Weird isn't it how some conveniently miss this little nugget out. Not only did they botch it (and nearly killed our club in the process) they had also blatantly overspent on the cap by fiddling the books. They both then compounded this by overspending even more to avoid relegation before chucking their cards in the year after.

Edit - That doesn't mean I don't agree with showing some ML ruthlessness for a change.

Rightly, or wrongly IL doesn't sack coaches mid season. He certainly doesn't sack coaches who've won 7/8 games.

I'm not a Lam fan and I want him out, but that's at the end of the year. Sacking a coach is a gut reaction and thankfully IL isn't that stupid. The next coach appointment is hugely important, not only from a recruitment POV but also making sure we have the right guy to look after a talented group of youngsters.

It needs to be done from a position of strength and after a hell of a lot of due diligence.

My personal view is that Lam has had his chance. Despite the games we've won, I don't know any honest fan who feels we've been playing well.

I know he's had challenges to deal with, not least Covid, and a lot of untimely and serious injuries to key personnel, but that could happen to any team and frequently does.

However, I totally agree with you that replacing a coach cannot be done in anger. All that would happen if IL sacked Lam today is that we'd end up with a very inexperienced assistant coach running a team that has been decimated by injury. That would be a recipe for total disaster. Some might argue that he should try to do what Maurice did with Noble, but which coach in SL at present is even close to enjoying the rep that Brian Noble did?

For me, IL needs to do another 'Michael Maguire', i.e take his time to source an exceptional talent in the NRL and persuade him to come over here ... and that's going to take a while.

Perhaps in the meantime, he can look to make some astute signings. I'm not saying stars, as that would cost us a lot and probably couldn't happen until the end of the year anyway. But it must be clear to both him and KR that the current team is nowhere near good enough man-for-man. The injuries to key men has made it look worse than it is, but there are big gaps in that line-up, and they need filling quickly.

Is anybody going to give Catalan any credit for how they played? Yes Wigan were poor, error strewn and undisciplined but they were bloody good.

Careful for what you wish for. Ian Lenagan has always come across, to me, as a forward thinking chairman and owner with the club’s best interests at heart. There have been a few bad decisions over the years, namely the Millwall and Australia episodes of taking ‘home’ fixtures elsewhere but, on the whole, he is a person you would wish to have in charge, rather than not. This is backed up quite clearly by the number of trophies brought to the club during his tenure.

Yesterday was e with a capital s and yes, recent performances have papered over the cracks to what, on paper, was a decent enough start to the season, Challenge Cup aside. But, to give a bit of balance, the general opinion on here only a few weeks ago was that, if we have a Walmsley at prop, we win the GF rather than finish as runners up.

For me, we have two main problems. Firstly, a manager/head coach who has probably taken us as far as he can and, secondly, a weak and inexperienced pack that needs beefing up considerably. After coming so close last year, it’s hard to take. We’ll have to write this year off, that’s now a given but it’s not the end of the world. The club is still in good shape.

As always there is no simple remedy to our problems, at least not this season. We are a completely unbalanced side partly because of poor decision making and partly bad luck.
We do not seem to have a working recruitment structure. Too often our top dollar signings have not worked. We took a risk on Burgess and we are still paying for it. We have papered over the cracks, in the past, by bringing young talent through, unfortunately we are now losing players just as they start to mature.
We have been unlucky at times. We ended up with Hardaker, Field and French, all on good money I assume, when most of us thought that French would have been gone by now. That left us short in the centres.
Now we look like a team of utility players. Any team would be happy to have Smithies, Shorrocks, Partington and Isa, just not all on the pitch at the same time. We are now so one dimensional that young players cannot get a run out in their best position and if they did they could not shine within our structure.
It is clear that little can be done this season give the cap but by the end of the season we will be in a position have shed five props, possibly two centres, one halfback, one hooker, a second row and possibly a couple of others. The test will be of how well we handle that. My worry is that Tony Clubb might get another contract simply because the others look worse.

Undoubtedly. They ran red hot and we hit a real low.

Sadly (& this isn't a dig at IL), a lot of the Wigan Catalan contingent should arguably still be here.

I do think that, as a club, we're too obsessed or focused on the "next big thing" and certainly, from a prop POV, we're too quick to cut players that still have a use.

As a side note, I've seen posters calling for Byrne to be dropped or let go. I really hope that we don't do that. He's going to be a very good player, but needs time to develop into the player he's going to be. Our loss will be another's sides gain in a few years.

Fully agree. The young lads in the pack have played superbly this season, more so in defence than attack, but have finally run out of steam. They should have been rested now and again and helped along by our more experienced lads but that has not been possible. Clark may as well not be here, Bullock has not progressed from last season (in fact he’s gone backwards) and Singleton is a shadow of the player we saw last year.

In the 2nd half Catalans were great. In the 1st half they missed at least 4 scoring opportunities. Should have been 60+ at least.

Catalans were very good, as they were last week. Always difficult place to go to granted however we should be looking to at least compete with them.

This season we have been guilty of allowing inferior opposition to have far too much possession and scores. First game of the season we allowed Leigh to get into an 18nil lead, okay we luckily won the game but Leigh shouldn't have been allowed to get into that position. We were lucky against Salford and Hull (league) and have been walking a tightrope for weeks. Even York gave us a game for a good hour.

Our two biggest games so far this season we have failed miserably.

Not yet played Saints & Wire which is a scary thought.

On a positive note we've probably got enough points in the bag already not to have to worry about relegation

Will probably go and lock myself in the basement for those two.

Unless there are changes to personnel then a bottom 4 wouldn’t surprise me.
The Huddersfield game will I think be very telling.
No pack to speak of and no FB. Could be another real drubbing.

I don't know what qualifies Radlinski to be a Chief Executive if I'm honest - I don't think he's done a good job at all.

As for Tomkins McIllorum et al - that's down to money. It's pretty clear we're not awash with cash. To be fair with our Academy that's not a problem if you make a couple of astute veteran signings a year to help the younger players. Sadly we've consistently fluffed our lines there.

They were very good, reminded me very much of a good NRL team, just wore us down, not many errors and good last tackle plays but nothing yesterday made me think ‘that was brilliant’ or ‘you can’t defend against that’. There wasn’t a tonne of offloading or high risk plays that came off.

Give over

Hudds currently making us look good, HT Wakey 30-0 Hudds

I'm glad you appreciate how well the Dragons played. And there will be more to come like that.

Yes they did on the back of a strong forward dominance and half backs with time to operate. But we did make it so easy for them - too many poor performances, ill-discipline and poor tactics. Straight after half-time we gave a penatly away in the first set which put us on the back foot. Our kicking game was totally one dimensional and even on the rare occurances when we got near the Catalan line we never looked capable of scoring.

Catalan (especially at home) are a good team no doubt but it was all too easy for them, Wigan offered no threat from the first to last minute of the game.

Second half every time we cam out from our line we got about 30 yards and just hoofed the ball up in the middle of the Cataln half - so easy for Tomkins to catch it and run to half-way before our defese got anywhere near to him, no attempt to kick and turn the Ctalan team around, poor options all the time.

Looking from the outside, the enthusiasm of your young, inexperienced and fairly lightweight pack got you through up until yesterday. Catalans pack worked them over and the halfbacks took advantage. We have our own numpty in Tom Lineham but Hardaker and to an extent Bateman are rather “nastier” when things don’t go their way, that could prove costly.

I know we generally like having people work for the club who have an emotional attachment to it but sometimes you can see how it can hinder our progress. Kris R is Wigan through and through so it might be a good idea to give the strategic planning job to someone who is not worried about upsetting their mates.

The next 3 games are Huddersfield HKR and Wakefield
I’d suggest a top 2 side should win all three
A top 6 side say 2 out of 3
A bottom 4 side probably 1 or nil

How confident currently are you on how many we would win?
My assumptions above are not very scientific but I’d like to think are roughly what a lot of people would broadly agree with.

Perspiration will only get you so far and at the moment there seems to be very little inspiration within the set up.
I’m not being defeatist but I’m not sure with the current personnel on and off the field how we are going to improve and after the next three games the opposition gets stronger so the downward trend could continue.

I agree with others that Lam rightly or wrongly will be here until the end of the season so unless new blood is introduced on the playing front I just don’t see how we turn it around particularly in the short term.

Hey I hope I’m wrong and the first 8 games have been a blip but at best I see us around mid table and lower than that would not be a great surprise

The next 3 games are Huddersfield HKR and Wakefield
I’d suggest a top 2 side should win all three
A top 6 side say 2 out of 3
A bottom 4 side probably 1 or nil

How confident currently are you on how many we would win?
My assumptions above are not very scientific but I’d like to think are roughly what a lot of people would broadly agree with.

Perspiration will only get you so far and at the moment there seems to be very little inspiration within the set up.
I’m not being defeatist but I’m not sure with the current personnel on and off the field how we are going to improve and after the next three games the opposition gets stronger so the downward trend could continue.

I agree with others that Lam rightly or wrongly will be here until the end of the season so unless new blood is introduced on the playing front I just don’t see how we turn it around particularly in the short term.

Hey I hope I’m wrong and the first 8 games have been a blip but at best I see us around mid table and lower than that would not be a great surprise

You honestly believe we will finish in the bottom 4?

My main concern is our lack of line breakers now that Field and French are out long term. Gildart and Marshall may help but in 2020 we were hugely reliant on Bevan French, both to break the line and to create space for others. This is why I was never a fan of Zak playing fullback long term even though some of the media were calling for it.