I feel sorry for Lam.. The circumstances of his reign have been pretty unique. Now when things start to return to normal he is left with the rump of a team that needs rebuilding and that rumour suggests will be underfunded for several years. I cannot imagine our better players being happy to stay around to be punch bags for teams that we should be competing with. How much of our player recruitment and retention is down to Lam I do not know but I just cannot see the same shoots of revival that we had in previous years because we do not have any would be world beaters coming through the ranks either.

Come to think of it it wouldn’t surprise me either

Reads like an excuse to me. Yes he’s missing some decent props (not to say we don’t have them, we do but their workhorses and not metre makers) but with the team he has at his disposal, even with some injuries, he should be getting so much more out of it. We look and have looked for a long time a team bereft of ideas getting by on the solidness of its defence that is a hangover from SW which is now actually starting to fracture and look weak.

He’s so far out of his depth it’s laughable.

I cam on here to see if Lam was getting sacked, so the thread title caused a bit of mild panic



We have gone from a team that regularly over performed to one that now regularly underperforms

Sorry about that!

I do wonder what is next for him? That dream of becoming an NRL coach seems to be just that.

I do hope his replacement is not a cheap option.

He said today he’ll discuss his future in July and wishes he’d gone in a couple of weeks ago now after we’d had a great start to the season

It could be a very short discussion.

Then you are misreading it. I feel sorry for Lam because he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Having said that I am not sure that the best coach in the world could get many more yards out of our forwards at the moment if Bullock can only manage four carries in a game.

Bullock won't make many carries if only plays 20 mins a game. The first pass to him hit him on the side of the head and unsurprisingly was dropped.
The second pass was a crash ball on their line with four defenders around him which was also dropped.
He played 20 mins and taken off, Lam didn't send him out again. Singleton was also taken off after 20 mins and Lam did send him out with 6 mins to go and the game a long time lost!
No wonder Bullock's leaving!

As I have said elsewhere a decent NRL prop can expect to take multiple carries in one set of six.

Deluded.

Agreed. At least two drives out of the five.

It just seems to me that too many props, not just at Wigan but in SL in general, are stealing a living. It's often said that the NRL counts metres made differently, as if this explains the disparity between metres made there and in SL. I am profoundly unconvinced by that argument. What factor should we apply to NRL metre stats to make them truly comparable to SL? 0.8? 0,7? Even if we did that, we still see a massive difference. You only have to watch the games, and see the metres made by forwards there, to see there is something wrong. Even unheralded players in the poorer sides (take for example say, Jack Hetherington at the Bulldogs) look like supermen compared to most of our props.

Not at all. I can only assume you were drunk through the Millward period or drunk now. Things aren't going great and I don't think we will win the Super League, but that comment is embarrassing. Like many of us, I stood in the stands watching us get beat 70-0 and 75-0 in consecutive weeks under Millward. That's not the same as being joint 2nd.

This. The work the props are expected to do in the NRL is far greater.

Biggest difference for me with the NRL forwards is:

- Hitting the ball at pace rather than standing still
- Hitting the ball close to the gain line rather than meters back
- Running in pairs often to hold back the defence and make it more difficult
- Getting through lots of carries

I don't know! Like you I also stood in the stands for both of those debacles, but there were reasons....not least the number of academy players in the team. At times in both of those games we also had some possession and some attacking of the line. So it was not without hope - albeit we didn't score.

IMO the Catalan 48-0 loss the other week was the most comprehensively beaten I have seen a wigan side - and i include 75 and 70 nil in that.
The scoreline hugely flattered us, and catalan could, and should, have scored at least another 18 -24 points. But for slightly better execution from them, we could have easily lost that game by 70+ points. Remember it took us 68 minutes to get within 20 yards of their line, and even then took a penalty to get there.....I can't fully recall the 75 and 70 nils, but i remember their being glimpses and catalan felt more comprehensive if anything.

The capitulation was just as bad imo, despite the fact we were lucky with the scoreboard. Also, some of how we are playing at the moment is hugely reminiscent of 2005/6. The only reason it is not as bad is because the standard of SL as a whole is much poorer and because we have played a number of bottom half of the table sides (so our league position flatters to deceive).

The way we are playing, and with bodies out for Wakefield, i fully expect us to lose the next 3.....which will be 5 on the bounce. By next sunday i think likely we will have a win ratio of around 58%. That will put us firmly mid table in 7th place....its roughly where i expect us to finish baring any miracle and influx of decent forwards, and exactly where the class of 2005 and 2006 ended up.

I think today's squad is superior to the squad that Millward worked with so unlikely that we'd get beat by anyone by 70+ points but in terms of a team playing almost blind, bereft of ideas, a coach seemingly unaware of what is happening in front of him and seemingly incapable of addressing basic issues I'd put Lam in with Millward.
We seem to be drifting aimlessly with the captain asleep below decks.

Where do you see our next win coming from?

Wakefield's squad for tomorrow looks according to their board to be decimated so you'd expect us with lots of players missing but with more resources available to win pretty comfortably.
Our next 7 games we have Wakefield twice, Huddersfield twice, Wire twice and Saints once.
If we are a top 2 side you'd expect 5 or 6 wins. How many do you predict? On current form I'd say 2 or 3 at best.

If my comment was embarrassing it can only be your embarrassment on my behalf because I'm perfectly sober and fine with it.
Thanks for having my back so to speak but I don't regret my post and I won't be embarrassed if somehow Lam manages to turn it around. Actually if he does mange to turn it around and we win say 6 of the next 7 I'd be ecstatic and be more than happy for you to remind me of my stupidity.

Those wins IMO come against Huddersfield. We’re poor but they’re another level at the moment with Watson looking lost. I’m not looking forward to Wire x 2 or Saints. Those could be embarrassing for us all.

I agree with your post though, and the one above. And I’d also be happy to be told how stupid and clueless I am should Lam turn this around. I’d rather that than be proved that I was right about the drum I’ve been banging for 18months.

We won 1 from 7 at one stage under Millward, and went 168 minutes without a point. This season we aren't pretty but we were grinding out wins pretty much every week before that Catalans thrashing. We had the field position to put KR away but weren't creative enough to get over the line. I think we'll go back to grinding out wins now and would fancy us against anyone who isn't Catalans/Saints/Wire. That's not great but it's miles better than where we were under Millward.

Without a shadow of a doubt.

I do however think that Lam is probably a worse coach than Millward. He was awful, but had a really bad side. Lam is awful, but I don't actually think this team is that bad. It's just poorly coached, selected and motivated imo.

We pretty much did the same until Gildart scored on Friday.

True

Bobby??

What dispirits me is that I keep reading posts saying the standard of SL has never been lower (and that's a debate for another time), but, nevertheless, I watch the Superleague Show, and I see other teams, Jeez, not just Saints and Wire, even Wakey, put on better scores than Wigan look currently capable of. I hope Marshall regains his full form and fitness, but that can't be enough.