Keeps 'em both on their toes. I'd rather have someone fighting for their place than expecting (if not demanding) automatic selection.

Exactly.

I understand some fans are concerned that Shaun Wane's record of not winning every trophy we enter - only several of them - is a cause for concern, but this business of twisting every throwaway comment he makes to the press into something derisory is getting very tiresome, and dare I say it, rather pathetic.

Who else would people rather have who's currently coaching in Super League? I don't expect to be drowned in a floodtide of sensible answers.

Not really. It's two days before the game and he doesn't know his team yet. I genuinely don't think it's mind games because he doesn't know how to play that side of the game. Usually everything he says motivates the opposition.

Anyone named Smith? The LEIGH coach? Powell?
I'm afraid Wane's had his day at Wigan. All good things must come to an end. Longest serving coach since Monie. It worked at first but sadly...

Especially when they read the scornful interpretations of them that are made on this and a certain other Wigan forum.

And how the hell is not disclosing your final team a mind-game? Surely it's just standard procedure.

Like I said, pathetic.

Why is it always the coach's fault for failing teams (not that we are)? It could just be incompetence & inconsistency [ion [/ithe park, not up in the gantry. Given the injuries we've had and the lack of a decent kicker (73% or whatever it is, just ain't good enough), third place knocking on 2nd is pretty good if you ask me.
Too many nay-sayers on here are way too quick to bemoan the fact that we've not won owt for a couple of years as if we had a Gods given right to have the trophies presented to us at the start of every year, regardless.

Stability is something that should be strived for, a content (not complacent) squad & back-office team that innovates and isn't afraid to experiment is something we should applaud. Everyone cites Ferguson's tenure at Trafford Rovers as the ultimate in loyalty breeding success, but nobody is prepared to emulate that and the slightest wobble sends the paranoid & insecure into lathers of apoplexy rummaging in the garage for their "End is Nigh" sandwich-boards.

Wane keeping players on their toes is fine but I still can't get my head round the stubborn insistence that Hampshire is simply a full back. He never seems to be spoke of by Waney as having the potential to come in to the halves which I find strange considering Williams and Smith have both been up and down and Powell has been given opportunities there.

Maybe he'll surprise us and give him a crack there in the coming weeks but I doubt it and I also fear that it then means the lad moves on. He just seems too big a talent to have never been given a real shot at carving out a first team career in his natural position. If he was trying to get in ahead of Blake Green and the 2013/14 Matty Smith I could fully understand it.

Daryl Powell, Brian Smith or Paul Anderson for me. Brian Mcdermott would be great but obviously won't happen. I'd have said Tony Smith prior to this season too but that Wire team should be doing better than they are. Having said that the NRL would probably be the place to look IMO

I'm no lover of Wame but Paul Anderson???

Are you serious?

Who do you think Wane thinks his best full back is?

I think he's done really well with a fairly average squad (bar Brough). Took them to their first league leaders in his first full season as well as knocking Leeds out of the cup, 3rd last season and very nearly knocked Saints of the cup, currently in 4th place. I reckon with our squad, academy and facilities he would win trophies.

How do I know?

Mango's a God-knows-how-many-times Origin and Kangaroo full-back. Rocky isn't a full-back, but still needs game time. It isn't a simple equation.

I don't say Wane is flawless. Far from it. I worry a great deal about his inabilty to find a more permanent role for Hampshire, and I fear terribly that this will become another Sean Long situation. But it's getting so tired, this habit some people have of finding problems with everything the guy does and says. He's still managed to win us the Challenge Cup and the Super League, which is more than most coaches in the current competition.

For what it's worth, I feel sure his number will be up if we win nothing this year, which looks distinctly likely. But I just wish some folk would give it a rest with the hyper-criticism. It's so bloody predictable and boring.

"...the 2013/2014 Matty Smith" indeed. Like you, I think, I've been a supporter of Smith, but there's no doubt he looks jaded now, and a shadow of the player he was a season or two ago. Why this is, who's to say; does he miss Green? Well, he's a senior pro now, should be able to stand up for himself. Worst of it is, a bit more from him would certainly have helped Williams's game this season, cos he has looked a little lost at times. But I think Wane was right to stick by Williams, and it's to SW's credit that he's shown faith in the lad, because he clearly is a talent. That said, so is Hampshire, and he looked lively last week.

And it gives me no pleasure to say this, but our issues in the halves haven't been helped by the fact that Lockers has been very ordinary on the rare occasions he's played this season, so if were looking to him to add an "X-factor", we're largely looking in vain.

I was a huge fan of Green but I didn't quite think we'd miss him like we have and I did have high hopes that Smith would lead the way and help Williams a bit more. He's been ok at points but poor at others and that inconsistency hasn't helped Williams. In fairness to Smith I actually think his form has been a bit better of late but Williams has lost form and neither are being helped by a powder puff set of props.

It's the lack of go forward from the props that makes me want to see more of Hampshire in the halves. No halfback can excel on the back of a beaten pack but this lad has that bit more individual threat about him and can make things out of nothing for himself.

Hampshire isn't a miracle worker and he's probably been over hyped to an extent but he's been appallingly under used at a time when his qualities are much needed.

If Hampshire does not make even the 13 this week never mind the 17 it will only confirm what I have felt for a long time. Wane has told Hampshire in the past that he sees him as a fullback and now when it is obvious Rocky does not feel comfortable in the position, it seems Wane is to stubborn or pig headed to realise that he may have to change is stance.

All this is tied in with Wane saying at the start of the season that he saw George Williams as his answer to the standoff position, he has had his moments in the position but for George who is a natural scrum half it must be frustrating to be used almost as a left sided link player out wide.

That is why I would like to see Hampshire in at 6 and Williams at 7 with Smith spelling MM and for those who come back with "who kicks the goals then with Smith on the bench) Hampshire used to kick goals for fun in the under 19s,

We will now get the response that the Hampshire thing has been done to death, so be it.