should play - I think he should. I just don't think people can expect him to turn everything around - a lot of players have to do a lot of things before this team can turn around.

This is the point im making. We lost the game V Wakey because pretty much the whole team were crap. They couldnt catch a cold,they didnt look interested and the worst bit they seemed to be jogging after loose balls.

You could have Andrew Johns in his prime in the team but it would make no difference if the players around him dont pull their finger out. Even if Tomkins comes in and wins us a tight game V Hull with some individual brilliance it will only paper over the cracks of the other problems (schoolboy errors!)

We dont know the ins and outs. Noble is the coach,we have to trust his judgement. If we are not gonna do that then we might as well just sack him now. Wether you agree with his selection or not,he knows a lot more about the players at his disposal than we do. Maybe he did make a blunder selection wise,it seems he did but which ever way around you play them the team was good enough to beat Wakefield easily. Thats no disrespect to Wakey,but they had half there key players missing.

The reason for the loss was the 17 players who couldnt do the basic things right. The team selection just didnt take advantage of our strengths.

Sam shouldn't be billed as some sort of saviour for Wigan Rugby League club but what his inclusion in the 17 for Friday would do is add some much needed balance.

Instead of having to make 4 positional changes just to rest Piggy we can bring the lad on and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. We give him some much needed experience at the same time as gaining some extra balance for the side and some much needed flair.

The kid may not be a saviour but he's a good rugby league player who's in massive need of some first team game......if Noble isn't going to give them him here then cut the lad a break and loan him out to a club who will.