Shaun Wane. Shoe-in for Coach of the year.
The only 100% win/loss record in SL.
Top that!

No lothlorian wrote:that Wigan had not signed any players. I would say that Deacon was a bad signing due to the amount of games that he has played.

One could argue Tony Smith should have won "Coach of the Year" last year for getting an underachieving team to Wembley and winning the Cup, having taken over when they were in such disarray.

True, Warrington are much more consistent this year and have done far better in the League, but Wigan's improvement has been more dramatic - especially as it was with the same players as last year's relatively underachieving squad. Deacon has not made such a significant contribution and cannot be regarded as the reason behind Wigan's success.

Maybe the Grand Final Winners will get the Coach of the Year!

I'd give it John Kear. Watching Wigan has been like watching paint dry, whereas Wakey have been superb.

I would agree that the coach of the year will come from Smith, Noble and Madge.

At this stage in the season there is no doubt that Wigan have improved.

The question as to whether they have improved in terms of the overall competition can only be answered in the playoffs, and the measure of that will be a GF appearance.

No doubt this last sentence will be jumped upon by those who can't see the bigger picture, but in this competition, the LL shield counts for nothing. It's no good finishing top if you cannot convert that into performances in the playoffs.

I can't be bothered going back to check, but I'm pretty sure at the beginning of the season your benchmark for us having improved was "if we won something".

Now that we have "won something", I see you've raised the bar.

Wigan have been in the past 3 GF eliminators so Maguire had a good base to build on. Smith inherited a bunch of underachivers, got rid of the deadwood(Gleeson) and brought in players who have the right attitude. Saying that I still think your consistency and having the best attack and defence counts for something and if you win something then he should get it.

Sadly, comments like this make me realise that, despite the amount of growing up they've done recently, there are still plenty of Wire fans who are labouring under the 'we can do no wrong' delusion.

Gleeson has been a good-to-very-good signing for us, and no amount of wishful thinking by you lot will change that fact.

No doubt he's been good for you a change of scene and also the fact he never wanted to play for us might of helped but I wouldn't have him over King, Atkins or Bridge at centre right now.

He was a good player at Wire too, but was deemed part of the culture problem that needed changing. It was a good move from Smith, and perhaps his attitude has improved at Wigan (although I do recall him being dropped for attitude reasons at Wigan?)

Wire have two centres (three if you include Atkins) who have been more impressive than Gleeson this season IMO, so it looks a good call.

It's good to have an opinion, even if it's not always persuasive.

I'd say King, Atkins and Bridge have all performed better at centre than Gleeson this year. I wonder which two of those three you think Gleeson has been better than?