we are all assuming wane is ready but we dont really know- you never do. but it would de daft not to promote from within at the minute

I thought Wane pretty much ensured himself a turn as head coach when he took over from Madge for a few games last season. IIRC we beat Hull 46-0 at their place and scalped Leeds away.

The polictics around Brisbane will be the determining factor in all of this. Bennett leaving StG/Ill at the end of the year and end of his contract has been subject of speculation for some time.
It was also rumoured that there maybe another Brisbane club in the NRL when they go to 18.
Guess who was rumoured to be tipped for that job! Bennett of course! The Broncos would do anything and everything to make sure Bennett did not go to the alternative Brisbane club.
These rumours will upset StG/Ill far more than anything written about Maguire. Bennett is OOC end of the year, Mcguire is not.

Didn't a rumor about pat going to the us to play American football surface last year? And to my knowledge that rumor has died down.

One again let me reiterate this is tabloid Aussie news. Kind of like the mail over here. Full of c**p but everyone believes it. Take no notice.

Oh and didn't rads came back from retirement for free so he obviously isn't at the club for the money.

And the 2nd runner up is...........................

100% wrong. Mal Meninga has said publicly he wants an nrl job and want to coach the new Queensland team. And the new franchise want him. Bennett hasn't be linked with them over here? Maybe in the uk press?

Bennett has been linked with souths! Tim sheens is also is using souths, st George, the cow boys and other jobs as a chip to get a better contract at the tigers! There is gonna be loads of coach movement in the nrl in the next 12 months as only a few coaches have long deals. Dave furner at the raiders, JC at the titans, smith at the roosters, Elliot at Penrith and Kearney at the eels are pretty settled But the rest of the jobs are pretty much up for grabs.

Some people on here should stop being so touchy. The game needs all the publicity it can get, I look forward to the day when a British born coach is linked with Aussie vacancies. Maybe Wilson has his favourite club - the game is small and all the media guys have a club that they were linked with and subconciously favour - French (StHelens) Woods (Wigan) Hemmings (Warrington) Sadler (Wakefield).

I think the problem is that Andy Wilson - not for the first time - has woven a 'bad news for Wigan' story out of virtually nothing. The difference this time is that it's timed to coincide with our preparation for the biggest match we've had in 17 years.

If he was trying to give the fixture publicity, there are many more positive angles he could have taken.

I don't think anyone at Wigan doubts that Maguire will be going in the near future. He obviously has an ambition to coach in the NRL, and no-one would deny him that. But I can't help wondering if people like Andy Wilson are wishing the guy would pack his bags and go now, because - like Graham Lowe before him - Maguire is another one whose training methods are having a revolutionising effect, and there are lots of stick-in-the-mucks who simply don't like that.

As for the overall publicity thing, yeah, you're bascially right. But I don't think there's much of a connection between Melbourne-trained Mike Maguire attracting interest in the NRL, and some mythical British-born coach doing the same thing. Unfortunately, I feel we're as far from the latter as we ever were.

TBH it’s not just Wigan who can be on the receiving end of negative reporting in the Guardian.

I feel sorry for Andy Wilson

He must have got the gig with the guardian and been so happy to be in a position the spread the RL gospel in one of the Uks leading publications. I bet when he told his mum and dad they were so proud of what their little boy had achieved.

I bet he turned up on his first day and churned out a lovely little RL related story, took it to the chief sports editor (an absolute rah rah zealot) who allocated him 2 dozen words worth of column space

I can imagine this scenario playing out over his first few years at the paper, along with having to put up with snide comments about RL from his yawnion loving peers. It must have been hard for a poor little northerner with zero backbone to keep fighting the RL fight.

I can see people starting to avoid him in the work canteen, not inviting him to work parties and even leaving rude post-it-notes on his monitor.

Eventually a story broke about Long and Gleeson, who had been accused of placing bets on their own team!!. "Goodness me" he though. What a terrible event, one that could only bring shame on RL!! "I hope the nasty big boys in the office don’t find out about this!!"


But they had....

The Chief sports editor calls Andy into his office and tells him he wants an in-depth gritty article about these scumbag northerners having a pee pee on the memory of William Webb Ellis, with their gambling!!!
Andy was confused, never before had the Head of sports seemed so interested in RL?
He was torn between sticking up for the sport he loved and gaining acceptance of the public school attending colleges in the office.
The next day he handed a gritty account of the story to the editor who was rubbing his grubby little hands with the document, “a full page spread indeed!!!” declared the bigwig.
Then it clicked!!
Andy would try to his best to bring up every controversial event in RL (Wigan in particular)in the safe knowledge that he would be guaranteed more column inches!!!
The next few years where a boom time for Andy. Firstly there was the Wigan salary cap cheating, then there was there crowd trouble at the Hull game, Homosexual chanting at a Rugby Union legend (manna from heaven!!) and on and on and on.......
He had lost the respect of the entire RL community and had lost all self respect
BUT!!!!
Finally he had the respect of his colleagues in the office!!
Everyone’s a winner!!

(this is not factually correct!)

I'm Spartacus

I think you pie fans are far too defensive. But then again this isn't a new thing!

It would certainly be a new thing if we were to watch one of our star players deliberately foul an opposition player and seriously injure himself in the process, and then spend the next week trying to convince the world that he was the one who was victimised.

That was taking defensiveness to a whole new level of embarrassment.

Yeah and it would be a new thing if we were to claim that, while down on the floor clearly already injured after doing something dodgy, that one of our star players was either stamped on or otherwise deliberately injured by an opposition player.