He offers more from full back, simply. The role has changed to a running 3rd pivot and that suits sams game perfectly. I agree it relies on others for him to be at his most effective, but he is definitely at his best chiming in from 1.

Had he played on Friday we would have won. He gives the other players so many options. Both Tommy and Finch looked lost in the second half and were at a loss on how to open Leeds up and deliver the killer blow. Cronk, Thurston etc. would have won that game for us.

The fullback roll now is very similar to that of a traditional 6. Brett Kenny would have been awesome at FB.

I just don't think he'll get as much space or time next season and we need the most from him

Smith isn't the threat that Tommy is when he's got the ball. Tommy is so effective at giving Sam that extra yard because he's such a danger with ball in hand. Defenders can't switch their attention from him or else he'd be gone.

I think SW has done a good job overall, he has made mistakes, but considering its been his first season in charge it hasn't been too bad. It's a learning curve for him, and I'm sure after a few weeks contemplating the good and bad things that happened through the course of the season, he will make adjustments to the way he goes about things.

Far too early to be talking about a new coach.

I think he's done alright in his first season. I'd be willing to keep him on, on the basis that I can't really think of any other outstanding candidates out there to take over.

The only thing which annoys me was his slagging off of previous coaches Maguire and Noble for not winning semi finals, Wigan is about winning trophies etc which sounds great when he says it but when you then go on to lose two semi finals against poorer opposition it does make you look a bit of an idiot.

Admittedly criticising previous coaches (particularly a successful one) isn't too classy but he isn't the first person to talk up his chances of doing something and then look a bit daft when he falls short and he won't be the last. As an example of a coach doing it Brian McDermott when Quins coach said his team would win the GF and that others were wrong to discount them. I think they managed 10th place that year.

They might have been below us in the league but during both semi finals it wasn't Leeds that played the role of poor opposition. The team got what it deserved on both occassions.

Poorer opposition on paper. If we'd played to our potential (which he keeps harking on about) we'd have won both games comfortably. We underperformed when it mattered.

if we dont win something next season i dont think he will be in the job. sw needs to find a way. and i like the guy!

His learning curve was two seasons under Madge. You don't take the head coaches job at Wigan as a trainee where mistakes can be excused because it was the first season in charge.

Who was saying when he took over it won't matter if he loses two semi finals because it will be his first season in the job? No one.



IL won't sack him but he can't be let off the hook because it was his first season. Wane was the one who decided to move away from the winning formula Madge had introduced so he deserves the criticism when doing so failed to deliver. Unless he changes his methods we won't break any pots next season and he will be on the way out when his contract is up at the end of next season.

That would be a shame as he clearly loves the club but that isn't enough to be a successful coach.

He talked his players and his team up to the media, all coaches do that. He is not the first coach that this set of players have frozen in semi finals for. We lost in the games that mattered because the players froze and because a very savvy player spotted and then ruthlessly exploited our weaknesses. SW didn't let a ball run out for a 40-20, or wave his arms at the ref while he should have been defending under the sticks, or hit someone in the head off the ball so that he got banned, or slice a kick to nowhere on a last tackle play. A combination of things led to our poor showings when it mattered and just like it all shouldn't be pinned on any one player it is unfair to hang it all on the coach. Who is to say that the potential of the Leeds team isn't higher than our own but that they simply don't play to it until September.

Re-read my first post . At what point did I say it was Shaun Wane's fault we lost?

My criticism of him was that he'd criticised our previous coaches for losing semi-finals and has now gone on to lose two himself thus looking rather foolish. I don't blame Wane/Maguire/Noble for us losing in the past. They contribute partly but as you point out above it is down to the players. I don't exactly think Brian McDermott is some mastermind because Leeds won, it was a case of their players performing better on the night.

In fairness you cant blame Wane for the Leeds game last week. Sam was found to be injured a few hours before the game. The team were prepared to play with him and, seeing as he plays such a pivotal role, theres a fair assumption that him being missing has something more to do with it as Wanes tactics will have been made redundant with very little time to change them.

Not true at all. Tomkins got injured in the Catalan game.

But wasn't he only ruled out on Friday aft?
Or did I misread something somewhere?