Undoubtedly we've made a mess of it, but I disagree with the Tommy thing point.

The club have backed themselves into such a corner (by putting all their eggs in the GW basket) that anyone of quality has been snapped up. The Tommy signing to me screams of a last min, rushed decision to have some kind of cover & not doing him a favour or not being able to make tough decisions.

I'm sure that, if we'd have gone for someone else (which we should have done) Tommy would have moved into coaching.

Was that the clubs choice or was it Tommy's choice i.e. the extra year was in his favour?

With Clarke going we now comply with the overseas quota limit of 7, prior to that we were 1 over and administratively we wouldn’t have been able to register one of the players.

So even by losing Clarke we still don’t have any quota spots available.

It really does smack of very poor planning over the course of a number of years not just last year.

In my opinion someone should be made accountable for that, and maybe Lam has been but I’ve a feeling it’s down to decisions higher up the food chain than that and also one of the main reasons Wane is back at the club.

With Smith, Field, TL and French able to play in the halves, I wonder whether half back is really the biggest area?

I reckon an experienced prop and a strike centre might be more valuable. I respect Powell but maybe even a 9 with a little more strike to accompany him.

It's really hard to judge tbh. A good HB and make or break a team.

I really like the idea of Bibby being given a shot at centre too. He was great for Salford there, but has been a winger for the majority of his time here.

Has French played in the halves?

Yes, for a limited time, but he wasn’t very good and is why he has played fullback ever since.

Bevan French is categorically not a halfback

Which clubs and who?

I don’t agree with Fear the Vee that we’re covered in the halves already (we are in numbers possibly but not in quality) but if we do go with what we have because there isn’t the right quality available, then I fully agree that we need to look at other positions and get them as strong as possible to try and help the lads we do have be as efficient as they can be. I also agree with the positions I’d then be looking at. One would be another prop and the other a centre.

One situation that seems to be bubbling away down under is Luke Thompson and his refusal to get vaccinated. As with everything Covid related, they’re more hardline than us Down Under and after it seemingly being sorted, it now looks like he’s saying he won’t get it until the turn of the year (for some reason). I doubt anyone here would force him to have a vaccine and it’s something we should be keeping our eyes on, if the finance is available.

It feels like there's a awful lot of unknowns going into next season, I don't think we've seen enough of jai field to know much about the kind of player he'll turn out to be, is he a half back? Perhaps he's a really good halfback? Maybe smith has come on leaps and bounds with a bit of guidance from Lee Briers? Perhaps powell has had a rocket up his arris with the new coaching set up and some of the shackles have come off? Perhaps the shackles were lams doing and thing have changed for many players? Maybe matty peet is the prodigal son of coaching and he's turned everything around? Thornley, stupid signing or could turn out that he's gonna throw everything into a last couple of seasons and we'll see a really good player turn out. I'm not saying that everything's hunky dorey but I genuinely don't know what to expect. Just my opinion and I'm sure others will disagree.

Pretty sure Thompson has now said he will get the vaccine?

Yes sorry that was my point which I accept wasn't clear - clearly a top half back can be transfromational and I don't have Wigan's options down as amongst the best (accepting Field could be a star for all I know) but you do have a 7 in Smith with TL as backup and you do have a 6 in Field with French as backup.

You've played with Jackson Hastings, a top HB, and struggled and I think that was a lack of a front ine prop (or two) to get you playing off the front foot and some strike in the centres which made you quite easy to defend against. I think improving those positions would improve your halves without new halves if you catch my drift.

All that said the biggest signing would be a proper coach - that may or may not have been addressed, hard to tell.

Saw an update this morning that said something about him saying he’ll have it but not yet and Canterbury not being happy with that. He is trying to delay it for as long as he can according to the Sydney Herald.

He surely just has it and it all goes away but it’s not the first time he’s not gone with the majority when it comes to issues stemming from Covid.

Fair enough, bloody stupid imo

The coaching appointment will absolutely be the biggest difference maker for us. There’s no way of knowing it it’ll work with Peet but there’s a minimum of 20% plus in each and every one of our players IMO and Lam just didn’t get from them.

I look at Man United at the minute and I hear family/friends saying ‘why does the manager always get the blame?’ and I smile. I look at the transformation in Rugby League of Wigan in 2010 and Saints in 2017 onwards and in football with teams like Chelsea last season or Liverpool under Klopp and they absolutely prove just how important the manager/coach is and why they get the blame when things aren’t going right. I’m not saying we have a squad of comparable quality to a Man U but good coaches improve players and even ones that you feel are a basket case/write off. Those examples above just highlight what can be achieved with largely the same set of players as before a new appointment.

We need a bit more quality in a couple of positions I believe but the first priority has to be improving the players already here.