Not a bad squad by any means but some big players gone and on paper replaced by lesser players, but there may be players who supprise people

VERY weak squad. What on earth has happened to the cap money?

Actually, I know it's odd but even though I knew what personnel we had (and more importantly "hadn't"icon_wink.gif I am actually feeling depressed about next year.

Not only is the competition a joke and 75% of games pointless, the quality of the players at Wigan RL is at a 5 year low. Maybe they will "gel" as a team and surprise us, but looking at the half back pairing (let alone cover there) I am not holding my breath.

Mediocrity. Sadly that's not good enough for Wigan RL imo and I would be happy to debate this with IL.

Young squad, looks good enough to belt most of the teams in the league to me as well as challenge wire & leeds for trophies. Think there's some overreaction here to not seeing any "big signings" when we don't really know how a lot of the new signings & youngsters will get on.

Hughes in the at least to start with works for me. When you hear about how the impact of tackles in Super League is similar to a car crash it puts in to perspective why young forwards can struggle when first coming in. Let him get some regular game time at , then perhaps move him to 2nd row, unless he really impresses out wide.

but if gets skinned every week by more agile centres does that make it ok as he isnt getting hurt at centre...its crazy. We have 2 more natural centres who we are paying money for yet we are playing a second rower at centre. (providing he does)

Some odd choices from Mr Wane, he wants rid of Hock because of his stupidity but loves Mickey M who is equally as stupid, the favourites problem seems to be resurfacing ala Mr Noble.

Lauaki No 8 Average front rower at best..

Must admit i'm concerned, long term we look good if we can keep hold of the player we produce (which i doubt)

Hoping for at least one decent signing but it's still a big step down in class team wise from the past few seasons..

I don't think he played that badly at all when he did slip in there last year tbh. Apparently Marsh got the better of him in a generally poor team performance (can't really comment, wasn't there) and Lulia gave him a lot of trouble in the league game at our place, which isn't too shameful. On the flipside I remember him collaring Hardaker and bundling him in to touch against Leeds to top off a fine first game at . The kids just need game time.

Maybe they're going to work at it in the off season and see how he goes? Maybe he's impressed Wane more than Gelling & Thornley in that position already.

Hock at 14? Albeit he's a liability, but he's still one of the best second rowers in the competition. Odd, odd decision (if he is to stay with Wigan).

Shaun Wane does appear to be going for size.
Some big men in the pack. Mossop, Prescott, Dudson, Taylor & Hock are all 6'3" or more. Then there's Lauaki, Lockers & H who whilst not as tall still have a great presence in the middle of the game. The smaller guys are Micky Mac, Tuson & Faz. Both MM & Tuson tackle far above their weight and Faz is an excellent pack man.
The pack is the fulcrum from where all actions stem, they could be formidable next season with that amount of size, skill and pace.
Our halves are the uncertain factor. Smith has never really been convincing nor did he have a really poor game. Green has looked pacey and dangerous with good hands too the few times I've seen him. Behind a good pack they could do very well indeed.
As for the backs, four of the five were with us last season although Pat missed a sizeable number of games.
With George gone Wane has a choice of some big men, Hughes ain't small whereas Gelling and Thornley are around 6'4" which is some size for a centre.

We have a young squad but plenty of experience especially in the pack. The halves are not newcomers either.
I'm pretty optimistic to be honest. Teams with physically big forwards and pacey halves and backs usually do well.
Can't see us dropping out of the top four, the squad appears too good for that. Though only time will tell.

The above are all daft options IMO. Hughes doesn't have the skill to make it as a centre, he should be used as a back rower or not at all unless we are really depleted. Last year we signed two centres (Gelling and Thornley) why the hell are we putting a back rower in there?

Lauaki trys hard but I'm still not confident he is strong enough to make it as a prop, Flower likewise. I would use them in the rotation because we don't have many options but to give them squad numbers ahead of Prescott and Taylor makes no sense

I don't see a future at Wigan for Tuson, his 10 minute cameos are pointless too. Why not play Powell, Murphy or L.Tomkins off the bench instead and give McIllorum a break rather than knacker him out playing 80 every week, then getting surprised when he makes poor decisions?

A centre off the bench is a waste of a spot too but I'm sure that's not what will happen. I'll not criticise any more until I see the squad he picks but this is not a positive indication.

Basically what I was thinking. I was just WAY too lazy to type it out

Interesting comments re: Jack Hughes. One suggested a "daft option" who "doesn't have the skills to make it at centre". To be honest Darrell Goulding was probably "a daft option" for squad number 3 in 2008 and 2009 - especially given he was relegated to number 24 in 2010 - but he has now made that shirt his own for me. In fact in 2009 Goulding was squad number 3 but only started three games, so perhaps it means little that Hughes has Number 4. Perhaps Wane's done that to give the lad a gee up?

Whilst I agree the squad looks very thin on paper, players need opportunities and we really need to take a longer term view on such options. In this modern game of salary capping you cannot have the mentality of "we'll win it next year". Maurice tried and tried doing that and it failed miserably. The buy a big name way of doing things failed also under Maurice. I mean even Steve Renouf (one of the great centres in the games history) won bugger all here!

Yeah we could have re-signed Carmont and Finch and they would have been better options, but we'd still have been in the same boat at the end of next year....so what would have been the point? We need to take a short term hit for longer term gain.

For me our chances next year lay solely on the half backs and whether than can produce a kicking game. Leeds and Warrington made both finals last year, just ahead of Wigan in both regards, and it was the last tackle option that was the difference. Very small margin that cost us. If we can create some pressure on last tackles then everything else will click into place for me.

The kicking game is an important area where we actually look to be stronger in this coming season. For all of their strengths (and we all know they had many) as halfbacks Finch and Leuluai's kicking games were both pretty shocking. Leuluai's did improve this year but he never really had the range to kick well from distance. As for Finch's kicking, the last game against Leeds summed it up; he's pretty clueless when it comes to tactical kicking and it probably cost us the game.

From what I've seen Smith and Green should be a big step up, so at least there should be some improvement in that department.

Squad numbers mean nothing.

I'm pleased. I'm confident Jack will making an excellent centre. Given time I'm sure he'll prove all his doubters wrong.
He's big, strong and deceptively quick, I'm sure he'll develop his game as a centre offering great attack and defence on his side.