There are a number of areas where improvement is needed:

1. Team selection - we've ended up with the right team selection by accident, not design.

2. Conditioning - Riddell and Feka need to make some significant improvements, though the team as a whole now seems much fitter than it was to be fair (we now seem to be finishing games strongly rather than losing our way at the end).

3. Set-plays - have been absent for far too long this season. Some improvement (particularly the moves involving Carmont and Tomkins) has been seen recently but I still wonder what they do in training.

Like DaveO I don't buy the argument that the start to the season doesn't matter. Leaving aside the obvious point that you can exit the Cup early on in the season what we have done is to put far too much pressure on ourselves in the second half of the season. Should we really be having to battle so hard just to reach 4th? Surely we'd stand a better chance of winning the GF from 1st or 2nd?

We need to find someone who can make these improvements, I don't see how another season for Noble is going to enable him to make these changes.

I completely agree. One powerhouse prop would be ideal. A new coach - preferably a scholar of the game - who values a [icombination[/i of youth and experience would help us immeasurably.

The conditioning has been a massive issue for a few seasons now. Under Ashley-Jones, player after player were getting injured in training, and most of these wernt structural injuries, they were things like hamstrings, that is unforgivable, and points to not warming up properly or imballances, this has cleared up under forshaw, but i think gennerally, we are poorly conditioned, now i realise, that once they leave the training ground its upto them to keep their conditioning up. But some of the players should be ashamed of themselves.

With regards, to starting strongly, you cant win the league in the first 3 months of the season, but you can loose it!

I agree on the prop front, I think we only need one, and I think (hope) it's been sorted.

I believe it would help Fielden.

But I would give Noble one more year at the very least.

We'll know soon.

Thats the fear with Noble i suppose........the more senior players you give him the less opportunities will be given to the younger lads.

If Tim Smith was still fit Sam Tomkins would find himself either on the bench or out of the side.

If we sign an experienced prop for next year will it be Fielden or Prescott to miss out on a place in the 17?

If Nobby can find a ruthless side i think we can really go places under him.

He's got 2.

At least 2 years or nothing imo.

We can't keep reviewing the situation year on year and let distractions get in the way of the overall goals.

If he could start the season half as well as he can finish it, i dont think anyone would have a problem, i certainly wouldnt, but for me its his inabiltiy to prepare the team to start the season better than they finished the last one.

Each year it has been like a new side. Having tos start again

The aim for Noble and the players has to be to start a season the way they've been finishing them.

If we get a forward or 2 in i believe we can do that and hopefully finish in the top 3.

Do that and work from there in the play offs.

Look at the positions we changed at the start of the year -middle.

We’ve changed a 6 and a 9 that takes time to settle.

If you remember people on here where stating that amos, piggy and tim smith where a waste of space. Except when they started finding there feet they have become more accepted.

So was that not the problem at the start of the season

Or was it just noble??

Personally i think it was the team and players becoming a new team.

And noble has signed a 2 year deal

But NK isn't it the same with all teams.
Eastmond wouldn't be there if Long wasn't injured.
Ashurst, Dixon, Lomax and Armstrong wouldn't be there but for injuries.

Kallum Watkins soon disappeared into the reserves.
Paul McShane was soon dropped when Boderus returned from injury.

I suppose it is the same but if we use Leeds and Saints as examples they're the top 2 teams in the comp so therefore have the best players. Their young players will find it hard to break into a side preforming well and to displace a top player is going to be a very tough task.

On the other hand here at Wigan we don't have as good a set of players and have stuggled for the vast majority of the season. Theres been times when i believe we should have given certain senior players a message that their form isn't good enough and leave them out of the side but that hasn't happened(bar one game with Roberts).

I'm not a fan that wants to see a full 17 made up of local kids but i do believe that our best 17 at the moment just happens to contain a few locally produced youngsters and they deserve a place on merit.

Noble just needs to find the right balance and a way of keeping everybody on their toes by using his 'squad'.

Wasn't Tim Smith the best thing since sliced bread when you first signed him? Young player of the year and all that?

I would wet my pants if Hull was half as exciting to watch as Wigan. I think on form you have as good a chance as any other team of winning the grand final.

Tim Smith with a pack that was dominating was a very good player. Murrayfield being a prime example.

When he was left stranded defensively he was poor. He certainly looked better in that department when Gleeson was signed.