The defence was as much an issue as the goalkicking. IMO our short kicking game is as good as most, however our kicking from deep needs a lot of work, although Escare did look decent until his injury.

Does anyone know how we did this? Lies, damned lies and stats and all that because from what I saw our attack was poor. Regardless of that if we had combined that stat with a similar stat re goal kicks we might have been in a better position to win something. And may have done so. It's been an obvious issue for a while.

The fact the club have acknowledged it is a step forward. Better than just having a kicking competition and picking the best of a bad lot which is what it has done in recent seasons but the proof of the pudding.....

Personally, I'm sick of seeing that stat about how many tries we scored, because it counts for nothing whatsoever.

I know people are not trotting it out to try and mask what had to be our worst season since Brian Noble left, but it seems to get quoted occasionally as some kind of illustration that we at least got something right in 2017.

I would argue that, after the WCC, we got nothing right. Wigan fans are not dumb. They know good attacking football when they see it, and whatever the stat said, they saw next to none of that from the Cherry and Whites last season. Stats can be so deceptive. Much less so was the way Wigan ended 2017, playing without pride or interest, losing not just to Cas, who had nothing to play for and in front of a bumper crowd, but then lying down humiliatingly for a Wakefield team they would at one time have eaten for breakfast. That is what people will remember about 2017, not some obscure, meaningless stat.

And it's not just me being a typical moaning Wigan fan who thinks that. If that stat meant anything, England would not now be going into a World Cup Final with their best chance of winning since the early 90s minus several Wigan players so up their own backsides that they must have thought their selection would be a slam-dunk.

That only two Wiganers - the only two who played well in 2017! - will now figure in the first World Cup Final in ages is the real proof of how we performed in 2017.

Hopefully he can teach them how to get some decent yards kicking to touch too. Joe Lydon used to make loads of metres every kick. Nowadays they just rush it and barely make 10/20m,

you know, this has been a bug-bear of mine for years too - I hate it when they do that!!

I recall in a Wigan evening post interview Andrew Farrell said something along the lines of "honest rugby" when being questioned about him doing the same thing. No...get it bloody booted!

although this is a positive step from Wigan, I doubt there will be much positive impact considering we have about a month with the squad together before next season begins. i'll happily stand to be corrected in a few months, however!

That was driving me mad last season, with TL easily the worst offender. Gaining just five metres from a penalty? What's that all about?

If anyone on here remembers Colin Tyrer they'd realise that it isn't a recent problem.

Colin would take an age over a penalty then boot it into the crowd gaining...oh at least two yards!

Tyrer was alright. You could go to the bar for a drink and return in the time he used to take kicks.

Mind you there was no kicking tee in those days. I always thought Colin must have been great fun at the beach with his kids, with the amount of care and attention he gave to sculpting sandcastles!

That's hardly a reflection of the England team though. Four from Wire and none of those performed well, four from Saints who won nothing, only two from the Champions, one from the CC winners and two from the "people's champions"