That is utterly irrelevant. St Helens were not as competitive a team as we were this season.

We desperately missed Westwood in that Final. He is still the heart and soul of that team.

Dont understand all the Gidley bashing, from a Wigan fan perspective (me) he was awesome, he ran his blood to water, and I firmly believe if Wire had won, he'd have clearly been MOM. Someone else posted somewhere that if Gidley had been playing for Wigan we'd have beaten you by a lot more. Gidley and Sandow (if he stays) will have you moving round the pitch with ease again next season and you'll be there abouts again at the business end again.

As for Ratchford......I'd have him at Wigan in a heartbeat, he is class!!! When he was at Salford he was unplayable at centre, selected for England etc, Wire buy him and play him everywhere but centre......doh!!!! I agree, if we had Gells and Ratch in the centres at Wigan we would take some stopping.

Thankyou for your contribution to what I thought was a great blood and thunder Grand Final, which was played at a 100 MPH. Your fans were a credit to the club and all the Wire fans we met after the game were extremely gracious in defeat. Keep the faith as you will be competing for the big trophies again next season.


Matt

Totally agree, the talisman.

Perhaps he did play centre at times but he played hb at Salford but Myler was hitting the headlines...very soon after we realised we should have got Ratchford, and so did.
Poor Doc Marwan was gutted.
The deal was done just before he bought the club.

You announced Ratchford'a signing in July 2011, Koukash took over Salford in January 2013.

Sorry Mark but how can you say it's utterlyirrelevant?

Saints were out of the cup early doors, were comfortably in 4th aided and abetted by Catalans end of season implosion two of the top three playing in a hard fought CC Final in tremendous energy sapping heat, the top three playing each other over the final couple of weeks to decide the LLS and the play off order and they even managed to end up with their favourite fixture of the season as their semi final.....the perfect storm

The relevance is the injuries to our front line pack members probably cost us in the end. I did agree that planning your end of season does allow those carrying knocks or those with long minutes to arrive in better shape, but, planning to play Saints at Langtree Park in the semi final isn't a sure fire way of winning the Grand Final

We played an under strength Wigan team in the final and got comfortably outplayed...what makes you think we would have beat them in the semi?

So I'm right thanks.

I'd hardly call 18 months "just before Marwan bought Salford". He probably hasn't even heard of Rugby League in July 2011

I'd be in favour Of The Tim Sheens vote, said this on Saturday. I'd be straight over there dropping a fat sack of money in front of him.


I think also at some point were gonna have to accept, open attractive rugby doesn't get you titles, we've tried it previously, it didn't succeed, we've tried it half dly this year, And it definitely didn't work, time to stop being the good guys abs join the bad guys

Ironic though FMC
Wigan did just that in the final 40 at the HJ and for 80 at OT.
They kept the same shapes and structure in defence but abandoned it in attack.

A few of us who went together on Saturday noted this. We don't dominate like Wigan. We don't have much 'grunt'. And when we do try it, we get penalised! Is that because it's not coached into us?

On an unrelated note, brought myself to watch the highlights last night (and re-depressed myself in the process!) and on telly we looked more 'in it' than it felt on the night. Very contentious call where O'Loughlin drops the ball and we were penalised. The BBC lot called it as harsh. Think they took the two for that as well. Still think there were a few stinkers that didn't go our way, a few balls ripped out that were claimed as knock ons, etc. Ah well. Sheet happens!

You are not a million miles off being top dogs. I think you invested too much money in Sandow, Gidley, Lineham etc. Whilst they are good players they need a good platform to operate from. I think that there is some tinkering to be done to give you more go forward, obviously Cooper will be a major boost next season as will Dodds if he is fit. Personally, I would build a good pack, allow Sandow or Gidley to go to fund it and put my faith in Patton.

No need to let sandow or gidley go it's no coincidence that Patton has started to shine having them two on the training pitch with him.

If Dodds recovers and stays and rhumors are true we will have hill Cooper Dodds Cosby simms philbin king I believe that is good enough and don't really need to look for more.... Money would be better spent on a winter to replace penny and centre to replace Evans if that doesn't happen we will win nothing