CC ?

That's good for me, get rid of a liability and turn Smith into a quality player.

Bradford want Smith now, he wants to go back to Aus, Cronulla favourites to sign him.

You can only dream....even though i dont rate solomona!!

Swap Edwards for Monie and Burgess for Solomona and it would be that good id need a change of pants!

you should publish this thread as fiction novel

How does a player resigning count on the cap?

I'd assume it wouldn't as both parties are backing out of the contract of payment mutually??

Working hard should not guarentee you a top sallary. Noble will without doubt be one of the highest paid coaches in rugby league and he has been poor for the club. He could put in 23 hour a day shifts and sleep in the gym but he lacks the ability to justify what will be a significant wage, hence in my opinion he is either stealing a living or should be charged with fraud.

I know it is not his fault he is paid what he is but for his sallary we should see improvement not regression.

Thats a very tough statement. I think he may have took us as far as he is going to. But he took over a side at the bottom of the league with a paper thin, dire team.

If he left and somebody else came in they would have a pretty strong squad that only needs a couple of additions to possibly become a real force. He has given the club as a whole a bit of stability that a new coach would benefit from.

Just look at the academy/reserve sides last year reaching the grand finals, the whole club has progressed under Noble although the first team has started very slowly, I think the CC is a realistic expectation and if we get in the top 5 we would have a real crack at the playoffs.

I am not sure what sacking him now would achieve. There aren't many coaches about that are unemployed and I think he deserves to see the year out (the end of his contract) and see exactly where we are in september.

Also, Saints lost 5 of their first ten last year and came back very strong so lets just get behind him and the team and see if we can get some confidence back in the side

Good post

But does hardworking mean you're any good?

This is a reasonable post, but I don't think the Saints comparison holds water. Saints may have the odd poor game. They may have the odd run of poor games. But generally they play well.

Wigan, on the other hand, may have the odd good game. They may have the odd run of good games (though the last one of those was way back in Noble's first half-season). But generally they play poorly.

I could be convinced that we need to hang onto Noble until the end of the year simply because there's no-one better to replace him. But it must be pretty clear by now that something in the 'Noble system' has badly malfunctioned at Wigan.

I'm tired of listing all the RL basics that other teams do but Wigan don't. None of these are rocket science, yet somehow Brian Noble doesn't understand them or isn't interested in applying them.

I agree - support the team, support the club, support Noble if that means we'll win once in a while (though he's had a lot of support already - especially from the Wigan board). But I think he must now be regarded as a 'lame duck' coach.

Whether it happens sooner or later, we must now be looking to the post-Noble era. I certainly am. It would now take a sea-change in our fortunes, and correspondingly, in Noble's control and development of this team, to change my position on that.

Noble can't improve players who are playing at the top of their ability.
That applies to most of the pack.
Only one answer and that is new signings with far better quality players than we have now.
Noble had far, far better players at Bradford and reached finals year after year winning more than he lost.
We don't need a new coach we need new and better players, and a lot of them!

I dont agree with that to be honest. If the players we had could get to a consistent level of play (close to the best of their ability) the side (on paper) looks a decent side.

We are a little light in the front row (which is the most obvious problem), but our backs and back row are as good as most sides if they play to the best of their abilities.

I personally think we will have a good run sooner rather than later as the likes of Roberts/Gleeson/Riddell get used to the side and the pitches firm up a bit (that old chestnut haha)

Not at all.


I was referring to the "stealing a living" comment.

As for the Fraud comment







At this rate my entire signature is going to be taken up with Jonh faux paux!

Has anyone done a straw poll on numbers supporting/against noble? Whilst this is clearly a tiny subset of the population of fans would be quite interesting to see............

Are you kidding me? We have one every day!!

You have posts - and every time people try to explain about keeping noble they get shot down

the noble posts tend to be the same 20-30 people all the time. a poll may show the opinion of the less vocal amongst the board.

Though of course it may well be ruined by non-wigan fans!!

This thread is garbage. IL will wait till we get beat by Celtic before he sacks anyone.

We need dummy runners and moves.
Even Barrow moved the ball out wide better than us.

if we get beat by celtic at home EVERYONE should resign !

I think we are a bit light generally (apart from 2 fatties)
Prescott, Fielden, Joel and Hansen are lightweights, yet I believe they give their all and I won't criticise them.
Noble should look mat these and a light should come on. Let's move the other pack about with losts of switches and dummy runners. If any of the above 4 run into the usual 3 players (because it's so obvious who will receive the ball) who await them, they have no chance of making a break.
The much maligned Coley is our best forward at the moment because he has that extra bulk.
O'Loughlin also gives his all and is a tremendous tackler.
The 2 overweights should be given an ultimatum. Lose some weight or you won't be picked.

Fielden gives his all? Do you actually watch Wigan? Did you ever see the same man play at Bratford?
By fatty do you mean Feka? The man who's been our best prop for many years?

Seriously, if you need directions to the JJB I can help you out, you need to watch the team before passing comment.

I could say how long I've watched Wigan and whether I saw Fielden play in the magnificent Bradford pack but that is irrelevant.
What I see now is Fielden charging in with the ball with all his might but making no impression.
I also see Feka, a full-time pro who is huge and it isn't all muscle. I know he has been told to watch his diet. If he could lose a couple of stone he would be tremendous. He might even get picked for the Kiwis. He might be able to tackle Barrow players instead of letting them skip round him and under the posts.

More like someone who doesn't have the fight in him to do any damage to the defensive line. Someone who makes a shocking amount of yards, someone who hardly ever breaks a tackle, someone who never offloads is giving his best? Come on.

Feka is an impact prop. Why can't people understand the purpose of an impact prop? He's there to create an impact in different spells during the game, someone who can turn the game on it's head and in Wigan's favour. His drives get the fans out of their seats and raises the momentum of the team, he knocks defenders flying and nearly always has an arm free to offload, he creates an awesome impact.

Could he do all this a couple of stone lighter? probably not.