Needs to improve, take control and show some dominance that an international half needs.

A good half we win comfortably tonight. His decisions and game management has been terrible this season.

Cracking game and credit to the effort from both teams but unless we improve in the halves and a senior player steps up we are going to struggle this year. No disrespect to Eilliams who I felt went well but he needs a senior player to stand up.

Cracking game?? It was intense, but dull as fook. Both teams were poor with the ball, but Brisbane's dominance in the forwards was the difference.
I'd agree with you on Smith he was very ordinary indeed, but behind that pack most halves would struggle. The effort was there, Bateman, and Club had great games, and Gelling was superb in the first half but he was clearly injured in the 2nd half.

100% Effort from both teams, a valiant effort from Wigan, not fair to single out Matty, each and every player on both sides gave their all and there will be some sore bodies tomorrow. thanks to both sides for an enthralling encounter.

Smith made a couple of errors. But it's hard to look good behind a beaten pack.

It's like asking an American Football quarterback to throw well whilst his offensive line is leaking linebackers and he's close to being sacked once every four downs.

And I don't believe it's anything to do with NRL superiority tonight. Wane's badly misjudged his power-to-mobility ratio. Had Wigan just one top class prop tonight they'd have won. As it was they were reduced to pulling a rabbit out of the hat with high-risk plays whilst Brisbane's heavy earth-movers enjoyed near total midfield dominance.

Got to agree with what's been said. Smith can't do much playing behind a set of props who get smashed. There is only Tony Clubb playing anything like at the minute (in fact he's playing very well) but the others are struggling. Young Sutton is doing pretty well but the kid should just be doing the odd 15-20 mins from the bench at this stage. Crosby had been woeful and is my biggest frustration so far! I thought he'd really kick on this year but he's getting battered. Tautai and Patrick both just seem to get very few minutes and it's hard to really judge them but the one thing I will say about the pair is that the club are talking tripe when they say we've signed 'big' players! These two are small props and I don't get why the club are making out they're man mountains!!

I agree it is difficult behind a beaten pack but to simply fade into obscurity because your pack is on the back foot is not acceptable. Williams had a go, got his hands on the ball and tried to give us some forward momentum at first man, Smith however just seemed content to drift sideways throwing passes to a pack of forwards who were not going forward.

In the first half Gelling and Tomkins were making bit yards in that wide right channel, in the second half we hardly ever went down that same side if at all because Smith wasn't taking control.

His decision making also has to be questioned, he lacked composure than an experienced half should have. I may be wrong as I have not seen it back but I blew up at the time early in the first half when we got a turnover and free play on our right 5 yards from their line. Their defence looked totally confused, probably due to losing the ball and unfamiliarity of the free play rule. Tomkins put it though his legs to Smith, it looked to me like he had Gelling and Josh outside him and he had the ball in hand with a natural 3 on 2 on the short side......and he chose to kick it. In extra time going for an impossible drop goal on the last rather than pumping it into the corner and hunting the error, huge error.

I'm a big fan of Smith I think he has been an excellent signing but so far this year he has been poor. Widnes game was crying out for him to step up against 12 men for example.

His emergence at Salford after drifting for a few years cane when Long seemed to work a bit of magic with him got him bossing plays taking the line on and dominating games taking the game to the opposition. This year he just drifts sideways and asks very few questions of the opposition.

He needs to find his form and quick.

Matty's a very good team halfback. Will do his stuff if those around him is doing its bit. He isn't a matchwinner and probably not quite international material. Those expecting him to seize a match and win it singlehandedly are going to be continguingly disappointed.

I agree with what you say and it only emphasises what I have said in the past, Smith plays to his limitations , he is almost like an extra acting halfback. Just move the ball on as quick as possible to the right, his tie up with his standoff is non existent, Green when he was here he could sort things out for himself. I think it is asking a lot of Williams to be the only creative player in the middle.
When I saw the state of the pitch last night I thought it was crying out for a performance off Smith like he gave at Wembley a couple of years ago when he got the Lance Todd Trophy, but he just did not deliver.

Smith and Williams were both poor in the game, they struggled with the kicking game throughout and Smith lost the battle of wits against Hunt in extra time.

During the game they both threw poor passes that at times were uncatchable because of the weight behind the ball. There were also a number of poor decisions, hitting the lead when it should have gone out the back and vice versa.

You missed the impact of Tautai in the 2nd half

Smith was very quiet throughout the game. I thought that Williams ran with the ball well but that's about it. Gelling was the best Wigan player on the pitch for me.

Tautai looked the part for me last night. I presume he was injured as we didn't see him in the 2nd half and prior to that he was able to make yards against their pack down the middle. About the only prop we had who did.

I don't agree with this at all. Hunt was garbage throughout the game. I dread to think how he'd play behind Wigan's pack.

Smith isn't world class. But who is in this league? The truth of the matter is Wigan are too small in the pack. Watching them line up against Saints at OT I was completely shocked at how diminutive they appeared up front relative to Saints' pack.

I immediately knew that if we kept a lid on Wigan's backs we'd dominate territorially. And in big games territory is king.

I figured Wane would plug this gap in the off-season with a couple of big front row forwards. And yet last night it seemed like Wigan's biggest men were playing in the centres!

Had Brisbane ANY attacking threat to speak of in the halves or centres last night they'd have capitalised on the complete midfield dominance their forwards had achieved by half time and mauled Wigan. Instead they kept things simple and waited for a mistake in the opposition half. By the end of the match Wigan seemed completely unable to stop them making 10+ yards per carry. Which is the reason Brisbane had so many drop-goal opportunities.

The worrying thing is I don't think Brisbane's pack is THAT good. Granted they interplay well and there's plenty of size and energy. But it's nowhere near as ferocious as you'd encounter during Brisbane's heyday.

IMO, Wane has made a fundamental error in strategy. Yes, he's missing Flower - who does add significant go-forward. But even with Flower Wigan would have been awfully light last night.

Wane wouldn't be the first coach who thought mobility and fitness trumps brute force traction in SL. It's a tantalising thought promising high-speed "Total Rugby". But I wouldn't put any money on it.

The size of the pack is my biggest concern. We identify we need a big pack over a year ago and recruit no size at all in the offseason. Very odd call.

Ashton Simms would have been top of my list he is exactly the type of player we need.

Patrick turned up last night but he plays more like a backrow. Tautai gives us bags of go forward but will miss plenty through injury. Clubb brings size, Mossop.....who knows? Flower for we gives big minutes and great defence and intensity but not much go forward. If you have a big backrow you can maybe counter this but we don't.

We'll never know about the GF as it was ended as a contest after 3 minutes.

As for last night - we were down an interchange and had to put in a lot of effort on defence due to silly errors near our line. They were knackered by the end of the game.

Crosby, Clubb and Sutton are big units. We matched the Broncos upfront last night - they were getting smashed at times on their carries.

The FB/HBs are my biggest concern.