I rather have Millward back than Wane. Seriously, that bloke may have won trophies but he put me off watching Wigan.

....

The fitness is probably down to losing Bitcon which is showing to be worse than any decision to let a player go.

cant disagree

There isn’t an issue with fitness. When you’re constantly defending of course it saps you’re energy. We gave away 4 penalties in the first 10 minutes and we just didn’t have a decent share of possession. Our kicking game was horrendous and nothing more than catching practice for their back 3.
There are some players who are just not good enough. Isa bombed yet another great chance early on and we’re our own worst enemy. We’re clearly lacking in confidence and clearly missing a decent 7. I hope Shorrocks is ok but he’s not taking his chance to cement that scrum half spot. He was far more effective when he was coming on to cover for Leuluai at 9.
We need to announce Lam as coach and give him a blank canvas to rebuild our squad. He needs to be ruthless in his approach and be given the resources he needs to bring in whoever he trusts both on and off the field.

Fitness levels don't look the same since losing Mark Bitcon

We have a team of hopefuls and Championship standard players

Hankinson
Isa
Tautai
Flower
Clubb
Marshall
Sammut
Sarginson
Powell
Navarette


And let's all just face it the academy doesn't churn out players like the Farrell's, O'Loughlin, Tomkins' anymore.

Most of the academy players to come through in last few years are sub standard and will never be top class internationals

Paisley
Woods
Marshall
Partington
Byrne
Shorrocks
Mullen
Wells
Ganson
Forsyth
Field
Barnes

Plus then we have the regular crocks

O'Loughlin
Farrell
Manfredi

Plus now today Leuluai went of injured as did Shorrocks and Davies

No coach would be able to stand the amount of injuries we have and then the fundamental cock ups by players like Hamlin and Mullen rub more salt in the wounds

From top to bottom the club needs an overhaul

I don't think Lam is the right man based on what we have seen but he got a chance and has been massively hampered!!

Lenngan needs to pull his finger out and ditch Radlinski because he is neither use nor ornament and some proper investment needs making and star players from a number of years gone by need replacing.

Moan over

He's only been gone a few months so chances are the club will be doing exactly the same things as when he was here. It's not like he had magic potions and we're now desperately searching for a way to recreate his magic formula because everyone has suddenly gone from well conditioned athlete to severely unfit in a matter of weeks.

Paul Johnson as a strength and conditioning coach was working under Mark Bitcon (who was Head of Performance) for a while. Chances are he will be doing the same things as he was under Bitcon and any adverse effects of losing Bitcon will probably be longer term if the club don't keep up with advances in sports science. I would imagine that currently the club is using the same practices as before.

Lammy will not be sacked, in fact I believe the plan is to give him a three year deal middle of next week...

Now, you can look at that two ways, either Lammy is complicit in the IL masterplan of cost-cutting and is happy to see his managerial career be shattered for good or the future is a lot brighter than we all presume...I am with the latter.

So has wane, been a massive change in playing style

You've said nothing unreasonable there.

However a "consolidation year" is a poor return and not great for our dwindling number of season ticket holders.

I do believe Wane would make a difference. I sincerely mean that. He has a proven pedigree of getting the best out of what he has been given (injuries included) to great success. I do think short term he would make a difference.

That being said, you are right. Fundamentally our recruitment has been our biggest hindrance and the reason we find ourselves in this current perilous predicament. We have lost two fierce competitors in Sam Tomkins and John Bateman (who both incidentally are killing it at their present clubs). Their absence is hitting us hard.

I am curious how you have "no doubt" Lam is a good coach. What evidence have you seen to warrant this level of faith?

Good post.

I was in the camp of Wane needing to move on due to the boredom at the RL played. I will openly confess my sin of not renewing a season ticket partly due to this. However he did bring success and that cannot be overlooked. Was the Shaun Wane of playing purely down to the substandard recruitment we've made and he had to play a certain conservative style to win? Speculative and largely irrelevant now.

To pick up on your final point, I'm not so sure. I cant say I have seen a great deal of difference in our style of play. It still looks very familiar to me. What "magnificent tries" are you referring to? Either way, one thing we can all surely agree on is our defence has gone backwards. Significantly backwards and that is definitely not entertaining to see. Seeing David Fafita tearing us apart running down the wing took the proverbial biscuit.

Injuries and players who aren't Wigan standard have played their part - I agree. However - did that ever stop Shaun Wane getting results?

Yup,week by week that loss is ever more glaring

I love Wigan winning but a 4-2 arm wrestle. No thanks. I’ve not always thought like this but in the past few years I’ve become bored but I’ve kept on watching, hoping Wigan will be more entertaining.
I understand fans who want to win at all costs but it’s not for me.
We won the Grand Final a few times recently but we’ve lost about 4,000 fans, two of my friends included. They’d had enough of boring rugby.
We scored a try from a scrum at Wakefield.
When Wane was in charge, at a scrum our scrum half passed to a forward standing in the stand-off position who drove the ball in.

They’ve lost fans every year under IL even when we played good stuff under Madge, if you’d rather lose like that today than win a close arm wrestle then fair enough...we won plenty of games like that in the 80’s and 90’s too

Fitness is a massive issue, though he’s a cracking player and is doing well I think Zak Hardaker is a stone overweight.