They would love him if he had won a league leaders shield and a grand final in year one.
And a challenge cup in year 2

We do what we want stuff everybody else



I love it how everybody jumps all over everything we do. Just shows how many people have their eyes on us

Were Wigan rugby, we'll do what we want!



Seriously though, it's got to be a good idea - keep the players focussed

Why would people be bothered whether we've got a media ban or not? How exactly is that disrespectful to rugby league? Weirdos.

If any other team had lost in the first week of the play-offs and then done this, no one would be particularly interested.

But this is Wigan, the greatest club in the game. Fans of other clubs can't help talking about Wigan.

Saddened is familiar to you guys too then?



He's well known for trolling the Warrington board.

I bet he hates the fact that both the teams he trolls are better than Saints these days.

As for the media blackout, the problem really is most of the media are pretty boring and ask the same type of crappy questions looking for the same type of articles, like "Maguire wary of Catalans threat".

I think the tiredness is pretty obvious but there's an unwritten rule that you don't make excuses. I remember one time when Cullen was Warrington coach in a game we lost Lee Briers just before kick off and some journo asked Cullen did the loss of Briers make a difference and Cullen tried to make out it was irrelevant to the result, we had just lost because we'd played poorly, but it would have been fair enough if he'd just said yes.

I have been saying all season I thought Wigan would win the double but as of right now I think you are going to run out of steam even if you get past Catalans, there does not look like enough in the tank. It has been a good season overall for Wigan if you just win the CC anyway.

I'm pretty sure that if we had lost last week and done it, Wiganers would have been talking about this no end! You'd have all been saying Tony Smith had lost it and couldn't deal with the fact the Dire were shown up as bottlers again.

Don't ruin it for Deano.

I'm sure a thread discussing Wigan's media strategy for the week has sod all to do with another Warrington measuring contest. Lets keep it that way ladies, thank you.

George Riley has his 2 cents on twitter

"Can't abide Maguire's Wigan press blackout."Important week" for them yes but the constant battle to get national profile for RL is tough too"

Later replied with "i think there is an element of panic and rightly so"

Why are people so bothered? I cant believe a media person seems to think some Wigan players not talking to the press is going to wipe out the profile of RL for a week. There's other teams and other people involved this week you know.

Wouldnt call it panic either, but what do i know?

I don't know why this is even running it's course it's only what we did last year before final so it's nothing new FFS

Aww, the journos are having a whinge! Given that pretty much every RL journalist is absolute crap it would be better if they just imposed their own media blackout anyway.

The second comment is the sort of thing I'm sure Maguire will want to hear. He'll hope to build an 'us against the world' mentality this week and by drip feeding people's criticisim from outside the camp he can help achieve that.

Interesting times.

Shock horror, a journalist not amused with a press blackout.

I don't see why the journalists can't cover the sport without interviewing Wigan coaches and players this week.

In fact journalism would be better if they thought about something different, players and coaches nearly always say the same thing.

If they had been talking to the press all they would have said was

"We respect Catalans, its gonna be a tough game"
"We're going to have to be on top of our game to beat them"
"The league means nothing now its a new competition from here"
"We aren't thinking of the double we're not looking any further than the Catalans game"
"Yes we have injuries but that's part and parcel of the game"

Cant quite see what the problem is?

Its not as if Madge is the type who is constantly churning out soundbites like Brown, Smith, Agar etc.

He has never given the press anything and they dislike him for that. The black out has just given the petty little children a reason to show this.

Non story as far as i am concerned.

I am genuinely saddened by the pettiness of a lot of RL "fans". People go on about the RL family, but i cant see it. Our sport is supported by a fickle bunch of provincial sissies who like nothing better than a snide little hate campaign.

It has gotten to the stage that you only expect reasonable posts from a handful of individual posters from other boards. Chances are the rest are talking b0ll0k$.

Nearly every RL Journo is having a whinge. And Garry Schofield. It's got everyone talking though, done more for RL today than anyone or anything else. I can see where they are coming from, and it does make their job a bit more difficult, but maybe they could talk about the match in general? they dont have to talk to players to talk about a match. Obviously it makes life easier though. Maybe they might have to do some research into the games instead of just randomly quoting people all week

Journos on twitter going into meltdown



it really is pathetic

Great stuff. Suspiciously reminiscent of Andy Wilson's doubts about "the wobbling Warriors" at this time last year, and that pillock in the Yorkshire Evening Post who writes whatever Gary Hetherington tells him, who in last year's play-offs commended Leeds for their adversarial stance in the week leading up to the semi, criticised Wigan for having no bottle to respond, and then kept his gob well and truly shut when Leeds were knocked out.

Let's remember that the average RL journo gave Danny McGuire a vote for Lance Todd in the Cup Final. Work that one out if you can, without either casting doubt on his sanity, his common sense or his ability to do his job without being hampered by a parochial bias that borders on the completely juvenile.

RL journalists are an absolute joke, and have been for as long as I've been reading the newspapers.

Dave Woods is being particularly moronic about it.

The journos seen to have failed to grasp that Madge's commitment is to Wigan and to do what he feels will have the best results for his club - not keep half a dozen hacks satisfied with some tired clichés that they can trot out.

Had my say on Twitter lol. I was being tongue in cheek a bit but still.......

Chris Irvine has wet his knickers a couple of times while jumping up and down because he can't get his own way.

Most of whom would struggle to hold down at job in the real journalistic world as there they wouldn't get their 'stories' spoon-fed to them, and would have to trot out more than a couple of column-inches each week.

Meanwhile, here's a brief but amusing exchange on the same subject, freely lifted from TotalRL.

Some pratt called Doghead: "You will have to explain to the Wigan players 'media'."

Riding Pie: "We can book a larger room and explain it to the RFL at the same time."

Some lazy RL journos getting ripped to shreds about their ypants attitude on Twitter.

Says a lot about Wigan's standing in the game that a blackout gets more coverage than other teams' press conferences.

Let's be honest we have saved the playoffs from complete boredom and failure since 07.

06 - Without us everything went boringly to plan, McManus complained that Wigan had got more coverage for the great escape than they had for doing the double.
07 - The comeback from 6-30 at Bradford, went to final eliminator from sneaked 6th (last then) place, everyone sprouted beards (mostly the men).
08 - Overcame Whelan, ran in 50 in France the week after Cats had put 50 on Wire, ran Leeds close.
09 - Final elim again, just a piece of professionalism from Longy away from a possible Grand Final, Noble axed.
10 - Winners the hard way after losing at home in the 1st round.
11 - Don't know yet but whatever good or bad we will generate more interest than anyone else.