See how it plays out I suppose. At least it looks like Lams days are up at the end of the season. Maybe he can shock us with a Grand Final win before he leaves but I’d be very surprised if it were the case. It’s a demanding club and a demanding group of supporters but it hasn’t worked out overall.

I’m half and half.

If you listen to his podcasts from when he was assistant to Mags he said he can’t be anything but #1. He has to make the decisions. From what I’ve read he won’t be Head Coach, therefore won’t make decisions. It worries me in that has his mindset changed with regards to that? And is it the right role for him?

The other half of me says absolutely go for it. Get him back. He might actually show Lam how to coach a team. I have far more confidence that with Wane on board we’ll be back to signing players we need and that are of the right quality and that he’ll have them fired up ready to win.

This doesnt half put a spanner in the works with regards to GW. He may not have fancied Wigan under Lam but a reunion with Wane? That [imight [/isway him.

Even the world’s greatest bricklayer can’t build you a wall if you don’t give him the bricks to do it with. I think Lam or any other coach would really struggle to win a GF with this group of players. You could bring in Trent Robinson but without a real recruitment drive, I still think we’d struggle with the players we have.

I’m torn on that tbh. I think a top coach figures out a way of getting a back line including French, Hardaker and Hastings playing some fantastic rugby at the very least. You do need a front row to lay a platform but even when they were doing that in the last third of last season, the rugby has always been a grind. A coach has to improve players and he just hasn’t been able to do it.

He’s not had a squad that could dominate the league but he’s had enough to have won something. Had Wane had the exact same set of players this past two and a half years, he’d have won something IMO.

So no team with poor players have ever won anything, or even punched above their weight?

Absolutely they have but they’ve not won Superleague.

Really?

Hastings
Gildart
French
Smith
Hardaker
Marshall
Powell
Bateman
Farrell
Isa

In no particular order named off the top of my head. All top drawer, top quality players who walk into any SL team and I dare say most NRL teams. Are you seriously with a straight face telling me the team we have isn’t good enough? Because if you are I need to find a wall to put my head in.

I think I’m this is a bit unfair to be honest. Powell has improved massively under Lam as has Marshall and even Bullock. Then we’ve had the emergence of Smithies, Havard, Partington etc who are all much better now than when Lam took over. He’s only had 1 x marquee player the last 2 seasons too with the Burgess issues.

I’ve been behind Lam all the way but I’m now ready for a change. I’ve given him more of a chance to prove himself than most. We’ve had glimpses of real class and flare but not had enough of it by a long way. That said, I still put a lot of that down to the standard of players recruited and an ineffective pack.

My comments relate to next season so absolutely I am. However, we came within a whisker of winning the GF last season so not far away. Gildart and French haven’t played this season. Smith still has much to improve on but I have big hopes for the lad. Bateman hasn’t got anywhere near any decent form yet and I hope he turns it around and quick. Hastings and Gildart (possibly French won’t be here next season so need quality replacements. We have the players in the squad now but without reinforcements we’ll struggle next season against strengthened Saints and Warrington sides no matter who the coach is.

Powell improved but even if has gone backwards now. Marshall had improved so that’s one. The young kids have come in and done a good job but it’s hardly like that’s a new thing at Wigan and none have made giant strides forward just yet. Joe Bullock looks no different to the lad that came in. A better season last year than his first but even Lam doesn’t seem to rate his game. He’s not even got the best out of top talents like Hastings and Bateman.

I buy in to the fact the recruitment should’ve been better and he didn’t have much luck with Burgess but I can’t help but to go back to my question about how we’d have gone under Wane these past two and a half years. We’d have still brought kids through, we’d have still been clunky at times but ultimately there is no way on this earth we’d have lost pretty much every big game we’ve played in during that period, including absolute pastings against Salford, a poor Leeds side and Hull. We were played off the park in all three and it’s those I focus on. We had bad defeats like that 48-0 last time out under Wane and we had bad spells in the weekly rounds but in the main, you knew exactly what side would turn up in big games.

Hi Lammy

Can’t argue with most of this NK, hence as I said, I’m ready for a change. Still, I can’t help thinking we’re at a critical stage with recruitment / retention and we are in dire need of an injection of experienced forwards and quality backs for next season and beyond, regardless of who the coach is..