I was speaking to a Leeds player on Saturday night. He reckons that wigan have burnt out because they have been flogged week in week out in training and its too much to handle with all the games in the season. I was rather worried about this before friday night, not that we'd burnt out, but that we had peaked....even more so after been beaten on friday night.

The good thing i suppose is when we have been beaten, its only been by a few points so were never far off....but thats going to count for nothing in knock out football is it. It is now us who cant win the big games.....not warrington.

Is any1 else worried that we may struggle to finish top? and win the big games in the play offs?

He also said that his MOS vote will be going to big PAT, Sam, or Lockers! Which was good to hear.

We have beaten Saints and Warrington this year, where they not big games?

At the beginning of the year I'd have been really happy with a top 4 finish but to be at the top with only a few games left is beyond anything 99% of us could have imagined. I do think that our's and Warrington's positions are partly due to Leeds and Saints stumbling form though.

I think we may finish second now with a difficult trip to Hull and Leeds in the coming weeks but that doesn't concern me really. I'd be happy with second.

Remember that Madge has been involved with teams, both as a player and a coach, for 'playoff footy' all of his career. Let's not push the panic button just yet.

I'd agree with that. It seems an obvious thing to suggest, saying that we are burnt out. A team that are 'burnt out' wouldn't have put 60-odd points on Salford, and conceded just 10 the week before.

A team that's burnt out wouldn't have got so close to Warrington either. Unless they've burnt out too

We lost on Friday because our pack lost their battle.
Coley's absense was crucial as was Mic Mac's.
Once Coley has been sent off at Catalans and anyone there saw MicM hobbling around knew we would struggle against Warrington. There was no way Coley would be given less than two matches by the RFL and also no way MicMac was going to play for a few weeks.

Coley returns v Hull, the team and coaches have a week to get it sorted. After seeing HullFC recently I think that game is one we are well capable of winning.

Despite the knowledge of the Leeds player I don't think they are burn't out. We were and are playing with last year's squad which was always light in the pack. That hasn't changed and won't for the rest of this season.

I for one never thought we'd be first for so much of the season and like all Wigan fans never got ahead of myself in saying we will end up top and win things in 2010. Having seen most of the opposition this year, if we can keep injuries down we have a chance of competing all the way.

Agree with Father Ted 100%.

The loss of those players, particularly Coley, was always going to make it difficult.

That said our run-in is probably tougher than Wire's (though Wire have the potential distraction of the CC), and we really do now need to bounce back with a win at Hull.

i think there have been a number of reasons why we have done so well this year. as already posted leeds and saints injurys problems have of course helped. I dont think we are burnt out.

most of all Madge has got the one thing out of this squad Noble never could, consistency. We were 90 mins away from old trafford, if we could get consistency it was never in doubt we were a top 4 side.

I think at the start of season our fitness was also way above anyone elses, and everyone has been playing catch up and has nearly caught up.

because of our lightweight front which as all ready pointed out was light going into the season an injury here or there puts it under considerble strain.

the other part of our game Nobby could never get going was our attack.

I have posted before we will not win the GF we dont have the experience of big game players like Saints, Leeds or Warrington but next year will be the year of the warrior

Well looking at this i do think we should win at Hull this week i watched there game last Thursday on TV and did not see anything for us to be worried about.

Week after its Leeds now this game is just a week before there CC semi are they going to risk all there top players that week or rest some for the week after? It could turn out to be an easy one for us.

Then a weeks rest and Huddersfield at home this is one were i think we could slip up.

Then we have Hull KR at there place this could be another banana skin depending on how there form is at that time.

Another Week off then Bradford at Home should win that one.
Will go for 8pts out of 10 possible points

Now short summery of Warringtons run in
Catalan will have a point to prove ant at home they can play well Les cats
Win
Saints at Home week before semi depends who wants to play a full side?
Wire win
Wakefield this depends on if Wire have beaten Catalan in the Semi they could be cock a hoop or depressed
Wire Win
Hull FC at home this is down to if they are in the CC final if they are then its Hull win which is what i will go for
Hull win
Quins next wire win

Thats 6pts out of 10pts available

Therefore i think we will finish top we might have a tougher run in on paper but the CC will come into play Leeds will want to get to the final and so will Warrington in which case Warrington will have 2 games they will not want to risk there top players getting hurt.

I can honestly see wire getting 8 points from their last 5 games with them just losing to saints and beating the rest.

We are not as good as we were at the beginning of the season that much is pretty obvious. It was quite a disappointing display from Wigan despite running Warrington close mainly because Warrington took about 25-30 minutes to get into gear and keep hold of the ball. That meant Wigan had half an hour of total domination, most of it spent in Warrington's half and we got one try. They had two attacks in our half in the last ten minutes and went in leading at half time.

I do wonder if Wigan had started in a similar fashion whether Warrington would have struggled to get more than six points on the board. For me our defence and attack are good but not great and that will be the key come the end of the season.

I still fancy us to finish top, still fancy us to have as good a shot as anyone at winning the GF. The defeats to Saints and Wire are disappointing and worrying but the key is in each game they HAD to win or the race was over. In each case, we knew we stayed top whatever the result. In the play-offs, when the stakes are the same for both sides, I think we will see a different performance. No guarantees of course, it's knock-out rugby and anything can happen. But I'm not writing us off just yet.

Friday is a huge game. We need to bounce back with a win. It is really important we do this in the context of our season.

Reminds me of something Noble would say

Under the circumstances, we didn't do too badly on Friday. Players getting knocks, no Coley, debatable 'No Try' decision, JT making a mess of a great scoring chance, outplayed up front... We lost by 7 points! Most teams would have had the cleaners put through them, a bit of luck and composure and it'd probably have been a different result.

No need to panic, we'll still get top spot