Deacons always been one of the players ive rated highly throughout his career and ive no doubt he can bring alot of quality to not just the coaching side but the playing side aswel.

Im sure he will work well with both half backs, mainly Sam to develop his kicking game in general play.

He's a good professional, who has had a good career so far and looked after himself well - so he should be in pretty good shape in terms of fitness.

Maybe we will see Sam or Tommy as our back up goal kicker aswel?

Is he going to be are equivalent of Andrew Duneman? In which I mean he'll be signed to bring through are younger halfbacks guiding them round the park.

Deacon has been remarkably unlucky - his two best 'big stage' performances, vs Saints at Old Trafford in 2002 and NZ at Huddersfield in 2005 were each tarnished by factors outside his control, namely an incorrect video ref decision that chalked off his Grand Final try and Nigel Vagana's thuggery that could have killed him in the test match.

Lowes and Paul were each brilliant, but hardly without patches of poor form and serious injury in the latter's case. No Deacs, no treble in 2003 I'm pretty confident to say.

If Sam or Tommy get injured we have no reserve half backs with any SL experience so I could see the logic in signing him as cover.

The main problem with this though is if his main job is to be junior coaching how will he stay match fit enough to be worthwhile cover?

Dave

If im not wrong, the academy team train later afternoon as most of them go to college in days.

Wrong on so many counts. (IMO of course

)

I think the idea behind a potential move for Deacon would be for mainly stengthening the squad with an experienced player, mentoring young players, having a good professional attitude, Wigan & home grown influence and future involvement with coaching.

An Overseas player such as Orford would IMO be the typical end of career, 2 year big payout contract with every intention of going home at the end of his spell.

I guess it depends on what his coaching role is. I’d imagine at the start he’ll be looking after the youngsters and any involvement with the first team will be minimal or just centred round the HB’s. With both Radders and Maguire as senior full time coaches you’d expect them to be looking after 90% of the backs coaching.

So really it’s not unrealistic for him to be training fully with the rest of the squad and when the time comes for them to get some position specific coaching he’ll lead the HB’s in this and probably join in with them as well.
As a side point that would now give us Radders, Deacon and Forshaw as coaches at the club all were excellent SL players who have played at the highest level. Although question marks can be asked of Forshaw’s conditioning skills he’s still got bucket loads of experience to pass down. The top job was too much for him but under our new conditioning coach he may have found his level.

I like what MM and IL are doing. Get the top jobs filled with the best people out there and other roles under them being filled with players who have played top level RL.

I really can't see a downside in getting Deacon.

He isn't going to cost the earth, will give us plenty of experience and hopefully the long kicking game that we've been a bit lacking in since Trent went home. We don't have a senior specialist Scrum Half at the club, so it's an area for development.

I think that is the key point. Bringing him in to help coach would be a good idea BUT if he was to take up ANY of your playing contract i would be dissappointed if i was a Wigan fan.

Deacs is a very smart bloke isn't he? Straights As at school, would have gone on to uni but for debuting in SL in '98. I'd have thought he would be an asset to have round the club.

Not really - given that beyond the two first choice half-backs (Tommy and Sam) there is no one ready to step up in the event of either being un-available, any young players are by all accounts not ready to make that step up. So having someone of Deacon's experieince available as a cover would be a sensible option - especially as it sounds like his primary role would be coaching the younger players to make the step up after him.

I can't really see a downside - Wigan have cover in most positions or at least have younger players looking to make that next step, half-back is the exception.

I still think i'd prefer Orford.

But if we are unable to move on any of our current players I suppose he provides cover, but where has this coaching thing come from? What are his credentials? I hope they are more than just being a Wiganer.

Why tho?

It's not like we are signing him to be one of the starting HB’s is it? We’ve already got two of the best young HB’s in SL cemented in as a pairing for us.

We've got Mellor in the reserves who is supposed to be a very good player but I’d be cautious about the possibility of throwing both him and Sam in as HB pairing next year if Tommy get injured.

What’s the difference in us singing a 31 year old BACK UP HB and Hudds signing Gilmour to START for them? Deacon is nothing more than cover and depth for the first team.

if he was from down under there wouldnt be many moaning

Don't be daft, this place is borderline BNP towards aussies, see Roberts & Riddell for further details.

I think it's a good call, hopefully he'll do a lot of work on our kicking game, he kicked us to death in many a game.

So did Danny Orr, but he turned out to be useless.

Dont think deacon would be a good signing, take his kicking away and he is pot, however his kicking is very good, and we arnt very good at it.

Orr was decent, he was hamstrung by having a clown like Millward as coach and Denis Moran as his halfback partner.

Danny Orr didn't coach us, and wasn't exactly surrounded by class when he played.


Then only have him coach kicking, to be fair that's the main thing our halfbacks need coaching in.

Agree with the millward thing, but Orr was poor before that.

With regards, to Moran yes he was pants, but what do you expect asking someone who scores 30 tries a season, to start leading a team around the field. Danny Orr should have been doing that as he did at Cas, and Moran running the channels, as he did at london.

So its a combo of terrible players and a worse coach, but they were equally as bad under betts

I think you should read the piece on Bradford's bid for Orford AJ. Apparently they have tabled a "big offer". That being the case I wouldn't want him. Our immediate future in the halves is in our young players and paying big money for a 32 year old is not the way to go.

Finance wise, I understand why Orford is probably a bad idea, but it doesnt mean I wouldnt like to see him in place @ 7 with Tommy @ 9.

Was not sure at first but have warmed to the idea.... Wigan lad, lives in the area and was a capable player.... More importantly he fits the new ethos...

Which is?