Correct, the quality of players from outside the club has gone down since the time of Madge being the Coach

Even the website is out of date. We are now into the season and still we do not know who is playing in the Under 18 and 16 Academy and Womens teams.

Hardly surprising that sale of season tickets has not been very good!

I've got no complaints about Hastings. I think he's shown enough to demonstrate his quality, but he's on a hiding to nothing unless we beef up the pack.

Playing Smith or Shorrocks could have been an option, not both. On a small pitch we should have gone big, had at least Clarke involved, pushed Havard into the second row and maybe brought in Bullock/Kilner.

Either way, we are peeing into the wind until we get a new coach. I had a chat with my Widnes supporting mate before the season, he’d backed Wigan for the Grand Final, I said no chance because we have a good squad, we will finish top 3 but we won’t win a big game because we don’t have the coach.

In all seriousness I think I’d rather give Matty Peet the job. In fact I’d be putting the feelers out now for Jason Demetriou.

Although Smithies and Partington are decent players, the problem with both of them is they struggle to make metres, so them constantly playing together is hindering our go forward a lot and especially when you’ve got 10 minute Tony in the same team, Clark and Bullock in for Partington and Clubb next week imo

Whilst I don’t watch Wigan regularly (bar TV games), I did notice that Wigan seemed to have no set plays or patterns of play. You’ve got the likes of French and Hastings, and not once did they offer the threat of a set play together. I can’t remember seeing Hastings trying to find French once in the entire 80 minutes.
I’m just not sure what Wigan do in training, if there isn’t any evidence of combinations or pre-planned moves on game-day. That comes down to coaching.

That's one very expensive hobby.

In two weeks we play HullFC at home. For that Lam has to put out a big and experienced pack, anything less and we'll lose.

The best way to attempt a win surely is to play the big forwards v Toronto so they'll be more familiar than throwing out a never tried before team and squad v Hull.

G Burgess (if fit), Bullock, Flower, Byrne maybe Clarke should be props, Greenwood and Farrell back row with Lockers at 13.
Go with Smith at scrum half as we'll need his good kicking game and Hastings at 6.
Backs select themselves until Manfredi and Gildart are fit.

After the Cas selection shambles Lam needs to get his head around the fact that when it comes to RL forwards size matters. If he doesn't learn that soon it may be too late.

I noticed that time after time when we went to our right flank French would be coming round the back of our line but every time it went to Isa,we need to be missing Isa out and creating a 3 on 2 or is that wishful thinking

Correct, but at the same time, supporters and indeed shareholders are entitled to question some of the decisions being made by Lenagan and Radlinski like for example, the game at Millwall and the trip down under to Australia which resulted in financial losses to the club.

Financial decisions which may have something to the do with the poorer quality of some of the signings made from outside the club in the last couple of seasons or so compared to the seasons prior to the above two ventures taking place.

We spend a boat load of money on Hastings, also sign the player he formed a partnership with last season in Bibby and then split them to accommodate a young player. No. If we are to play another halfback with Hastings then they have to make way, not Hastings.

Having Bibby and Hastings together is more solid defensively because they trust each other, whereas Bibby was coming across Smith as Smith isn’t as good in defence as Hastings and Bibby was coming in trying to defend for him, we can’t have that, teams will just try and have their second rowers run all over Smith so that Bibby starts coming across then after a few times ping the ball out wide.

Can’t defend Bibby a single ounce for that missed tackle. He and Smith were soft and both got it horribly wrong and neither can be excused for such a poor attempt. Hankinson would have never missed that tackle.

I think the defence has been good so far this season. Wigan have only conceded three tries and two of those have been poor individual efforts. That should have been good enough to win both games.
It's the attack and poor discipline that has been most disappointing.
I always believe that defence is a team thing whereas tackling is an individual thing.

Its been like this for ages. I brought it up in the off season and asked why not look back at some of the past moves of the 90s and fit them into the modern game when the time is right. I was shouted down, told that you can only play modern RL to set structure that must not be strayed from. Garbage i say, they are trying to over complicate a simple issue of confusing defenders because thats what it boils down to be in 1992 or 2020.

Apologies Rogues but grinding out wins with good defence isn't what Lam has promised for the last 15 months.
Also I think adjectives stronger than disappointing are also necessary. We've played one man rugby with incessant inside balls every game. Fans debate on which 2 to pick from Manfredi, Marshall and Burgess and I just smile. Marshall has had 2 passes in 2 games. Burgess a similar number. I'm not a statistician but I'd have a guess that our wingers scored fewer tries last year than in any year in at least the last decade.

I'm angry not disappointed that with a relatively healthy squad and with decent acquisitions of French and Hastings I'm watching a style of rugby that frankly is pretty dire.
I'm tired of hearing not disappointed that the coach once again can only blame the players after the Cas game with zero reference to his input to the game. He states "we didn't play to the plan", "our discipline was poor" which he can effect and if he were a coach be able to rectify quite easily.

I'm bored not disappointed of hearing "training went well". As a few have said since his tenure we have zero style or structure so I don't know what "training went well" means.

If we had lost 16-12 to say the 2017 Cas team last Friday I would have been disappointed but could have taken it on the chin but losing to a pretty much decimated 2019 Cas team with hardly a sniff of rugby or fight just drives me crazy.

Fixed that for ya

Watching the extended highlights on Wigan TV it doesn't look like our attack was lacking ideas, it looks like it was a case of poor execution in a close game, plus a little bit of bad luck at times. A couple of breaks that we made you would expect to lead to tries - such as the Burgess break where he flung the ball back inside over French's head. The Farrell break where he should have passed inside to Smith but threw it in touch behind Burgess. Smith's inside pass to French on the last and the kick through to Burgess was a well worked move.

I'm willing to wait a couple more games to see whether we see much improvement in attack. We always tend to come into the season with less game time under our belts than most teams and it can lead to a slow start.

I think our biggest issue compared to other teams is that most sides put on good attacking moves off the back of a dominant carry and quick play the ball. I'm not sure our forwards have been able to give us the best opportunity to do that so far. There are a few subtleties to making good carries and getting quick play the ball that I think come with experience. In form I think Flower and Bullock could add a lot to this side.

What did you think about the Bibby no try decision? I also want to see the obstruction calls, one of which I think would have led to a try. The first Havard penalty looked harsh and I think the Cas player was offside on the final play of the game (cherry and white specs on)

edit
I've just watched it again and Bibby definitely scores. Even if that's not given, the Cas player kicks the ball over the dead ball line and it's a goal line dropout, NOT a 20 metre tap which is what was given.

Not sure which penalty it was I'll have to watch again, but the crowd appeals with the usual "ooooo" shout and the ref responds but it's across the chest.

Funny how the Bibby No Try isn't included in the official Super League highlights reel...



Was the knock on that lead to the 2nd Cas Try the correct call? Looked like he hit the arm, not the ball from where we were standing.

So many tries in the modern game involve the full-back coming into the attacking line on one edge or the other. They are either directly involved in play by receiving the ball and creating an over-lap for the outside backs, or indirectly involved by creating indecision in the defensive line and creating space for others.

The disallowed try was right in front of us and for me it was a try. At one point I thought the TJ had indicated that it was a try.
We had other opportunities that we flunked miserably though

Never ceases to amaze me on RLfans, how many disallowed tries we’re “right in front of me”.

You've never fixed or been right about anything in your life.

Im not disputing that but who says all teams must stick to this kind of play? Why not mix it up so that the opposition have no idea what kind of play you are going to run next?

Just watched the no try back. Looks to me like he's grounded it on the deadball line, hence the 20m tap. Fine margins.

First obstruction - Isa stops in the line, as soon as Lockers passes it's a penalty. Either Isa needs to get through the gap, or Lockers needs to surrender. We get given a soft penalty on the next set, Isa then ruins it by getting penalised in possession for slapping a Cas player. Massive one that, stupid.

Second obstruction also correct, Farrell stops in the line.

You're right about Cas being offside at the end. We should have had a penalty and needed to do a 'wide to West'. Daft decision to spend time taking the conversion, we have the right to elect not to take it, and the clock would have gone off straight away.

Overall we were our own worst enemies in that game. Over eagerness in defence led to three offside penalties. Three high tackles. A shoulder charge. Penalised in possession for striking. Marched 10 metres for dissent. You can't do that on a short pitch and expect to win the game. Constantly gave ourselves hard work to do.