Quote: Guerrier "Sorry, but I can't agree with you there.
Goulding isn't a good winger, he had 1 good season in 2010, and to be quite honest I could have scored a dozen tries outside of Gleeson that year with our attack. He mis-reads plays when he's out on the wing, and whilst flying out of the line at times and making the tackle can be of use, if you miss it then 9 times out 10 you concede. I can't remember a Wigan player being as eager as he was to fly off his wing and make a play that the stand off should be defending as he often did. Granted, Gelling isn't a Pat Richards, but putting him outside of Carmont and keeping Goulding in his natural position was by far the better option IMO.
On the topic of Wane, I expected us to finish below Saints and Wire at the start of the year, so I didn't expect to win the shield. It became obvious he didn't rotate as much as he could/should have, but more experienced coaches than him (just like Tony Smith last year) have paid the price for that.
The rugby has been as good as I've seen at times this year, we didn't, under any circumstances, get our tactics wrong against Wire at home, we lost because of 2 minutes of madness by Lauaki giving them 2 penalties to win the game. I'd argue that we didn't get our tactics wrong against Leeds in the CC either - we gave them 4 tries because of errors in our own half and then were kicked to death by Sinfield and a shocking call for the try McGuire scored. Had Sam not mis-read the 40/20, and had Thaler understood the definition of a knock on, then we could have had a Wembley trip under our belts again.
As for Friday, it was a horrible way to lose, but had Murphy played 1 or 21 games this year, he'd still have dropped that ball which led to the penalty.
Wane's big test will come in 2013 as we have to go through our first perceived 'downgrade' of the squad for a few years with Tommy, Finch, Carmont and Lima leaving.'"
I disagree, Goulding had proven himself to be a capable winger. He's not a bad winger by any stretch of the imagination and claims that he shot out of the line and mis-read the play are hugely exaggerated. If he was that bad then he'd never have been a part of Maguire's squad. It's the usual notice a flaw and suddenly it happens 'all the time'. Goulding was never a bad winger but he was never a natural and never a top winger, just a solid, hard working winger.
The reason he lost his place on the wing was because of fumbles with high balls against Catalans when he also picked up an injury and that let a natural winger, Charnley, get a chance and there's no doubt that Charnley is a very good winger.
The reason not to play Goulding on the wing was that he was doing very well at centre and had, if anything, strengthened that right hand side considerably in defence and therefore it would be a poor decision to take him away from that role. Gelling's defence at centre in the under 20's playoff game against Leeds showed why it would be a bad idea to play him at centre ahead of Goulding.
The biggest concern with the team under Wane is the lack of composure in important games. They messed up in the first half during the cup semi and messed up in the first half during the playoff semi and at times the team just didn't play sensible rugby.
The team just overcomplicate things at times. If you look at the way Melbourne play early on they play one out rugby in their own half. They do that almost all the time, taking no unnecessary risks. We played the exact same way under Maguire and it was pretty effective. Under Wane we don't do that any more and the team sometimes just overcomplicate things for no reason at all. In the game against Catalans the ball went through four pairs of hands on one occasion just so it could be given to Hansen who drove it up the middle and knocked on. Why on earth is there any need to overcomplicate what should be simple plays when the risks far outweigh the potential gains. It's not the only occasion when the team has been trying to pass the ball when it isn't necessary and they should have just concentrated on going forward and waited until there was a chance to start playing.
We also peaked far too early, something that was pretty easy to realise for many and the irony was that when Sam Tomkins said 'we haven't even peaked' after the hammering of Leeds the team was at it's peak.
It's alright saying Wane was inexperienced and learned a lesson like Tony Smith did last year but that's not an excuse for why he didn't learn from that either. That was a lesson for all coaches, not just Smith.
Quality!
