Yes i know and fair play to you. I wasnt having a go at you i was replying to Cruncher but used your comment as an example of why i am defending Noble.

Shaun Ainscough! 17 tries in a handful of games..... Dropped!

To be fair has been out with a hand injury recently so we cant say for a fact he wouldnt have gotten in!

Noble has dropped players, perhaps not the ones folk on here thought he should have dropped but he's dropped plenty.
He dropped four full backs in the first ten games. Mathers, Richards, Roberts & Phelps. They were all poor and got dropped/switched positions until he finally settled on Phelps.
Sam got dropped after a non descript game and so did Tim Smith after a less than non descript game.
He can't drop any props because we need four and that's all he's got after Eamon was injured.

He also has played younger players usually following injury to a current first teamer but they are brought at Wigan in the same manner as at other clubs.

This team up to now has been a semi finals team. Should we win on Saturday that will be fantastic and getting to OT from 6th would be excellent.

The only way to improve this squad massively from one season to the next is by quality signings. We've needed them, Noble has identified who he has wanted to bring in to make that improvement, they haven't however been signed.
Until those signings are made we will not make the massive improvement we all want. This of course is down to IL. Whether he reckons this or that player are worth the money they want and if they represent value for money. Also if there's money available from the club's resources and if there is whether we can spend it and stay under the salary cap.

The idea that our lack of improvement is soley down to Noble is wrong IMO. There are a number of factors and IL speaks about them at the Fans Forums. I've mentioned a couple above.
I'd be happy for Noble to stay but he's off.
Won't the media have a lot to say if we win the GF and Noble departs.

There you go again!! i do not speak for all Wigan fans!!!!

FWIW I CBA checking but knew it was around 50/50 AS IT HAS BEEN THROUGHOUT HIS TENURE. If 12 losses - and finishing 6th in the table APPROXIMATELY 10-12 points behind the league winners - is acceptable to you that's OK but it isn't good enough for me.

Another example.

I try to put my side of the argument in non-confrontatinal fashion, and it's a 'dummy-spit'. Mind you, I suppose it's easier to respond with stuff like that than to actually address the points I've raised.

Thus far no-one who wants to keep Noble has tired to deal with a single one of them, and you, I'm afraid, are the living embodiment of that attitude.

Keep talking about the dropping of players, if you wish - though I think that issue would be better directed towards Dave O (as it's more his concern than mine), but if you're not prepared to answer a single question that I raise, don't bother replying at all.

Please tell me what exactly your going on about Cruncher? More to the point tell me why your even replying to my earlier post when it was offering proof to somebody else that Noble does drop players. Do you not agree he does drop players?

Your going on about the same old performance thing again and league standings etc. etc. when im just trying to put a stop to all this nonsense that he wont drop players not play youngsters etc.etc.

Wether you think the overall performance thing is acceptable or not is up to you as that is your opinion but when people post completely incorrect statements such as 'he wont drop players' then that is no longer opinion but a complete non-truth.

I can only assume by the way you jumped in 'head first' (yet again) and tried to hammer me for something i have not done, that your maybe a few buttys short of a picnic

:3riaa5pf

Switching players around isn't dropping them. In fact it is typical Noble over his three years to switch established first team players around rather than bring in a direct replacement position-wise from the reserves. Have you forgotten how Colbon played as a winger, full back, centre and forward in his last season with us?

Mather's got suspended and as a result we had a switch around and IIRC that is when Ainscough made his appearance.

:3riaa5pf

I don't recall that but I do recall him getting dropped after a MoM performance and the following week we looked rubbish without him and lost to HKR. He tried to drop Ainscough and could not due to injuries, Ainscough then went on to score four tries in the game and got dropped right after.

Now if you can't see what has gone here you must be blind because its obvious he has decided to drop these players at the time he did regardless of how they were playing (duty of care being the excuse) BUT he will not drop certain players even if they are playing poorly. He just does not pick or drop on form and this is the big issue surrounding this aspect of his coaching. He has his first 17 and sticks too it slavishly regardless of form.

:3riaa5pf

Where is it written you must go into every game with four props? He dropped Coley for one game and it seemed to work. He had opportunities to drop any of the other props before O'Carroll got injured but didn't.

:3riaa5pf

I think you will find despite our production line we are a bout half way down the pecking order for players being given debuts. Phil Clarke did an auricle on Sky Sports with stats about how many debuts were being given by the clubs and we were nothing special despite the number we produce.



The idea that he has no responsibility for the lack of improvement is also wrong. The buck stops with him. He is the one who sticks with out of form senior players and drops in-form juniors as quick as he can being a good example of his contribution.

Dave

At least you acknowledge the point this time, but you still refuse to deal with it.

I don't feel that his willingness (or not) to drop underperforming players is as big an issue as some do. But for you treat our poor-to-average general performance as if it's just an irrelevant opinion is a bit laughable.

I suspect you've been backed into a corner with this business. You don't actually know why you want to keep Brian Noble, and the business about whether he'll drop players or not is the easiest thing to keep defending him for, as that means you don't have to face up to the various other issues.

Like it or not, Brian Noble will not be leaving Wigan because he won't (or will) drop players. He'll be leaving Wigan because our very average form throughout most of the season is unattractive to fans, unattractive to sponsors, very frustrating to an ambitious chairman and at some point is likely to see us finish outside the play-off positions. We won't go on battling our way into contention from mid-table forever.

It was impossible for us to lose half of our games but if we had lost one more the ratio of losses to wins would be 13:14 which is as near to half as we could get.

And here's me thinking you and the rest were going to get behind the Team and avoid the criticism until the End of the season?

Why are you trying to argue about something ive not mentioned?

Do you have any input into the earlier discussion regarding Noble dropping players or not?