Exactly.

The plan is never to lose games, but the plan is to go into some games of the year not physically at the height if your powers but yet to still win.

Sometimes that is achievable sometimes it is not. For us it was not but the plan still came together perfectly in the long run.

We went 5 points clear in the league and simply had to pull back on that front to sustain the charge for a double. Half cooked sides, jammed with youth and injuries meant we had to pull back.

When you look at the season as a whole it does point towards one thing and that's Wigan being the best team in 2013.

I don't believe for one second that we "wanted to lose".

However, we simply didn't mind if we lost, as the job (achieve a top-4 play-off place) was done.

That's why so many kids were in the team toward the end of the season.

Also, it will do them good, as they now have more experience of what to expect, whenever they need to step up again.

All comes down to focus and what you want from the match.

Perfect example is our loss to Huddersfield. Huddersfield were playing in their cup final that day we had ours 2 weeks later. You could see the marked difference.

When it comes to a month later and both are going for the same goal there's only one clear cut winner.

Hit the nail on the head.

I am sure it was quite deliberate we played who we did v Hull at the DW but that team wanted to win the game. The week after, the Superman game, we had to have a full team out given the sponsorship but neither team wanted to lose that either.

For the "take the foot off the gas" theory to have any validity that game should have been a damp squib and Leeds, past masters at "peaking" apparently, should not have played as they did.

I readily accept Wane will rest players in certain games more than he might if the league leaders was the way to win the title but I don't accept when we have a full team out, they are sent out not to try and win the game.

Interesting stuff, especially the long post from jonh regarding conditioning, about which I previously knew next to nothing.

I am quite sure that the players on the pitch are totally focussed on winning the game. However the team selection is another matter. As DaveO says above, sometimes players are rested and presumably that means that the club takes the view that winning that game is not as important as preserving the condition of the rested players for other games.

Back when winning the League was the big prize players would take the field carrying all sorts of knocks, playing through pain-killing injections and with copious amounts of strapping and physiotherapy. The 'Mission Impossible' season for example - I'd bet my house almost every player was turning out with knocks galore in that final run-in.

Now fast-forward to 2013 and once it was clear we would definitely finished top 4, Wane could allow key players (almost) all the time they needed - I say almost because Wembley was obviously a 'must-win'. The final few regular season games could be lost without much consequence. They didn't really matter. The Hull game being the most glaring example.

That's not to say teams EVER go out to lose. Any who's ever played would laugh at the idea. But the fact is Wane, quite rightly, has been able to allow sufficient recovery or rest time for the likes of Lockers, Sam, and Green and others without endangering our play-off prospects, which meant he could then select his strongest sides when it counted.

I appreciate jonh's post may well be entirely correct and Bitcon is just about the best in the business. But alongside that by around June/July we had room to allow key players to rest and recover when required and to blood youngsters, which also helped the squad peak when it counted.

good post...duno what you mean in the first bit, but Sam's mysterious injury played a major part in Wanes plans.

another good post

Congrats Wigan on a great year in 2013, looking back to the start of the year, the players you guys had lost and the lack of 'big name' players you brought in, i tipped you guys to finish about 5th (i wasnt far off), but no way did i see you guys winning the CC and the GF. I wasn't convinced by you in the CC, namely because you had a relatively easy run, however the GF really showed you are a champion team. I think the constant development of young players is outstanding, and no other team could have coped with the end & mid season losses in personnel like you have.

If the end of season awards where awarded this week i am sure Shaun Wane would have scooped coach of the year. Good luck in the WCC!

All credit to the coaching staff but I doubt that Wane and co planned for us to be belted in the first half the GF in order to come back and give the Dire a good spanking second half.

Absolutely and if we had taken the chances created in the first half that would not have been the case, but, second half Wigan looked much fitter and stronger (more so as the game went on) and this was probably the biggest difference between the teams and that is surely testament to the planning and behind the scenes work at the end of the regular season to ensure the Wigan players could peak in the pay-offs/grand final.

I think the plan of playing Tom tit the first half so we could see all the nearby Wire fans jumping around gloating like they had it in the bag was top notch.

The look on their faces the second half as we destroyed them was priceless.