I agree. No point getting to the Grand Final and losing every year. Oh...

Other teams need to raise their games rather than for Warrington to lower ours.

Very difficult question to answer. On the face of it; Saints, purely down to the drive that Graham gave them. A similar argument could be had with ourselves and the work that King did that went unnoticed, especially at exit sets. Where we are different from Saints, is we are fortunate that we are reasonably strong in the threequarters and in Evans, we have a potential wunder kind. Wigan, theoretically, should be the best placed to cover their losses as the backrow is their greatest player density, even though both Hoffman and Tomkins where their first choice.

Hoffman & Hansen were first choice when available, so Hock should be able to cover Hoffmans loss, Farrell will probably again claim the bench spot. The centre position my main concern at Wigan, although we could conceivably move Charnley there and put Roberts back on the wing if we have finally sorted out his knee problem. A fit Fielden is more than an adequate replacement for Coley.

Hock will cover Hoffman's absence in respect of a body, but work ethic; not remotely close. I do take your point about Hansen in the back row.

Charnley to centre is an obvious one, but I wouldn't hold your breath regarding Roberts. He appears to be in the playing wilderness, for whatever reason. I could see Goulding getting a start, comfortably, in front of Roberts.

Centre is a huge headache for us but as getdownmonkeyman said, we've got second rowers coming out of our ears. I'd rather Charnley stay on the wing but I think he could well move into the centres with Goulding on the wing.

Charnley at centre defensively would be a big risk, he's got a big target on his head at the minute and he had the relative safety of being on the wing, his positional play is diabolical.

When we played Wigan this year the obvious play was to target Joel & Charnley.

Most sides would attack down that side anyway as Carmont and Richards are the best wing/centre partnership in Super League for me.
I think Goulding would be a bigger risk than Charnley. I hope the lad proves me wrong, but I don't think Goulding will ever make it at Wigan. Joel Tomkins was in the centres as a last resort. Tomkins' defensive positioning was dire although he went some way to compensating for it when we had the ball in hand. I'm really disappointed we haven't sorted the centre problem out for 2012.

wasn't first choice backrow pairing Ryan H and Joel T prior to marting G's "problems" ?

I'm pretty sure Tomkins played 99% of his games at centre last season. As you say, if Gleeson would have been around, Tomkins would have had a starting berth in the backrow.

For the first five games when both Tomkins and Hansen were available for the second row spot Tomkins was on the bench four times and Hansen once.

It'll be interesting too see how Gelling goes in the centre this coming season.

would love as a wire fan to see charnley at centre as he can't defend to save his life he is so much of a ball watcher it is unbelieveable