Who is our assistant coach these days?

Where did I mention Wigan? I admire your club for the player production and willingness to blood the kids, but don't support it. The RFU should rot in hell in my book for crimes against our sport both direct and indirect, but for some reason I don't have the same hate for Welsh RU which is why I would have no issue with Edwards coming back in a paid capacity to RL. Leave Farrell in your hall of fame, but keep him away from players.

Correct.

Aren't people allowed to make mistakes in life?

Always welcome back for me. (If there's a vacancy)

Agree. Farrell did what was best for his family and himself at the time, no dramas for me, good luck to him.
Would I have him back at Wigan, yes IF there was a suitable position. We should not be that inward looking to recognise that we can learn things from almost all different sports. The point that he has been out of the RL game for 10 years is irrelevant IMO. I will guarantee that the likes of Farrell and Edwards spend a lot of time studying the game and players in Rugby League, however would either be willing to be an assistant for a while of that I'm not quite sure.

I'd have him back in a heart beat. The lad knows rugby league inside out! Maybe it's a few years since he played but that doesn't mean he doesn't keep up to date with the sport and watch it regularly. A year as assistant with SW and regardless of code, I think he'd be very good and I'd bet still has Wigan in his heart. That's what IL wants. Local lads who love the club, appreciate its history and can contribute to its future. I'd say Faz fits that description to a tee!
Who knows, maybe he could lure some union lads over to RL in years to come? Maybe his son for example!!

I honestly don't think he'd have a problem getting a job closer to his new home. He's settled. His eldest is playing down there and his others are going through school.

That being said, if he was willing to spend some time as Wane's assistant then I'd take him in a heartbeat.

I don't have a view on whether or not it would be a good thing to have Andy Farrell back in a coaching role. However for the life of me I cannot understand the antipathy shown towards him by some of the posters on this forum. Here is a man who gave fantastic service to this club in a long and distinguished career during which he achieved legendary status. That he chose to cash in at the end of that career by taking the easy and plentiful money available in R.U. is no reason for animosity to be directed towards him. Funnily enough I never read on here any expressions of horror when, as it has often been promulgated, that Sean Edwards could return not that I have anything against the idea. We should be proud of the achievements of these local born lads and extremely thankful they chose to play the bulk of their career at our club.

Just for completeness, Edwards signed Lee Smith from Leeds to RU. The fact that turned into a bit of a disaster for both parties may help explain why he never poached from RL again.

I think the issue non-Wigan fans - including me - have with Farrell is that he helped lure Burgess to RU whilst he was a guest of the RFL during the RL WC. That to me was putting his self-interest ahead of the game that made him.

In pure rugby terms, I wouldn't consider an RL coach who hadn't been involved in the game for a decade as a likely first team coach, let alone someone who has zero experience in coaching senior RL.

Agree with you about Lee Smith. I always felt that he was a very talented player who should have stuck with Leeds. Maybe he does too. (BTW about halfway through last season he started posting on the Wakey boards, all his posts are about what a great player Lee Smith is )

Burgess is his own man. People are talking as if going to Union wouldn't have occurred to him unless Faz had poached him.

Rugby League is a far simpler game to coach. Faz knows more about RL than the vast majority. A spell as an assistant and he would be up to speed in no time.

club legend but isnt qualified and has absolutely no business being anywhere near an RL first team

One of the things a new coach has to do is impress the squad so that they will listen to him. Andy Farrell has won literally everything that the game can offer, so no player can disrespect him on the basis of what he achieved as a player.

He coached Saracens, England and the British Lions. Clearly many people in Union feel that he is a good coach. He must have come across a degree of scepticism because of his past.

Are we so myopic that we can't learn from someone with his experience and qualities?

People's objections seem to centre on the fact that he hasn't been in the game for the last nine years. Do we really think he doesn't keep in touch? (And as for qualifications - I understand the only current holders of the level 4 coaching badge, the top RL coaching qualification, are Denis Betts and Richard Agar, good coaches both, but I suspect neither would be welcome here)

If Waney were to go then I for one would be happy to have Faz back. No question.

Interesting split of views. I don't hold with the view that great players always make good coaches. There will be some stats somewhere about successful RL coaches and what success they had as a player. For me, good coaches need man-management skills first. I'd be very surprised if AF fails this, due to the longevity of his career: as a captain and coach. He can surround himself with assistants, in the same way MM did, and come up with team tactics and plays, but his handling of the squad, getting them on board with his philosophy and motivation, is the key.
The game hasn't changed that much to suggest he would be incapable of re-learning it.

I'm responding to Maurice and partly a general response.
I too have an intense dislike for the RFU for their historical and recent behaviour to anything RL however, generally we hold the moral high ground and we should avoid at all costs any intolerance towards the RFU in any guise be it to the game in general or individuals connected with RU. My rationale for this is that it simply is the right thing to do and hopefully it winds up the kick and clap brigade particularly the bigots and zealots from the broadsheets.
Some negative comments on Farrell are because he went to RU and therefore, he should never return. I'm the opposite in that I would welcome him back or for that matter any other player or coach who return to the fold irrespective of their initial reasons for going to RU.
With regards to Farrell if he made it known that he did want to return to RL then I'm certain that there would be no shortage of suitors irrespective of his lack of coaching experience in RL. Farrell is rugby down to his boots and is part of a small clique of people who just seem to have been born to play and coach the game. In the modern game I would put Wellens in the same category - I'm certain Wellens will eventually coach the Saints.
I personally would have Farrell back however, I just don't see how we could accommodate him with SW and I wouldn't want to lose SW therefore, if Farrell did return then it would have to be to one of our rivals which for me wouldn't be a bad thing.

Aboveus - Burgess is clearly 'his own man' but without having someone from the England RU setup in his ear, no doubt about how he could make the RUWC in 2015 his decision to switch would probably have been harder and may not have been made at all.

I appreciate that people are offering praise like this with caveats - like we haven't got a space for him etc. But where is the actual evidence for the above?

He's never coached RL in his life, and in RU - where he had the country's best players at his disposal - he failed miserably. Granted the latter wasn't all his fault, but we can't pretend that he wasn't integral to the most disastrous coaching team England RU have had in God knows how long.

I too have very fond memories of Farrell's days at Wigan. But they're long, long over. And this idea that former great players will automatically make great coaches is surely an idea we dispensed with years ago, especially as he would probably expect big bucks.