Unless there are some significant changes to the salary cap no one, let alone Wigan, will be able to attract the kind of world class overseas imports that will be needed to plug the gaps left by the retiring players. We just happen to be particularly hard hit next year. The future has got to be with our home grown talent. We may struggle next year but at least we will be giving our youngsters some top level exposure. Some other teams will face the same problem in future years - Wire being a prime example. But I have a fear for our game if the salary cap remains at its present level anyway. We can already see that the NRL and the Aviva Premiership are looking admiringly at our young stars. It's all very well having a level playing field so that all teams can compete equally but we need to recognise that in Superleague we are not alone! Just out of interest who could Wigan sign who is both available and meets the criteria of world class? I know that I am moving about a bit here but our problem next year is a little more than just a parochial issue.

Last night we lost by a penalty with two minutes to go. Not that far off.
The first half was woeful.
Once Watkins scored, Leeds picked up the pace they didn't have in the opening ten or so. We did well to only concede that try. Their other points came courtesy of Silverwood as did the game decider, not from their great play.
The wheels started falling off way back when Tommy was injured and wasn't replaced. Powell was not fit and Mellor left at Widnes.
Wane then moved three players out of position in Finch, Lockers and Farrell to cover one missing man. It didn't work. The team lost form immediately and never recovered. The inability or unwillingness to replace Tommy was the start of our downfall and that is the coach's problem.
If we had won last night another perormance like that in the Final would see us hammered. If there is a consolation from last night's loss, that's it!

The only saving grace is that over the next couple of seasons the true NRL stars left within SL at other clubs will have left to go back to the NRL (Doggie Monaghan..etc) or retired, leaving ALL other clubs to scout the lower aussie leagues for project signings / rely on the best of their own homegrown players and scrap for cast-offs from other clubs.


The league will be diluted heavily over the next five years giving us a slight advantage due to the amount of youth we have at our disposal.

We have a good idea of the standard of these players in absolute terms. Relative to those of ours who are leaving and those of our main rivals and they aren't as good. It is that simple.

SW contradicts himself in team selections.

SO is not a 9 nor is he a 6 yet SW played him a 9, when TL was injured SO played at 6, he was average at best. Last night again he was played at 9 with Farrel at 13. It takes something away from the strucutre of the team, you could tell when the ball was moved wide it didn't look slick at all and missed SO as a link out wide.

The main issue here is he is playing SO a 9 because MM is suspended hence shuffling the team around, yet when Tomkins was injured he chose to pick Murphy from the U20's at full back and promote from within...he has played one SL game against Bradford to mind - terrible decision on reflection.

Personally I think Pat at Full Back and Thornley on the wing with either Smith or TL at 9 in a game of this magnitude woud have been better. If your going to 'shuffle' the team around then do it and be committed or if his philosphy is 'youth driven' then bring Logan Tomkins in as a specialist Hooker on the bench. I would avoid playing Gelling on the wing against Leeds as they exploited him in the CC semi with great effect.

I just think he contradicts himself with his coaching philosophy and tends to go through spells having bringing youth in and then you dont see them for a few games i.e. Crosby, Spencer, L Tomkins.

Either way Murphy dropped a vital bomb from which the winning penalty resulted, I hope this helps Murphy and his development rather than hinders his confidence.

So out of who was/is available who would you have signed? Please dont come out with ridiculous names like Soward, Reynolds and Cronk who we wouldnt have had a cat in hells chance of signing.

As I have pointed out on here many, many times - IL is a business man, at the last club forum we had he pointed out the club had made a profit for the first time under his tenure of around 100k. No doubt his long term plan is to make the club a profitable business...

I totally agree we need some marquee signings with the departure of several high profile players. Green spent half the season injured at Hull KR, there are rumours of Scott Taylor coming but little else. I think IL wants to push youth development and to be fair this has been his long term vision since he came to the club. In another of the forums he highlighted the NRL salary cap increase and the fact we can not match salaries anymore so rather than break the bank we could pay several youth players instead. This sticks out in my mind as it got a bit heated at the forum and IL had a few cross words with some blokes at the back of the room.

It's reasons like this we need a club forum, last season and the season before we had a few of them, this season there hasn't been one?!

Come on Wigan we need a club forum ASAP!! - If you want people to commit to season tickets....

Here are some home truths. We are ridiculously dependent on Tomkins and ut shows time and time again. When a team marks him well or he doesn't play, our attacking play is awful. Finch has been very poor for a number of weeks now, culminating in last night's debacle of a performance. We have our best centre retiring with whoever replacing him nowhere near his level. Our pack:- Mossop and Lima started the season fantastically well, then for the second half of the season their performances have been very average. Prescott is a liability as hes always injured, Lauaki is not Wigan standard however much people wanna kid themselves about him, for example he came on for his first spell yesterday and didn't take a drive for 8 minutes when we struggled to get out our own 20. Flower was impressive, I have no complaints over both him and Dudson. Tommy is the biggest lost of all the players IMO and Smith and Green just don't compare to Tommy and Finch despite the latters poor revent form. Think we have got to be realistic about our chances for the next couple of years. it may be a period of transition until our young players become senior players and some of academy lads feature. Sadly, I believe we have blown a huge chance with the current "names" we have on paper not performing at the important stages. Rant over

So who was at fault for losing us the game, Murphy or the player who gave the penalty away?

Rather than trying focus on who may be at fault, you should focus on either Sinfield for a great kick that even Sam may have spilled and to Leeds for a quick play the ball which meant that Farrell had to scramble back which led to him being offside.

Home truths IMO. Out of the players leaving we're only going to miss two, Tommy and George and it showed again last night that we need cover at hooker. As everyone knows by now we aren't going to get any "name" signings from the NRL but every other team is in the same boat so I don't see that as a major problem. Wether we like it or not the key to next season will be having our first choice 17 available for the games that matter, if we do that we'll be in with a shout, go all out to finish top again and this time next year we'll probably be sulking again.