Maybe im a blind optimist, but i think if any other player gets more than a couple matches at fullback (russell, murphy, tierney, charnley, richards, hampshire) i think they would be significantly more comfortable in the fullback role we have. God forbid someone gets a preseason there too. Obviously they wont replicate sams abilities, as sam is a freak who pretty much invented (along with madge) how he plays the position which is now copied by others, but i think once someone else gets a good run and consistent coaching and games to play there, our attack would be less pathetic without sam.

What was different about our style of play under Maguire?

Not much from what I see.

Nah we played completely differently. We had carmont, gleeson, coley, fielden fit, joel tomkins, hoffman, deacon.

LSoW reckons we are a one man team. Yes to a very large extent but we are also missing Lockers big time. He's so important to the performance of the team.
We lose when Sam doesn't play, we also lose when he does.
We lost at Hudds without him, Leeds without him and Wire with him. We've lost at Hudds and Leeds when he's played.
For 60 mins last night Bradford were the better team due to their pack winning the game for that period. Our halves were not good and Thornley was at 3 with Gelling at 4. Though Bradford had a stack of men out too.
Interestingly Wire haven't played well either since that Monday night. Their win at Bradford was a poor performance by all neutral accounts. They were out scored with tries last night at home too.
SW says we'll have Mossop, Lauaki, Goulding & Sam back next week. Lockers may be ready but he wasn't sure last night whether he would play him v Widnes.

Not sure I'd play Lauaki either way if Mossop is back. Dudson had a great game on Friday and Crosby and Flower are obvious picks

I rate Lockers very highly, arguably my fav player at Wigan but look at the win/loss stats when Sam's not playing, something like 3 wins in 13, with that we really struggled against Bradford.

I don't actually think it's the teams fault, we have an attacking system which centres around opening up gaps for the fb, this works with a world class FB like Sam, but puts too much pressure on the young lad stepping in, if he doesn't perform the team lacks it's main attacking move. We have no strike centres and play split halves so are attacking is so lacking without Sam, the results support this.

I also have an issue with debuting young lads at FB, what a baptism by fire. Not only in attack but in defence, why not put Pat or Josh there and break in lads on the wing. Lewis must be so disheartened after bombing it and being dropped, similar to Jack Murphy, put it against Sinfield in a massive game.

in the cup semi against leeds last year sam had a mere and cost us the game.none of our young guns are ready to step into his shoes,we are going to have to buy or imo move josh to fb.give him a time to grow into it and it could work,far easier replacing a winger than a god.

I think without Sam, we have the weakest Wigan team since the very early 1980's.

Without Sam and Lockers we struggle.

Have you forget 2005 and 2006?

Not a chance this side minus Tomkins is anywhere near that bad.

Fully agree with this. I've been saying it for a while, I think the position is too tough for a young debutant to step straight in to. A few games on the wing to get over the nerves is the way I'd go. You only need to look through superleague now at guys like Hardaker, Tomkins himself, Lomax etc and before them Wellens and Radlinski to see top quality fullbacks that have come through to the first team and been played in other positions before moving back.

Il start with the Negatives the end with the positives:

Negatives:

Half Backs didnt step up again in sams absense.
Lacked composure again with far too many mistakes.
Far too many breaks up the middle again but we was missing a couple of reliable tacklers in Lockers and Burke so cant be helped on this occasion.
Charnley and Thornley leaking soft tries again we need to put a stop to this.
Crowd was appauling Booing the team off at half time then only cheering once right at the end, we must be the most ignorant fans in super league. For anyone reading this please get behind the team in any circumstance, although you might not think it makes a difference it bloody well does when we get vocal it gives the lads a lift and a reason to increase the tempo.
Tuson leaving!

Positives:

Hampshire showed a lot of first teamers how to strike, sublime pass to go in the corner. The kid played well considering it was his debut start.
We showed grit to come back and win it after playing pretty poor throughout.
We won without Sam!!!
Il take a win of any form over yorkshire any day of the week!!!!!

The booing at half time was ridiculous.

I blame the Brigantes (seriously!)