Baby it's cold out side.

I think Williams playing with a decent pack is the best 7 in the competition.
He might not currently be top NRL standard but the club should be working with him on his deficiencies to help him improve his kicking, confidence, fitness, pace and tactical knowhow. It's a long list but I don't think that it is unreasonable for a full time young professional at the stage of his career to acknowledge that he can improve across the piece. He is far from the finished article but the foundations are there.
GW for me is a very good player with bags of potential to kick on and SW and his staff have their part to play in delivering his improvement. I would love him to spend sometime with Shaun Edwards on how determination and never accepting second best could bring his game on considerably.

Agree with a lot of this. Lots of potential. I feel Williams would have enjoyed the 'old fashioned' structure of a 6, playing second receiver off a dominant controlling 7, similar to how Edwards played off Greg. With his running game from 6 he could be effective.

But at the end of last season and in the off season much of the talk from him has been acknowledging the attack was naff and what he was going to do about it. If he goes with the conservative selection he is even ignoring himself!



Part of the attraction of Sam at 6 or 7 is the experience he brings because despite the fact Powell is 25 and has a fair few games under his belt I still class him as inexperienced and not a player able to help Williams or take a load off Williams back. As to the forwards I think they look poor in part due to Wane's tactics. When you watch FPN he goes to ground quickly after contact to try and get quick PTB's so when people say he doesn't look much like a wrecking ball it is, IMO, because he is being told not to be one. There is nothing wrong with going for the quick PTB when the game situation warrants it but our players are like robots and stick to the plan regardless.

I agree with a lot of your comments but I just have a feeling that SW will go with Powell at 7 as this is the "safer" route and ST has stated that he wants to play FB.

All the talk about changes after the 2017 season I just think wont happen. If you watch the interviews on Wigan TV SW believes that a CC final (even though we didn't turn up as a team or supporters) and WCC was successful which to a degree I understand however, the style of play is slowly killing the support so unless IL has given SW the go ahead to entertain then I just see another season of poor "rugby".

I don't rate any of our props with perhaps the exception of Sutton who I think could become a good prop. Even if we do change tactics I just don't think that our props are good enough.

Hopefully I am being grossly pessimistic and we will see ST in the halves & the forwards have under performed rather than it being a lack of ability in the last few seasons and a successful season awaits us.

Sadly, I think your pessimism is fully warranted.

The absolute minimum that we needed after the "performances" for the back half of last season, was an attacking coach for the backs, to (finally) replace Paul Deacon/Iestyn Harris.

We have done bugger all about that, and I suspect that we are expecting Leuluai to fulfil that role - Well, he didn't do it last season, and I don't expect any more from him this year.

I think we are in for even worse than last year - At least we won some silverware before the rot set in. This year, I foresee nothing but slow, boring rugby, with little end-product, which could well see us scrapping to stay in the top 8.

OK, we have had just a little coaching in kicking, but unless this RU guy is also teaching the halves some new tricks for the attack, I honestly don't see us finishing in the top 4 again this year.

I have never been this blazé or negative going in to a season before and, whilst I have retained our season tickets, I have almost zero excitement about it - It feels like a duty, rather than a pleasure.

I really hope I'm wrong, and SW will set the team loose, with Sam back in the halves and Escare at FB, and that we see some of the flare return...... But who am I kidding? More of the same - Plod, wrestle, kick (poorly) and repeat.

Intereting stuff from Rads re the Mick Mac / Gells departures https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... -1-8949792

Intereting stuff from Rads re the Mick Mac / Gells departures https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/rugby- ... -1-8949792

According to MM yesterday he didn't want to go to Aus because of his dogs(?), and that was a genuine reason.

I can believe that. Not a dog lover myself but we have friends who are and the way they treat the things better than some of the human members of the family never ceases to amaze me

Hate to be pedantic mate but GW got it in 2015, it was Tom Johnstone in 2016.

On Williams, I personally think he's a cracking player, yes he still has parts of his game to work on, like Kicking but give him a pack that can make plenty of yards and he will shine behind them and he's still only 23.

The 'he's only 23' line is a copout, as is the idea of needing a winning pack to play well (obviously it helps). Compare Williams' skill with the likes of Mitchell Moses (23), Nathan Cleary (20) and what's severely lacking is exactly those core basic skills without which you won't have a future in the NRL - kicking, passing and organising.

That's not bashing Williams BTW, every young halfback Britain has produced for years has lacked one or more of the skills to the sorts of levels required. Its why I hope that Williams, unlike so many before him actually does develop them. To me its down to lack of quality coaching for juniors, but also as someone else mentioned the sad fact that halfbacks simply don't need to get that good to play regularly and win things in SL.

Couldn't agree more.

Spot on

So it is official, Gelling has signed for the other Warriors.