I'm a little bit biased here as one of my best mates was involved working for Wigan with Lam and despite the banter we had and continue to have, I still stick up for him.

What I will say is that Lam was without French and Field for all of last season and if you look at the number of tries scored and the assists from both this season then if you take them out of the current Wigan team, you wouldn't have won the CC or sit 2nd in the league. In 2020 you were inches away from winning the Grand Final having finished top of the league. Lam had a hell of a lot of bad luck despite everything and I know a lot of what went on behind the scenes trust me.

As good as Wigan have been in parts you were less than 4 mins away from losing that CC Final. Things could look very different had that not gone your way.

I obviously hope there is another KC scenario, but you're right. It would be brilliant for the derby and there is always that little something extra about the sport as a whole when we are the top two.

Winning trophies is great. Beating Saints to win trophies is even better.

He'd be cr@p, simple as that. Zero structure, motivation or guidance etc.

Let's not forget this is a guy that coached a team with 2x MOS winners and a Daly M 2nd row of the year, but couldn't get them to score a single try Vs Leeds.

We were poor to watch in 2020 though and had it not been for moments of brilliance from French would have lost a lot of games that we narrowly won. You may say that is no different to now, but everything about watching us is better than it was under Lam. The same pack that we have now (minus Ellis and Mago) got battered week in and week out last season, but this season it is dominating more often than not which is seeing the likes of Harry Smith finally show what he is capable of.

We have put sides to the sword a few times this season and we never did that apart from playing a 12 man Leigh.

He will point to bad luck (he has) but that doesn't explain some of his team selections and some of the performances we put in under him especially in big games. (See performances against Leeds and Hull in the cup 2020/2021 compared to our cup displays this season)

We were on about the absence of Field and French at the game on Friday gone and the general thoughts were that had Lam had those two in his side last year, we’d have scored more points, won a few more games but still not won a trophy. We just couldn’t win big games under him. You clearly know more than me about what went on behind the scenes but just on face value, on the field, he just couldn’t seem to get improvements out of hardly any of the players and that wasn’t just in 2021.

On the plus side for Lam, I presume he played a fair part in getting French and Field here, so he’s certainly left behind some quality, that is really helping us at the moment.

Don't get me wrong he was hard work and without going into details with a bunch of strangers on here he made some daft decisions. But the fact remains that he was without two superstars. As good as Woolf is as a coach, how would we have gone this season with no Welsby or Lomax all season when you look at their stats and creativity?

Also I can't stress enough how Harry Smiths confidence was shattered last season with Hastings alongside him. Its why he looks a completely different player now, free of any shackles.

I just feel that Lam gets a raw deal overall. And for all the big game comments, Holbrook only won one big game at Saints and that was against Salford in the GF. We lost a CC Final, a CC semi final and a play off game under him. With Woolf I always feel we will never lose a big game (obviously we do!)

You also had the blueprint to beat us at the end of 2020. You beat us convincingly at Langtree towards the end of the season (I'll always call it that name) and as I said earlier, inches away from wininng that GF.

With all due respect, I fully disagree.

It's easy to paint it as bad luck, but he did sweet FA with the talent he did have fit. Zak, Hastings, Faz, Bateman spring to mind. I then look at the post Lam improvements of Byrne, Smith, Marshall too. I'm not saying that we should have won the league or anything, but it was criminal how little he got out of the lads. Every player has gone up 20/30% since he left and that's not a coincidence imo.

I look at the Salford side that took us to the cleaners in his 1st season and the side we had was better on paper imo. The difference was a game plan and actual coaching etc.

I watched the Saints v Hudds match after I got back from our game on Friday - Lam was the guest and he made the point that he was 'instrumental' in bringing French and Field in. Probably understandable for him to make that point even if it did come across slightly as sour grapes.

He also fast tracked Havard and Byrne into the first team - we're benefitting from that now. I thought we looked a really good team at times in 2020.

On the flip side there was no excusing what happened last year. The worst year of rugby entertainment Iv ever watched since I started supporting Wigan in 1993. The first time Iv ever switched over and watched Coronation Street. The players weren't happy at all and Peet has been key in getting the morale of the group right again. Some of his comments in the 2nd half of 2021 were borderline delusional and certainly wound me up at the time.

Great player for us - let's just stick with that.

Mate I agree that Peet has done a good job, he's clearly getting the best out of players. I just think that Lam wasn't as bad as he is made out to be that's all.

I just cant see how that was the case tho? We failed to score Vs Leeds, despite having a half decent team out. Hastings bossed the league at Salford, but didn't do anything of note under Lam. He had Niall Evans at FB at Salford FFS and had Zak at FB at Wigan but did absolutely nothing.

Two things I believe he got right, Field signing and Lam was always bullish of how good and fast he was. Ball playing amongst the young forwards, they all offer a pass and off load.

On the other side he oversaw some of the most soul destroying displays that I have ever witnessed, he turned the experience of watching RL into the sort of torture the Geneva convention outlawed.

I can’t even give Lammy too much credit for the young forwards getting games. The likes of Byrne, Havard and Smithies got their chances, of course they did, but he flogged them to bits at times and he could really have damaged their careers. Thankfully they seem to be coming out the other side now.

Results say otherwise

[edit]+ entertainment factor[/edit]

We've scored about 170 pts more already than we did in the entirety of last season when we were the only team to fulfil every fixture, that speaks volumes, whatever happens between now and the end of the season we can't complain about the entertainment on offer