Quote: craigizzard "As an outsider, where you've gone wrong is in a lack of attention to player retention and as a result your turnover has been so high that you've got a team full of kids and strangers.
OK, there might not have been too much that could have been done to keep Sam Tomkins from the NRL, but if you look at the likes of Green, Leuluai, Richards, Burgess next year, Joel Tomkins when he went to RU... do you think Joel Moon doesn't have suitors in the NRL? Justin Carney? Do you think the RU haven't tapped up Watkins? The difference is that Wane doesn't seem to have created a club where players are happy to stay - a good environment for senior pros to work and develop - even in the face of other offers. Just saying "We're Wigan. We're ancient and loyal" isn't enough. And if you churn over 6 players a year and replace half of them with kids, however talented, then you're going to struggle.
Last year you had two class players - Green and O'Loughlin - who covered up a lot of holes from the previous churn (plus the league was very weak), but this year one of them's gone and the other will play one game in three...'"
Fair summary for me ..... in addition to the player retention I also have the following reservations:
1) I'm afraid IL is far too conservative. I don't want to be too critical of IL, he has worked hard to drag this club up from the mess it was in. IMO he's a decent bloke at heart (the way he tried to help Hock, for example) but I think he needs to be more speculative. I remembering him saying (at a fans forum) we missed out on Michael Dobson by £25k per season to HKR - I just wonder how many more trophies (and the resultant cashflow/profits) we have missed out on by not spending that extra £25k? That being said and to be fair to IL he has also pulled off some cracking signings - George Carmont for example.
2) Its time to get to grips with our current approach to coaching. Like most fans I know, we agree that we appear to be becoming a team of louts. Its easy to play against Wigan - wind 'em up and Tomkins, Farrell, etc. will provide you with a ready stream of penalties. This reflects on the coach - if it's not our the coaches tactics then the coach has to drop the perpetrators - either way the coach is in charge of the situation. Wane needs to develop as a coach and quickly.
Oh well, better get my scarf out of the bin, find the season ticket I threw with it and be ready for next Friday.
