Still one ofthe top 3 coaches in the league, he brings out the best when it matters.

Does it not matter all season?

I mean seriously - if you lose most of your games in the first half of the season, surely it stands to reason that it's much more difficult to gain a foothold in the top 2 by the end of the season?

That might explain why Wigan have finished nowhere near the top 2 for the past several seasons.

Unfortunately the best isn't quite good enough to get to the Grand Final these days after sacrificing the first 2/3s of the season.

Nor does a team to be there for simply coming good at the end. Noble needs to book his ideas up next year or Wigan need to move on to get to the next level.

My problem with Noble is that he has almost 3 years at the club and until recently, the same problems remain. Our performances are inconsistent, our attacking tactics are conservative (and predictable), our discipline is poor and our ball possession is awful at times. I'm not even going to mention his squad selections or the way he uses substitutes, which are also weaknesses IMO. More importantly, the collective motivation of the team has been questionable at several times during his tenure - leading to the chairman making a public statement to that effect last season, i.e trying to embarrass his coach/players into bucking up their ideas.

It seems to me that we need a crisis of some kind to spur a winning streak and the kind of cohesion we're seeing from the squad at the moment. We had to fight to avoid relegation, last year it was leaving ourselves a mountain to climb in the play-offs; this year, we've had Hock's suspension and injuries. Whilst I'm happy the coach has capitalised on a siege mentality to spur the team on - I can't help but wonder where this level of commitment and motivation was during the first part of the season. IMO this reflects poorly on the coaching staff as much as the players themselves.

Those who claim this late season winning streak is Noble's style or strategy are deluding themselves IMO. There is no planning here. In fact, I suspect another reason why the players have raised their game is that they know the coach will leave and they want to send him off in the best possible style.

If we managed to win the CC and the Grand Final, I would be absolutely delighted. But I would still like to see a new coach next year - comparisons with the transition between Clarke/McInnes and Lowes are apt. We need a coach to innovate our tactics and take us to the next level strategically.

An excellent contribution. Difficult, if not impossible, to argue with any of that.

I appreciate it is unlike me to be so quiet on the Noble topic but i have been rocked with the swine flu and really the last thing i was in the mood for was reading the posts on the matter.

I have to say I agree with the post above by phibes except for the conservative tactics which have improved this year, other than that though the same errors have remained with us during his time with the club. To date he has been with the club 3 years and in that time we have in my opinion seen to date combined 16-20 weeks worth of acceptable performance which simply is not enough.

Am I reading to much into this or does your post imply that Noble will be here next season?



You better now mate? I had it 2 weeks ago, it certainly isnt plesant.

Apart from wakey at home and celitc away i don't think we have been as bad as some seem th think this year.

If you look at our recent history (last 10 years) how many coaches have we had. That combined with DW/ML splashing out mega money for a few players resulting in us not having a good squad has caused most of the problems we have had. Chopping and changing the coach is rarely the answer.

When IL took over he publically stated that it would be the 2010 season before the financial mess was sorted out. Noble came in and brought us back from the brink. I have watched us slowly change from having a few quality individuals to having a decent squad with competition for places. I believe the job Noble has done with the playing squad he has had has been very good and he deserves his chance for next season now the finances are back in order.

Well said Just others cannot see it

You can take the boy out of Billinge but you can't take Billinge out of the boy.

Well in young man.

2 years. Already signed.

Either he signs for 2 years or more or we let him go for me so i'm happy enough if thats true.

Is that bull*hit or true, you can never tell.