Anyone that still doubts that Wigan had a plan in place all season should book an appointment at Specsavers because you need your eyes testing Wigan have clearly done enough in the season to be comfortably in a good play off position took the foot off the gas in the league and focused on the Cup won that then decided to put the foot back on the gas for the play offs we have successfully and bettered the Leeds way of playing the "system".

I am sure the plan was to win trophies and I am sure the plan was to focus on the CC and GF but if you think it was a plan to do so by losing league games and going into finals in poor form you need to get to a psychiatrist.

So did Wire though, they hardly bust a gut during the year. A decent strength Leeds would've been a different prospect at home too.

You won because you played the best, simple as, no big playoff format debate needed.

Dave how did we go in the the Finals in poor form, we stopped trying leaguewise around the widnes away match and every time we've needed a result we have done it in style. Just these play offs we've beat the shield winners, leeds the grand final pros and wire, looks to me like Waney is Hannibal Smith and you know how much he loves a plan coming together

It also helps if Warrington grow a set and ditch these golden oldies Briers, Morley & Michael Monaghan. Wire didn't have the squad capable of doing what Wigan have done this season keep telling yourselves that Wigan didn't have a plan to comfortably get into the play offs then ease off and have enough left in the squad and tank to go and win the double it's not about wins or losses I've never once said we planned to lose games, Simply that we haven't busted a gut to finish in the top two from about the Etihad weekend onwards for absolutely no gain look at Huddersfield they are the prime example they go all out to finish as high as possible and end up getting booted out of the Cup and then the same result in the play offs. Look at last season we ran our blood to water week in week out and we came up way short in two important games it's the polar opposite this year of course we didn't plan to win or lose games we're not psychic we just planned to manage our squad and players better over the course of the season to ensure some juice left in the tanks at the business end of the season Wane has announced as much in recent interview and that ladies and gentleman is a plan set out by the coaches and squad at the start of the season. Leeds were out on their feet after the Saints play off game Huddersfield were made to look ordinary against Wigan week one of the play offs Hull were dead and buried before Hudddersfield hence conceding 70+ points it's no coincidence that the team with the best squad and best man management are the double winners this season it's not blind luck it's all part of the plan.

We didn't stop trying. As someone else said previously it's not a computer game were set yourself to you play at 70%.

Anyone who has played a team game knows, if you go out half cocked you get mullered. We didn't go out half cocked.

We lost some games due to poor form, simple enough to my mind.

What has been fantastic is despite that, we turned it around and had a fantastic play off series and GF.

Makes no difference now anyway, we're double winners Pat, Sam, Lee and Chris got the best send off possible and this season has shown we have some excellent young players coming through

The plan was to focus on the CC and GF, but it’s not in Shaun Wanes make up to play at 70% or throw games. He rotated the team to keep people fresh. This would affect form and destabilise the team to a certain extent. But it kept the players fresh.
Shaun Wane has done a great job focussing on the two main trophies, but would have dearly loved the treble. He would have loved (and probably expected) to have won the games where he rotated players, but it wasn’t to be.
The young kids now have more experience which serves us well for next year, and there are more waiting in the wings, and centres and second row etc etc.
As Simon and Garfunkel once said I’d rather be a Gooner than a Wolf, yes I would, I surely would.
Keep the Faith

The loss of form also came after two assaults on our halves. Early season Green and Smith were fantastic but after their injuries lost form, Green especially! Maybe Tony Smith had told his players that the rough stuff puts Green off his game? He was wrong! Hope after a good rest they come back firing on all cylinders at the start of next season.

Didn't Wire try and take Sinfield out of the GF early last year and failed?!

Perhaps Green will get World Player of the Year now!

Dave, let me explain something called peaking to you. Something that Wane as a coach has been criticised for not doing with his team in the past and something both he and his coaching team deserve massive credit for this year as in the second half we were running round like it was the first game if the season and Wire were playing with lead in their boots.

Our plan clearly was to hit the ground running and lay down a marker at the start of the season, we blew teams away at a stage when most other teams would also be looking to establish some good form.

During training especially our conditioning sessions the work would have been very short, very high intensity power sessions. The aerobic work would have been done earlier in the pre season and our skills sessions would also have been high intensity, high quality, but low volume.

This would have our lads at the start of the season as close to 100% physically at their peak as possible. The problem is you can only sustain this for so long.

At some point during the season, the high intensity training would change. We would have returned to some more aerobic work in the gym, whilst still undertaking power work the key goal of that period of training would have been recuperation, letting the anaerobic power system replenish, whilst building stamina and muscular endurance.

Rugby league is a high intensity anaerobic sport, the shift in training emphasis would have dropped our players physical readiness to play the game significantly from where it was at the start of the season. Consequently teams started to get over the top of us dominate our pack and results started to fall away.

We basically would have started preparing for a mini preseason during the season, which would have a negative effect on, on field performance and our form.

Once the playoffs were looming you could see we had returned to the low volume high intensity anaerobic sessions. The loss against Huddersfield was when I saw it happening. Certain players started to dominate their opposition again, and in spite of the loss I could see we were building back up to have a good run at the play offs.

Throughout the playoff series we would have maintained this training ensuring the players were physically at their peak.

The process is based around a concept known as non linear periodisation.

The form we experienced going into the play offs was poor, but there were reasons for this, ie the team were in simple terms were conditioned to be in a period of rest and recuperation ( in very basic terms).

You cannot maintain the 100% throughout the year due to the length of the season.

Whilst pre playoff form was not what the fans wanted, and I am sure not what Wane wanted, I am sure it was also something that whilst not desired was something that the coaching team was prepared for due to the player preparation.

2013 should go down as a master class of planning by Wane and his team. I have read countless posts over the years claiming Noble is a genius etc for this, yet I have never seen it done as good as our 2013 champions have done it.

Bitcon deserves a huge amount of credit, as I am sure at times during our run of poor form he would have been tempted to change his plan to improve form, but he kept the faith and last night proved him right to do so.

Give the coaches some credit. This season has been a planning master class. Thank god the coaches do not listen to the fans and stuck to the plan.

The difference between someone who knows what he is talking about, and someone who thinks he knowsbwhat je is talkig about in one single post.

Not quite true. I'm not arguing with jonh but I'm am agreeing with DaveO in that, peaking notwithstanding, our aim would have been to win every game we played. I don't care what we were doing in training other than it clearly worked, but even jonh would agree the players have always tried to win on every occasion and haven't taken their foot off the gas. Rather, their physical and maybe mental preparation for certain games wasn't - and indeed couldn't according to jonh - be maintained every week.

I do not think anyone claims it was a plan to lose any games, and that the players did not give 100% every week. Simply their 100% was proportionate to their level of perpetration.

Sorry jonh but there is plenty evidence on here that people actually believe the opposite.

You cant go balls out every week in practice and then in comp every athlete in the world has periods of peaking and de-loading within a training block. Its just a relativley new thing for us fans to get our heads around.

Usain Bolt doesnt go the track every day and then sprint as fast as he can for an hour. He sets to peak for the major events, which is why he may get beat in the circuit races, but not on the big stage.

Fans just need to get there heads around periods of under performing as the players cycle through peaks and ramping phases. Which as a fan is easier said than done.

We did stop tryin thats why Sam is off to the NRL because Wigan didnt need to try against Salford and Widnes etc etc, Micky Mac was kept ticking over while Logan was given a chance in the team. Get the poor form out of your head we rested key players so they could perform in the business end of the season. I really do wonder if that brain cell in your head is lonely

I agree as the evidence is clear. However, Bolt doesn't plan to finish second, it is just a result of his condition. There are some on here who would appear to believe that Bolt deliberately loses lesser races to win the big ones, that is my point.

The least they could do though is admit they don t know what they are talking about though dont you think? But i imagine the best bet would be that they will spin it via a reply of war and peace proportions so we get bored by the third chapter.

Excellent post.. But you may as well go bang your head against a wall if you expect all to get a grasp of it...

Dave read this book it explains how peaking is achieved
" Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Cofounder"

this is the man who created the Oregon team training methods - the team who train Mo Farah. Its a good read I recommend it for everyone, one of those you can pick up and read bits at lunchtime or dare I say it - a good toilet read lol

Exactly.

The plan is never to lose games, but the plan is to go into some games of the year not physically at the height if your powers but yet to still win.

Sometimes that is achievable sometimes it is not. For us it was not but the plan still came together perfectly in the long run.

We went 5 points clear in the league and simply had to pull back on that front to sustain the charge for a double. Half cooked sides, jammed with youth and injuries meant we had to pull back.

When you look at the season as a whole it does point towards one thing and that's Wigan being the best team in 2013.

I don't believe for one second that we "wanted to lose".

However, we simply didn't mind if we lost, as the job (achieve a top-4 play-off place) was done.

That's why so many kids were in the team toward the end of the season.

Also, it will do them good, as they now have more experience of what to expect, whenever they need to step up again.