Moley reporting that Bellamy is set to sign a new deal at the Storm so Bennetts job appears to be safe at Brisbane

Who would want to come to Wigan as coach??

There are probably not many who wouldn’t want the job!

Any up & coming assistant coach in the NRL would snatch your hand off for the job, come in for a couple of years to prove themselves and go back, as Madge did.

We are in a real downer at the moment but let’s not kid ourselves. We are one of the biggest clubs in the world and head coach at Wigan is a plum job. We won’t be short of applicants.

The way things are going, we are crying out for a Maguire return.

NO, We aren't

I agree, what we need now more than anything is a strong disciplinarian.

John Cartwright

If we have got someone identified for next season I hope they are the one making recruitment decisions now. There is a huge job to freshen up the squad and some key positions need filling with specialists. I expect us to have a large amount of cap space to play with.

We need to be identifying and trying to secure these positions asap and the last person I'd want to be doing that at the moment is Radlinski.

The Father of Reform?

Ex Titans coach and he's bringing Joe Greenwood with him

He was at GCT for 7 years with a 46% success rate, sacked by them and went back to being an assistant, really do hope this isn't true, I'll take Greenwood though

Genuinely, why wouldn't you want Maguire back? He does seem to have a limited shelf life, at any club, partly due to the massive worload he puts on players - there have been a lot of stories about Souths players being worn out before the season even started due to the training regime. There's also Des Hasler if you're looking at NRL experience.

I think you will find that the limited Maguire has won more in the last 4 years than "sue your own club for millions" Des Hasler, who's last success in 2011 was Manly's win over the NZW by the dodgiest forward pass I think I've ever seen in a grand final apart from the Leeds try against Wigan in 2015. However, each coach has a point to prove.

Articles online doing the rounds suggesting Winder all but done for 2019 at least.

This place will be fun, if that’s the case (with good reason!)

I'd have a sneaky punt on Andrew McFadden myself.

Will the Wigan machine continue to march on into 2019....or would you except it as a year of transition for the new coach?

SOL looking to be slowing as does Farrell.
Loului retired?
Bateman to NRL?
Sam Cats. Joel...Leigh/Salford?

Farrell?

I was abroad on Saturday and (thankfully) haven’t seen the game but it’s two weeks since the bloke made 190m+ against Wire at Magic in addition to nearly 30 tackles. He’s having a really good season and has to be the most underrated player in superleague for my money.

The rest I can’t argue with. I hope Leuluai plays on as he’s another having a good season but if he doesn’t and Lockers calls it quits we’ve lost a lot of experience and 2019 could be tough.

I must admit I’ve not thrown the towel in on 2018 yet though like some people seem to have done. Maybe it’s because the last game I attended was that Magic game and I’ve been shielded from the events of the past two weeks but there is a great deal of talent in this current Wigan team and two poor results on the back of a really big shock in Wane announcing his departure doesn’t hide the fact that we’re still in the hunt for two trophies and are in a strong position. The players need to pull their heads from up their backsides but would I be surprised to see O’Loughlin raise the Grand Final trophy above his head at Old Trafford in October? No, not at all.

Big game this Thursday for us in regards to the general atmosphere around the place.

Are we in a crisis? Maybe.
Is it the end of the world and our season? Absolutely not.

I think the past two/three weeks have been the worst we’ve seen in a long long time, probably since 2006. All we’ve seen and known since 2010 is success and watching good to half decent rugby and more often than not - outstanding defence. That may be why these past few weeks have been hard to take.

However, SW and this team are the current Kings of turning it around when we’ve been written off.

Yes there are issues behind the scenes which must be rectified. Certain players need a rocket up their backside and I’d even say SW does, but I’d still fully expect to be involved in the Top 4 play offs.

And just incase you weren’t aware - I am probably one of SW’s biggest critics on this forum.

We need to stop the rot this week for me. If it drags on it becomes more difficult to get over the depression that seems to be over the place but the players and fans need to remember it’s only two weeks since we put in a fantastic performance against Wire at the Magic Weekend and if they can get that going again then why can’t we look to grab that top spot and have a real dig at getting to (and hopefully winning) Old Trafford.

There’s everything to play for and to throw the towel in would be really sad.

Just have a look back at the weekends match around the 5 - 6 mins in from the start, as examples. Farrell was missing tackles left right and centre.

Only Bateman looked to be trying IMHO in that game. Our attacking was non-existant.

One bad game whilst the blokes still reeling from his coach of the last ten years announcing he’s to leave the club is surely forgivable and doesn’t make him a bad player?

Two weeks ago there was a huge number of players who we’d say are having good seasons and two poor weeks in tough circumstances surely doesn’t change that.

Even Sean O'Loughlin was dreadful on Saturday - if it was all based on that game we'd literally be sending out John Bateman plus 16 reserve players on Thursday.

Absolutely. We were missing tackles left right and centre, whilst Wire were off-loading at will and marching us down the park.

I don't think I can bear to re-watch it!

....so I say would you consider 2019 as transitional?
It's almost like you're going to have that 2016 leeds thingy.
I don't except 2017 was transitional for Warrington.

Not just Farrell, but yeah, he missed more tackles that game than the rest of the season put together. Just so unlike him.