He also emphasized more, and praised you more on what you've said. What more did you want him to say?

He was asked specifically about Matty Peet and did everything he could to make it sound like Peet has it easy and that any success is because of other people and the advantages Peet has (great assistants, great academy, rich chairman etc).

As I say, he came across as pretty bitter to me.

If you think he's bitter, has your club made him to feel that way?

Matt Peet got his job. Is that enough, in your opinion, to make him bitter?

No not really.

I can imagine Lam is not overly pleased when he looks at his chairman's antics and the leotard-like outfits he has to wear on matchday, then reflects on what might have been if he'd been a little better in his role at Wigan.

You'd have to ask him why he came across that way and why he felt the need to deflect any praise whatsoever away from his old assistant coach. Sad really, especially when the question was asked because Matty Peet had praised the job Lam has done at Leigh but the green eyed monster does funny things to a man.

17k tickets sold, should be a cracker.

It's pleasing to see the play off crowds looking like they're bucking the trend this season. The venues and fixtures have played it's part (The fact most Yorkshire clubs don't bother with the play offs anymore helps keep the travelling down) but it's still positive and hopefully something we can build on. The biggest and best games of the season having the lowest crowds was always pretty baffling.

If you think Lam is bitter, then fine, that's your opinion. Lam is doing a fine job at Leigh, and brought our club to where we have never been before. He is showing his coaching class in bringing Leigh from the championship with 7 players, winning the C-Cup, to a semi final in the play offs in 3 seasons. Ok, if he veered off praising Peet; I'll do it instead.......Peet, tha doin a grand job owd lad.

It is and I also agree with you in that Lam has done a great job at Leigh. He's a Wigan legend, so I'm pleased for him and it's been great for both clubs to have Leigh back in Superleague and doing well. I just found it a bit sad that Lam couldn't bring himself to praise a young guy, who used to assist him in coaching Wigan. They've both gone on to do really well, so you'd like to think his feeling would be more of pride and being happy for a mate but it came across as the opposite. I doubt Peet will lose any sleep though in fairness.

17k sold now which beats the league fixture in July, good effort, hopefully it'll be close to 20k come kick-off

Always frustrated the hell out of me, this attitude which seems to imply there's some kind of virtue in being a less well-off club. There's no such thing in the world of professional sport, and a broad failure to grasp that has played its part in holding the British game back for so long.

Poverty row clubs don't deserve any more special consideration than anyone else. If they can't compete because a rival has better facilities or a more expensive playing roster, that's their problem. Don't come shouting the odds and shouldering your way in among the big boys and then complain because they've all got better gear than you. All that means is you shouldn't be there. And that is especially the case in the age of the Salary Cap, which was a blatant attempt to defy natural selection and contrive a level playing field - though even that, it seems, isn't good enough for some people.

Think a bit less of Lammy after hearing pre-match excuses like these.

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2024/10/ ... emi-final/ I'd imagine Miski for Eckersley will be the only change assuming that knee niggle is ok

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2024/10/ ... emi-final/ I'd imagine Miski for Eckersley will be the only change assuming that knee niggle is ok

Blimey! Stop being so tetchy.

When do the club release the details for the GF, don't they usually have an announcement to say if we win on Saturday then tickets go on sale on this date etc. etc.

Off the top of my head it feels like it's a day or two before the semi, so it could be anytime. We go to the Final every year anyway and have bought from the RFL again to save the hassle. Wigan or Leigh have the Stretford end. If Leigh win on Saturday, I'm off down to Leigh market for a Leopard print tank top ready for the final! It should be a cracking final this year, regardless of which two sides make it.

However many tickets are "sold", I'll bet there're well under 15k people actually in the stadium.

Lam has always been an excuse man, 2019 he kept blaming the departures of Tomkins, Bateman and Sutton even though we’d signed a few players. Always blaming injuries and the ref.

He even mentioned this week, how they “controversially” lost to us in the last game of last season (because of an disallowed try 30 minutes before the end of the game)

how come?

There are no season ticket holders included in this game so any tickets sold are actual tickets, unless you are maybe referring to freebies that may not turn up but not sure if they can do that for the play off games

I agree with all of the above but have more of a mixed view on Lam's time as Wigan coach.

Pros

- Was hired to a tricky position as a temporary coach and dealt with that very professionally
- Generally maintained the defensive grit we had under Shaun Wane
- Recruited French and Field (and had very bad luck in 2021 when they both got injured)
- Won a League Leaders and can feel very unlucky not to win that Grand Final

Cons

- The 2nd half of 2020 aside - we never developed a cohesive attack under Lam
- Looked a little lost and confused at times - I remember several times when he publicly stated he couldn't understand what had gone wrong as we'd trained well etc.
- I think we saw a fragile ego emerge in 2021 when he started making bizarre, defensive statements - the biggest one being when he insisted we had the best attacking shape in the competition despite us being nilled three times in the space of a few weeks. I think the ego still rears its head now and again at Leigh.
- Generally team morale and togetherness had eroded in 2021 - e.g. player fallouts and a general lack of standards/accountability as Kris Rads and Shaun Wane alluded to in a post season interview

Great player and I'm pleased he's doing so well at Leigh but he left Wigan at the right time (particularly given who replaced him!)

We are literally a day or two before the semi final, I just hope isn't not going to be one of those situations where they go straight on release after the game has finished, so those at the game on Saturday will not really know about it until later on, but thanks for the info NK, it should be a good and hopefully well attended final this year.

Yeah that's what I mean, it's usually a day or two before the semi, so it should be due. Hopefully the ticket site can cope if we do win on Saturday. The RFL has said it's pretty much guaranteed to be the biggest final crowd in 7 or 8 years. All the clubs left will take a good support.