Roberts Gleeson Carmont Richards ,,, best 3/4 line line superleague IMO

Of course you can be GF/Title contenders you've got Deacon

I was going to post earlier that I wouldn't swap our 1-7 for any other teams in the whole league bar possibly Leeds. Our backline hasn't been and won't be a problem next season. It covers pretty much all bases especially now it has the option of a halfback in it who has a solid kicking game to complement the running games of the 2 we already had.

It's our pack that needs to buck it's ideas up imo and needs to find some consistancy. It can be class one week and look up for games and then just not turn in the week after.

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I don't think being Wigan we could ever be classed as dark horses, due to the expectations we as supporters have and the world of rugby league has of us.
I feel if we can improve at least 10% on last year. (No reason why we can't), then we could be looking at a top four finish and a CC final place. With the added drive of Wane & Radz, this could bring a sense of belief and desire to the team. One which IMO has been sadly lacking at our club for the past few seasons.

As I said in another thread though, we mostly didn't lose those games due to any sort of being outmuscled or outperformed in the pack. One of the biggest reasons was handling errors or penalties in stupid field positions - either in their 20 totally relieving any pressure, or in our own 20 putting us under all kinds of pressure. Another of the biggest reasons was poor kick options on the 4th/5th to get us either out of trouble or to gain field position and make them have to defend a set in their own 20. Chuck in a few missed tackles across the board, and some brain farts at bad times, and you've captured most of the reasons we lost a lot of our games.

I just think our pack can be pretty inconsistant and even if we don't criticise them as a whole unit alot of the individuals within that unit are responsible for those brain farts, erros and daft penalties you mention. The backline doesn't seem to contain guys that make too many errors or give away many pens when compared to the forwards.

I'm happy with our backline from 1-7 in the main and the area you mention of bad kicking options on the last tackle should hopefully be sorted with Deacons arrival.

I just feel the pack or certain players in the pack need to find a consistant level of preformence. There are a few guys in there that need to smarten up certain area's of their games.

Aye they're all prone to screw ups (loose carries, not playing the ball properly, knocking on, giving away penalties) Bailey, Hansen, Feka + Prescott probably make the least in total, With Coley, Joel and (surprisingly) Sean O'Loughlin leading from the front Fielden being in between. What's quite interesting is that the forwards that are considered to be the best in super league outside of our club are also the ones that make the least number of errors. Cutting down on the errors can't do anything other than boost the performances.

Not sure about dark horses but I do think Wigan can certainly do better than last season in terms of league position. A combination of a poor start and too many close games lost last season put a lot of pressure on and lets be honest - too many winnable games were lost especially early season.

A good start this time for me is the key - I expect the coaching staff will be able to get more out of the players (and a fair selection policy will be a help) so a good start and the added confidence should result in better performances.

Top four finish? Should be what the club is aiming for - anything less would not be classed as a success. Looking at the other teams top four should be possible IF the team learns to win games ugly be grinding out results in tight games/poor conditions etc - something which was missing last season.

Must say I agree but I expect us to finish higher this year.

We will not be losing against Cas, Wakey, Celtic, Hudds, Hull and Warrington in the mannor we did and some of them so early in the season.

Interesting reading

Great 2nd post

How pleasing to re-read that, what a tremendous season we have had!