Whilst agree with your point, there isnt a single coach (imo) that could do better with our current squad. There is a serious lack of coaching talent in this country, the british coaches in particular seem to offer nothing in terms of new ideas. The alternative of Aussie assistants has failed in all cases but Maguire so far, maybe Gentle at Hull will succeed, but even if he does, he will go to the NRL. Maguire was way ahead of his time for SL and the changes he brought in will see us in good stead for a while. If we did have an average year (say we finished 6th and went out the cup at the qf) who would IL look to bring in? As for the horrendous Noble era, the less said about that the better, the man was an absolute joke. He's just released a 'guide to management', hope wane doesn't buy a copy.

I couldn't agree more. One of the most underrated figures in the turnaround of Wigan RL imo.

Yes IIRC Westie was given the boot for losing one match.

Granted that was a match against St Helens, but like Dave O, I also reckon Graeme West was very shabbily treated.

Wasn't he also the coach when we beat the aussies downunder for the WCC ?

Talking of coaches, we lack here in the UK, anyone with intellect.

The modern game is like a chess game.

Maguire was a man of intellect. Unfortunately Sean Wane isn't.

He sacked Tony Rea at Quins and brought in McDermott- after trying to get the Edwards/panface double act

who hasnt sacked tony rea though?

"Sacking" IL style:

On 8 July 2006, Harlequins announced a re-organisation of the coaching set-up. Rea was replaced by McDermott and appointed onto the club's board of directors where he served for 2 years.

HEY!!!!! Stop putting facts in the way of a biased opinion!!!!

If i've ever seen a "nice sacking" that is it-Taken away from influencing rugby. Why pay him off when you can get him to work as a director especially as he had been the Chief Exec of the Broncos in his previous life.

Wane may get the pie shop to run when he is sacked

He coached Bradford to 3 World Club Challenge wins, 3 Super League trophies and 1 Challenge Cup. He took us from relegation candidates to the 3rd best team in the league, and he took Crusaders from bottom of the table to a play off spot. He wasn't the man to take us to the next level but he is surely the most successful coach of the Super League era so far. Hardly a joke!

He won't get sacked, he's "the people's coach" and can do no wrong in the eyes of both IL and the majority of fans. Personally I beg to differ

I think he had the devils own job following Madge. People expect results. Personally I want to see him grow as a coach & improve, which I'm positive he will over time.

I think the Wane badgers should have a day off! League leaders and inches away from 2 finals in his 1st season isn't bad. People need to realise that we will never get back to the club that will win everything every season. He will do us proud I'm sure of it.

Spot on! He really does have the job at a tough time. I mean the whole of Super League is in a transition period now and the only way to really build a team is on youth. Saints made the biggest name signings last year in Laffranchi & Hohaia and ended up trying to beat square pegs in to round holes.

He had a relatively good first season with what some might say was Maguire's team. (few signings and tactics etc)

This is now his team. He either signed them, or they came through under during his academy reigns. They have had over 12 months under him as a first team coach and should be ready to step up. He has to deliver this season imo.

Have to disagree, he has come in at a really tough time. How can you say he must deliver with the list of people we have had to let go?

I still think we can have a crack at both trophies though. I'm confident we can get to the semi-final of the cup again and I'm fairly confident of a top 3 finish.

When I say deliver I don't neccessarily mean win a trophy but I think he needs to get us to at least one final.

Having won the GF, CC and finished top twice in the last 3 years we have to kick on and not go backwards otherwise it will be 2007-2009 all over again.

Quite right.

'Nobby' ought not to have his '[iescutscheon'[/i blemished.

He is possibly the best UK coach at the moment

Having said that, he still fall's short very much. And having said that also, that is why I made the point a while ago that we need to have university graduates come into the game and articulate the way forward.

I was at Salford Uni in the 80's. Our current crop of students of every discipline, need to be brought into the game at every level.

Bloody Union code do it.

I don't think that is true. I have seen it said by fans that Wane had a pretty successful season in 2012 winning the league and getting to two semi-finals. Rumour has it IL does not share these views.

every wigan fan Ive spoke to expects next year to not be as good as the one thats just gone due to player turnover.

If IL doesnt share this view then Wane will be in trouble

At a pre-Madge fans forum IL said that his on-field aspirations were to "contest finals" and "match or better Leeds who are (were then) the benchmark". By his criteria 2012 wasn't successful.

Completely agree with that.

Noble was very good at getting us to Semi Finals and IL made it clear that just getting to the SF wasn't good enough for Wigan.

We didn't learn our lesson from the first Leeds SF this year, let's hope the reminder they served us will hammer home the point for 2013.

IL might share that view. I don't think he is daft and so I think he will have his own ideas as to what Wane must do to meet his expectations given the differences in playing staff. I am pretty certain Wane didn't meet them in 2012.

My guess is the raw statistics won't interest IL so much. By this I mean on paper getting to a GF semi final again might seem a good thing but there is a difference between a side that is going into one with a lot of form with the expectation of a win not being unreasonable compared to one that gets there when no one expects them to go further.

If the team plays well and looks well organised and tactically sound but gets beat in a close semi-final Wane may survive that. If it lurches into the semi looking shattered and Wane does something stupid again like playing Murphy getting to the semi won't count for much at all IMO.

I think Wane would have done a lot better if he had given Murphy and Powell game time early in the year when we were beating all and sundry in the league. That way we would have been more prepared for Leuluai and Tomkins' injuries, and McIlorum's ban. This year I would say the same two players again, plus maybe Logan Tomkins, need to be ready to step into the first team, because they're only one injury from a call up unless we want to be forced down the route of putting Richards at 1 (with Gelling or Thornley at 5) or Lockers at 6/9.

Whilst there may be some truth in that, we should also acknowledge that:

Wane has been the far more open to give youngsters game time that his immediate predecessors

Wane got his fingers burnt on 2 occasions when we lost games we should have won, by fielding a weakened side (admittedly against the Bulls most changes were forced rather than optional)

Overall, Wane handled the blooding of youngsters pretty well. However, if we had won the away game at Widnes I am sure that Tomkins, Murphy and Powell would have had more opportunities. The backlash following that defeat forced him into a more conservative approach.

Wane did well at blooding props and second rowers, not that we had any real development need there but when you look at the other positions it's a sad story

Full back
Russell - despite being outstanding in pre-season he got 1 game in position and 1 game on the wing before we sent him off to Hull. We didn't even use him when Sam got injured. He's left now

Murphy - 1 game then thrown in at the deep end in the semi final

Wing
King - 1 game, despite Richards being injured most of the season

Centre
Hughes - Fair play he had plenty game time at centre but I'm hardly alone in thinking that he's a second rower playing out of position. Time will tell on this but I think he would have been smarter giving Gelling or Thornley some game time at centre

Gelling - Still never played centre, despite Carmont missing loads of games through injury and us knowing he was likely to leave at the end of the year. He got game time on the wing where he was pretty poor but we didn't sign him as a winger

Thornley - See Gelling

Half backs
Powell - 1 game despite Leuluai missing loads of games through injury and McIlorum's ban (Smith could have played 9)

Mellor - 3 games then sent out on loan. Didn't get any games when Leuluai got injured or when McIlorum was banned. He's left now

Hooker
Logan Tomkins - I didn't realise until I looked into it that he actually got 9 games! (3 starts and 6 off the bench). Fair play to Wane on that one, it doesn't speak much for Logan though that he didn't come into the reckoning when McIlorum got banned