Quote: Cruncher "In retrospect, there were several extenuating factors last season with regard to our failure to win silverware. The serious and ill-timed injury to Tommy Leuluai was a big blow from which we didn't recover easily. We also had two key players in Finch and Lima who patently weren't interested once they'd decided they were going home.
That doesn't exonerate SW entirely, but as others have said - the play-off defeat was pretty damn close affair. Had we got the rub of the green in that game, it could have changed everything.
I was more concerned about SW this season when we suddenly lost all form mid-way through the campaign. There just didn't seem to be any arresting it. It was difficult not to feel despondent. The turn-around in the play-offs was quite amazing, and SW deserves nothing but massive credit.
Of course - when you go on a losing streak, it's inevitable the fans will get jumpy. But I totally agree that SW was subjected to some quite ridiculous criticism. The business about him making ill-judged comments to interviewers was bollox frankly - unimportant in the great sweep of things, and nothing more than an excuse to slag the guy off. The likes of Tony Smith and Nathan Brown have pretty poor records on the box, yet we don't hear their heads being called for in response. Other stories - about SW having lost the dressing room, for example - were simply lies.
Running the Wigan first team was SW's first major gig, so there were bound to be things that needed ironing out, and yet and at no stage under his command have we been anywhere other than near the top or getting close to finals. Okay, 'near' and 'getting close' aren't perhaps good enough for Wigan, but many other clubs would take it, and anyway, this year we've improved yet again.
If we win the Grand Final I can see SW's position at Wigan being secure for a very long time.'"
The most pleasing thing for me is that SW seems to have learnt a lot from his first season mistakes, which as you say was his first season in a Super League coaching role, which some of his critics failed to recognise/acknowledge/appreciate.
Flogging the players to win the LLS and picking Jack Murphy against Leeds when he had only appeared twice before were major errors.
This year he has used more players than any other coach so that if we need them players are better able to step in, and first teamers are fresher (eg MMc). And strangely given Leeds record from the last two years whilst we looked pretty fresh at the end of the game, Leeds players were out on their feet. I watched the game on Sky after I had got home from the ground and I couldn't believe the constant reference to Leeds players being knackerred. Yet Wigan played more games than Leeds all season. If Watkins &JJB were injured then play someone else, because SW would have done.
Agreed about his dealings with the media. I think he has made great efforts to improve. But his passion for the club always shines through. I think that is a great thing. My ONLY criticism of Madge was that he was about as interesting as watching a game of Union!
