Wane kept it classy on Saturday night. There was no vindication, no bitterness, he said.
“People don’t know the half of it, of what’s gone on,” he started off, mysteriously.
“Without boring you, I could go into detail about people not training. I’m talking daily. I’m not talking month to month.
“We’ve had four or five people not training all week and the first time they’ve run is when they’ve shown up on game day.

“It’s hard for me to listen to us getting hammered about our attack and I’ve got a scrum-half playing at nine and playing lots of minutes.

“There’ve been dark, dark days where I know we’re being hammered. We’ve had a really poor performance and I understand the reasons why and nobody else does.
“We’ll win a game, win it ugly, get hammered, win again
“I see the 17 we put out (in the grand final) and we’ve no right to win the game, if truth be known. It’s the best feeling I’ve ever known.
“I don’t want to be bitter about it. You’ve got your jobs to do and we’ve got our jobs. No satisfaction, I’m just happy.”


But here’s what’s different from before, embedded in this quote: “The majority of our fans understand what we’ve been through and got behind us.”

“The majority”.

As traditional media continues to lose influence in society, as big sports clubs and athletes bypass the press and speak directly to their fans, there’ll be fewer and fewer clippings to pin to the dressingroom wall.
Fewer and fewer of the commentators whose job it is to criticise will have jobs.

Many believe the most vitriolic of criticism of Wigan in 2016, of their attack and of their players and of Wane himself, has come not from journalists, commentators and former stars but from among the ranks of the club’s own fans.

These are the few remaining voices who have one big vested interest – success – but no others. They don’t need to deal with the club to earn a living. They don’t feel bound by defamation laws. Many don’t even appear bound by common decency.

Somehow, the amateur psychologists with which professional sport is awash are going to have to negotiate a new paradigm in the motivation stakes. How can we admit to ourselves we are trying to prove wrong our own supporters?

I just noticed on Twitter that Tomkins has had a dig at Bilko which has kicked up a bit of a storm.

A tad petty on Sam's behalf IMO at a time when he should be enjoying himself with his team mates. Those comments by Bilko clearly hit a nerve amougst the squad and you sense they used it as motivation.

Those comments by Bilko has ultimately played a pretty big part in the squad getting its act together by the looks of things. I'd say that's something he should be proud of.

You Wiganers love yer humble pie, that's for sure.

It was certainly an 'awful, awful, awful' performance against Widnes that night.

Got to say I am absolutely disgusted in Sam for his comments. Come across like the lowest of the low. He needs to take a long hard look at himself.

What's wrong with what Sam has said? Bilko is being a bit of a bellend with his comments tbh. How the f*ck has it been an "awful season"?

Was it an awful season up to the Widnes game? Yes.

Bilko is Wigan through and through and said it how he saw it at the time. If fans can't have an opinion without players questioning it then we might as well give up watching.

It's petulant and childish tbh. I presume he didn't know the back story to Bilkos frustrations (with his dad's illness) but that's no excuse.

Sam is very well paid (in rugby league terms) to turn out for a rugby league club that has very high expectations. The club talk about having high expectations of itself and the drive to succeed is clearly there for all to see. They looked frustrated with themselves around the time of Bilkos comments and by their own very high standards they couldn't have been chuffed with how things were going. If a fan who clearly loves the club makes points to that effect they should be big enough to take it on the chin.

In fairness to Tomkins he wished Bilkos father all the best but then seemed to carry it on with a couple more people. I think the club should give him some guidance on the matter tbh.

No it wasn't. I actually agreed with him when he was kicking off after the Widnes game but given what we've done since then he's coming across as a cock.

He's entitled to his opinion of course he is, but then why can't Sam try and defend himself and his team mates?

At a time when the club are looking to improve the relationship with supporters following the fan survey his post is petty & careless.

Bilko is well respected amongst Wigan fans for his balanced views and his comments about it being an awful, awful season was spot on at the time. He was definitely not on his own with that and it was a view shared by many supporters. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as he has quite rightly pointed out. The bloke has given up his free time to commentate games on Wish FM, countless hours on the brilliant Cherry & White site and has submitted videos for Wigan TV too IIRC. No-one pays the guy a dime for it either.

Ian Lenagan should have a word in the ear of him for that. Stay professional and enjoy the success.

I take it back actually, I didn't realise the date of Bilko's comments I thought he'd said it after the final. Definitely a bit petty from Sam.

Agreed.

Ian Lenagan/Kris Radlinski should have a quick word with him.