well said, a lot of people have questioned charnley for being the last man out there, when thats his job. It's not his fault the rest of the team didnt move their feet well enough to cope with the play, charnley got it in the neck, but his centre was 5/10 metres out of place for 2 of the tries iirc.

Just to clarify by that i meant pat will be there to boss his side around so one player isnt left alone like that.

I don't think we need a hooker. For me, now Finch is fit (close too anyway), we've enough around that area. Any number of players could play there and offer something different.

An example being if we played 6 Deacon, 7 Finch, 9 Leuluai, Tommy would play a more creative game whilst remaining dangerous and solid in defence, whereas we could then shift them about and stick Micky on there for Deacon, whack Finch in a 6 and Tommy back at 7. That would then allow McIllorum to play his own game, running at the big forwards and making us some metres.

We don't need a new hooker. Not in my opinion. We do miss Riddell, I'll admit that, but we just need to give Finch time to settle in and give it a few more games for Tommy and Micky to be effective in at 9.

They certainly were offside most of the time, but so were Wigan! All teams push it as far the ref will allow.

Whilst I agree that we definitely miss Riddell (and Let's be honest - What team wouldn't, on last year's showing), what we are *REALLY* missing is both of our first choice centre and winger on Charnley's side.

We are currently playing 2 kids on that wing. One OK centre and one talented but young winger.

What we should have there is a top quality centre in Gleeson and the league's current Man of Steel and top try scorer in Paddy.

Add to that the fact that our other centre had to get his wrist strapped up part way into the match, we had a half-back who has not only never played with this team, but was also in his first game back from a serious and long-term injury, plus just after we subbed Finchy to change the team round a little, we had Tommy pretty much knocking himself out (literally) to save a try.

Finally, above everything else, we were facing a Warrington team that simply worked harder for each other and got the rub of the green.

We had what? 3 or 4 tries ruled out last night (all but one of them correctly).
On another night, we get some/all those and the game might go our way.

It'll all work out in the end, and I'm still absolutely convinced that we saw the league's 2 top teams play last night.

I'll be quite surprised if it's not Wigan/Wire in 1st/2nd at the end of the season, having seen what the other teams have to offer.

I just think we need another 4-6 weeks before we start seeing the best of Wigan, with Pat back, Gleeson either back or replaced, Joel back (we could have done with him at centre last night), Finch with a bunch of games under his belt and a better team understanding of his play-style, Hock pulling his tripe out to get back in the team after his ban (i.e. pushing ALL of the other fornt/second rowers to work harder themselves).

To sum up - Relax. It was just one game, where inexperience in certain key areas was exploited by a well-drilled Warrington team.

I'll be amazed if we're seeing that sort of performance in 1-2 months time.

(Apologies for the long post, and thank you/well done if you made it this far)

Unless I'm very much mistaken, Charnley and Marsh aren't playing on the same wing anymore.

We need a scrum half. Micky Mac and Tommy, spelled correctly, are a match for anyone, for sure Clarke and Higham.

Tommy, good as he is, isn't the best scrum half we could wish for. The lad in the under 20's, Russell is an out and out number 7 and though he is young at 18 or 19, Myler is only 20. Until Finch gets match fitness I'd love to see him given a go.

We are missing the pig, tommy should go there now finch is fit and deacon next week, sam isnt the player he was last year so far maybe when pat comes back put him back to 6 and pat at FB.

We do need a hooker - anyone who disagrees should watch the relative performances of the two hookers alst night - Monaghan was far quicker at passing the ball/ had far more guile and creativity and looked much sharper and aware of options around him.

Thats the one for me. Roberts has only displayed his best form from full back and last season showed better attacking full back play than I have seen from anyone at Wigan. Leuluai has always played very well for New Zealand at hooker and offers a lot more than McIlorum. Tomkins is not a full back for me and needs to play 6 with Finch at 7. With a fully fit team this is how we need to go.

we need a centre!!

We need to sort out the silly gleeson stuff firstly, either sack him and bring in a solid centre for his money or sort him out and get him playing.

But we really need a centre its a sad reflection when our quickest and most dynamic centre is one that is in his mid thirties and has a dodgey knee, not that i don't think George isn't good enough he is, but we really need solid centres on both sides, this always makes a winger have an easier job. A centre who will protect his winger with kicks and can tackle is key at the minute. We know with a slightly shorter winger you need a protective centre and at the minute our part time centres just don't protect the wingers enough with kicks.

If only James roby had a pie eating twin!!!!

your in wigan just stand on any corner waving a fiver and youll have one in minutes.

Our maud's available.

Deacon is very underrated in my opinion. is kicking game and organizational skills are clearly missed when he doesn't play. For this why not have Sam at 1, with Finch and Deacon at 6 and 7 with Tommy and McM sharing the 9 spot. Sorted.

as posted previously.........stick joel in the centres until the gleeson sagas sorted

we dont need a hooker...........we have new zealands hooker.........we need 2 half backs who can gel.

More importantly we need 2 that are given time to gel. This is the only c*ck up thats been carried over from Noble in my opinion.

Forget this Sam at 6 nonsense - its got nothing to do with that. He makes a better impact chiming into the line as a second 6 at full back than he ever could recieving the ball stood still at 6.

We got beaten in the pack on Friday night combine that with our 3 of our first choice wingers and centres missing and you will find the reason why we lost the game.

Agree with McIllorum at 9 comments, not sure he is up to it but time will tell as Finch begins to settle into the team and control the plays.

find it funny that people are now slating McIllorum for not not being good enough after several games, yet when i mentioned this pre season i was slagged of yet again, you got to love this site

Russel's not a #7, he's a #1. I think you might mean Mellor...

agree totally. until pat is back have roberts at FB who did nothing wrong in the hudds game if you ask me. sam and finch int he mix will complement each other (i also think finch played too quickly on friday which caught us out!)

micky as bench hooker.

Mclorum is not good enough for Wigan, sorry! He's of the Lowes' mould; in that yes, he is aggressive and tough (likes to run his mouth a bit too), however it's fair to say the #9 position is so much different now. Its the most pivotal position in any playing squad in my opinion and you need someone who has all his current attributes accompanied with speed, vision and the ability to control the ruck area.

Leuluai really doesn't seem as effective for you at 7 and if I was Maguire I'd be pushing him into the hooker role. You've got Deacon to come back and partner Finch who will get better and better. And you've got Tomkins at FB who can easily slot in the halves.

But #9 is where you need somebody more influential, the rest would take care of itself as a result.

He does not play as a second 6 though. A six does not attempt to take the line on virtually every time they get the ball. Sam seems to do this all the time. As to taking the ball standing still, Sam has explosive acceleration from a standing start and IMO has a much better chance of breaking the line when he's actually in it than when he runs into it with the defence set ready - which they seem to be for him this season. He is not actually getting anywhere against the better sides joining the line when playing at 1. This may have worked last season but its not doing so this season.

Exactly! He was subject to Brough's superb kicks and most FBs would have had a problem with them. Brough is SUPERB at kicking like that and I wish he was in our team. Sam at 6 is the best thing we can have. Sam at 6, Finch at 7 and Tommy and Micky interchanging at 9 (with Finch the man going off and tommy dropping to 7 until Finch is fully fit if need be)