KR has given Smith a 4 year contract, resigned JT, signed Pettyboune Isa Laukaki, allowed SW to continue despite consistently failing recently in big matches and allowed the general demeanour of the club to fall to niggly whinging team of part timers.
Will that do for starters?
He is totally and utterly out of his depth.
I can only assume he has zero control of financial matters but obviously indirectly everything falls into pounds shillings and pence.
He has signed TL who never cut it as a top class half and in all honesty I could kick better than TL after 5 or 6 pints of Hydes. Unless TL is our next coach I don't understand the signing.
KR is far too close to SW. it's a relationship doomed due to the cosy mates relationship and his inability to see that we are going backwards.
The buck stops at the top and KR is at the top of the pile.

Isa runs good lines but couldnt burst through a wet paper bag. Never a second row forward. Hes a centre and should have stayed there. I think the reality is we are not as good as we thought we were and actually are a mid table side. Might be spending the cap but so are most now and had some shocking signings and taken in too many young players

ISA couldn't pass a decent ball if his life depended on it.
Useless forward and I couldn't even try to consider him to be a centre.
He epitomises what is wrong with the club. No thought, no brains but a good lad.

I agree Isa is not a top player but to be fair he was not signed as a starting player but as a squad player. He has played far more games than expected, for most of the season Tomkins (J), Farrell, Bateman, Lockers have been missing (often several at once) so Isa has had to play a lot more. As a low price squad player I doubt anyone would have had many issues but as a week in week out starting player he has been lacking. We have had to play Sutton or Tauti in the second row, Mossop as LF for heavens sake. We even lost Gregson who was showing up well. I think Isa whilst not being a stand out player has been steady but obviously when everyone is fit (if that ever happens) he will be at best a interchange player.

My concern is the amount of injuries that we always seem to get and not all of them occur on the playing field quite a number happen in training. Either the conditioning of the players is wrong, or and as I suspect they are being flogged at training.

Have to say, Itchy, I watched the Warriors' golden point win over Penrith shortly after reading that, and if you can land the ball on a dime as Tommy did for Fusitua's try I suggest you get down to the DW pronto with your boots!



Again, in all seriousness, Tommy had a fine game, as he has the last few outings I've seen him, alternating between 7 and 9, linking the play well, still making those bell-ringer trademark tackles, and generally making a better balanced pair with Shaun Johnson than they've had since they mysteriously chose to give Chad Townsend back to the Sharks.

If we could get a good season out of him doing that, and then a coaching role moving on from there, I'd be well happy.

TL general kicking before he left was woeful. The number of occasions he kicked directly to the fullback was pretty incredible.
I think that maybe I'm just a bit frustrated and bored with signing old boys. Fresh names and faces adds a bit of anticipation and newness to the place.
Assuming he replaces Smith who will be the goal kicker?
I can only assume he has been signed with the intent that he will become the assistant coach as soon as he arrives.
Can you send me the link for the Warriors and Penrith game that you mention above?
Thanks

Our club is run by a very closely knit clique

You could in fact call it "The Self Preservation Society" in the way that they all seem to go about their duties unchallenged

That is fine when things are being run correctly and when the club is moving in the right direction,
IMO we are on a downward spiral and our club urgently needs a completely new and fresh approach in order to stop us stagnating in the alarming fashion that we are in recent seasons

A new head coach who is fully responsible for signing players is a must, Let him also bring in an accomplished assistant of his choice, Then we can start to bring back the Wigan way and start winning games with style and flair

Regardless of if we win owt at all this season................I'm bored of watching this 5H1TE

I think that last line sums up how an awful lot of fans, me included, are feeling.
If we get beaten, fine, that's sport, but I don't think I can put up with the boredom factor much longer.
Watching the same set of six being repeated for 80 mins is becoming too much like hard work.

It really is a matter of signing the best players. I thought Radford would have been sacked after Hull's failures over the past two years. However, he has signed great players, is using the same tactics and as a result they have made it to the to of the league and the challenge cup final.
I have watched Wigan for over 50 years and in that time we have never had a slower hooker than McIlorum or Powell and Smith is the slowest scrum half I have ever seen. The spine of our team is broken in 2 very important positions.

Itchy>

I don't have a link to the Warriors game; I watched it on my Premier Sports subscription, Sometimes you can find the games on youtube, but not always straightaway.

There is a lovely score from Shaun Johnson in it!

It was superstar RL, simple..SJ scored a try i dont think anyone could have..

But Tommy was a big factor in their win and he is with us next year..

Future could be good...

its easy to make one player a scapegoat. purely as an outsider looking in, fobbing smith off isn't go to solve anything. play him behind a good pack and he'll be one of the best in the game. SW wants you all playing rough, tough, bash em up the middle rugby and your pack, as I'm sure you're all aware just isn't big enough for that. The one style of attack of running a double X, with the second man out the back throwing a face ball is all to predictable and all.

I've got a lot of respect for Wigan. But its not the players who need looking at, as said before its the coaching staff.

By our club, I assume you're talking about Leeds?

Do you believe that happens anywhere in professional sport?

The coach will contribute for sure, but the guy who signs the cheques is always going to have a say.

If he does he cant you accountable. Here theres some crap players go win the league...

Not sure what you're on about ?
Please enlighten me

You're a Leeds fan - well, all your other usernames are.

My Husband and my 2 children are Rhinos fans

You've forgotten your other two Leeds supporting children and a Bradford supporting Uncle.

I can name them for you given you seem to have forgot them?

I am not sure why this personal issue against me has come about,especially with some of the serial predators that continue to be allowed to troll on here?

To clarify
I am the only Wigan supporter in our household and I only use this username.If I have contravened any rules on here then feel free to ban me,Otherwise I will continue to discuss and vent my anger if required on here

If any of my family have caused any problems on this forum then please feel free to PM me

I will ask them if they have multiple usernames and if they do then I will ask them not to post on here anymore

I'm sure you understand how teenagers and social media work and sometimes they like to be mischievous

Good post. Isa isn't a first team player. In reality he's behind Tomkins Faz and Bateman (to name the obvious). He's played more than expected due to an injury hit pack. Looking at it from this perspective he's actually very good for 3/4 choice; and would arguably get into several other SL clubs.
Our cap management and squad depth has allowed us to finish high in the table regardless of having 5/6/7 starters missing each game.

This has to be considered when discussing recruitment, IL and KR.

If "as good as we will get" is grinding out wins at home to Hull KR, Salford and Wakefield then a lot of folk wont be back next season.

I'm happy to grind wins away at Warrington, Hull and Saints, but I expect to turn them over at the DW where only last season we had a 100% home record in SL fixtures.

Wane talks a lot about the "Wigan Way" - for me the Wigan Way is grinding out wins in games that nobody had us down to win, and comfortably winning the games that we are expected to win. Neither of these have happened this season.

As good as we will get once we have a full squad and with the salary cap restrictions yes, our defence is fine, we may put too much emphasis on it so that our forwards are too tired to run good lines or as dummy runners. We need to focus on our attack and not shackle the players as to me it seems they are frightened to try anything off the cuff.

Exactly. This is by far the worst season I can remember for injuries in over 60 years of watching them. If anything, the club should be proud of how well the "stand-ins" have performed. Without that reserve structure to fall back on, we could easily have gone the way of Leeds.