Will the Wigan machine continue to march on into 2019....or would you except it as a year of transition for the new coach?

SOL looking to be slowing as does Farrell.
Loului retired?
Bateman to NRL?
Sam Cats. Joel...Leigh/Salford?

Farrell?

I was abroad on Saturday and (thankfully) haven’t seen the game but it’s two weeks since the bloke made 190m+ against Wire at Magic in addition to nearly 30 tackles. He’s having a really good season and has to be the most underrated player in superleague for my money.

The rest I can’t argue with. I hope Leuluai plays on as he’s another having a good season but if he doesn’t and Lockers calls it quits we’ve lost a lot of experience and 2019 could be tough.

I must admit I’ve not thrown the towel in on 2018 yet though like some people seem to have done. Maybe it’s because the last game I attended was that Magic game and I’ve been shielded from the events of the past two weeks but there is a great deal of talent in this current Wigan team and two poor results on the back of a really big shock in Wane announcing his departure doesn’t hide the fact that we’re still in the hunt for two trophies and are in a strong position. The players need to pull their heads from up their backsides but would I be surprised to see O’Loughlin raise the Grand Final trophy above his head at Old Trafford in October? No, not at all.

Big game this Thursday for us in regards to the general atmosphere around the place.

Are we in a crisis? Maybe.
Is it the end of the world and our season? Absolutely not.

I think the past two/three weeks have been the worst we’ve seen in a long long time, probably since 2006. All we’ve seen and known since 2010 is success and watching good to half decent rugby and more often than not - outstanding defence. That may be why these past few weeks have been hard to take.

However, SW and this team are the current Kings of turning it around when we’ve been written off.

Yes there are issues behind the scenes which must be rectified. Certain players need a rocket up their backside and I’d even say SW does, but I’d still fully expect to be involved in the Top 4 play offs.

And just incase you weren’t aware - I am probably one of SW’s biggest critics on this forum.

We need to stop the rot this week for me. If it drags on it becomes more difficult to get over the depression that seems to be over the place but the players and fans need to remember it’s only two weeks since we put in a fantastic performance against Wire at the Magic Weekend and if they can get that going again then why can’t we look to grab that top spot and have a real dig at getting to (and hopefully winning) Old Trafford.

There’s everything to play for and to throw the towel in would be really sad.

Just have a look back at the weekends match around the 5 - 6 mins in from the start, as examples. Farrell was missing tackles left right and centre.

Only Bateman looked to be trying IMHO in that game. Our attacking was non-existant.

One bad game whilst the blokes still reeling from his coach of the last ten years announcing he’s to leave the club is surely forgivable and doesn’t make him a bad player?

Two weeks ago there was a huge number of players who we’d say are having good seasons and two poor weeks in tough circumstances surely doesn’t change that.

Even Sean O'Loughlin was dreadful on Saturday - if it was all based on that game we'd literally be sending out John Bateman plus 16 reserve players on Thursday.

Absolutely. We were missing tackles left right and centre, whilst Wire were off-loading at will and marching us down the park.

I don't think I can bear to re-watch it!

....so I say would you consider 2019 as transitional?
It's almost like you're going to have that 2016 leeds thingy.
I don't except 2017 was transitional for Warrington.

Not just Farrell, but yeah, he missed more tackles that game than the rest of the season put together. Just so unlike him.

I’m still convinced we had been on the p**s Wednesday, Thursday & Friday night. Players like Faz & Lockers missing so many tackles was strange. How can SO many players be so off colour? Unless they have thrown their toys out the pram in protest at Wane going?

According to the stats Lockers only missed 1 tackle. Farrell and Clubb missed 7 each and Powell 6. To be honest it didn't look that bad during the game, just looked as if the off loads were killing you.

It was more O'Loughlin's passing that was dreadful.

Quote ="newgroundb4wakey"According to the stats Lockers only missed 1 tackle. Farrell and Clubb missed 7 each and Powell 6. To be honest it didn't look that bad during the game, just looked as if the off loads were killing you.'" Clubb and Powell miss a high percentage normally, so that’s not too surprising, but Faz had only missed 13 tackles (from 420 tackles made) all season up till that game. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... ayer_stats

Quote ="newgroundb4wakey"According to the stats Lockers only missed 1 tackle. Farrell and Clubb missed 7 each and Powell 6. To be honest it didn't look that bad during the game, just looked as if the off loads were killing you.'" Clubb and Powell miss a high percentage normally, so that’s not too surprising, but Faz had only missed 13 tackles (from 420 tackles made) all season up till that game. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... ayer_stats

Maybe the video incident affected the whole squad? It could be a one-off impact if so. Or maybe players have reacted to Wane leaving. It doesn't mean the wheels have fallen off for the whole season, it could just be that it takes a couple of weeks to get back into kilter.

Perhaps....but it didn't effect Wigan at Magic??

I can't help thinking that the Joel and Sam video was the main story behind last weekend's Cup disaster.

But the video only surfaced after the game didn't it?

I don’t suppose we’ll ever know for sure. The incident was 5 weeks earlier during which time we played some decent rugby and put in our best performance of the season at Magic. I’m putting last week down to just a very bad day at the office, Warrington got us on a real off day and it coincided with them playing well. Their off load tactics worked very well and we threw nothing at them. As I say, there may be a reason behind it but we’ll probably never know. Tomorrow is a good indicator as to where we’re at and I’d say we need a win to improve the mood around the club, regardless of the performance. Ideally, we’ll put in an 80min game but I’d take a scruffy win.

Both events happened after Magic RD.

The the nasty deed was done a couple of weeks before magic. I find it hard to believe nobody but the bros knew about this.

Phuzzy there was one incident but captured in 2 separate videos. The incident happened 5 weeks ago on a Sunday evening and not after Magic.

I'm sure they did. However, I'd suggest it's one thing hearing about some drunken shenanigans and an entirely different one seeing the reality and its possible fall out. I'm sure the Cas lads knew about Hardaker's indiscretions before they were announced but look at how that affected them once it was.

SW apparently only told the team of his leaving on the Monday following Magic.

My point is neither incident would have had much bearing on the Magic performance which is what I believe you were asking?

Sorry, I think you misunderstood my post. I meant the story was broke after Magic. The incident itself would have had little effect on the magic performance whereas the potential leaking and fall out from it most certainly would have.

My apologies if I didn't make that clear.

No need for apologies mate, it was my misinterpretation of the comment.

What would we give for some good news right now?