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.

Well that's were the stats (league position) won't be telling the whole story hopefully. We could end up in a similar position to 2009 but on the back of an improved performance. By this I mean if we play consistently we should win more times against sides further down the league than we have been doing but we may lose more games against sides higher up the league despite playing better overall. Net result is we end up in a similar league position but will have got their the "right" way beating the sides we are better than (on paper) and losing games to sides better than us. Odd though it sounds I think this would be far less frustrating than the total unpredictability we saw in 2009. It would also be a true reflection of where we are at if that is how it panned out.

Of course I want us win the same matches as last season and add victories from those games we tossed away and if we do its a top four finish but if we end up in a similar position but it's down to being beaten by better sides not worse ones, then I think people will see that as a step in the right direction.



Despite the fact they are unproven its amazing how many feel very optimistic about the coaches, myself included but as was mentioned on the thread about IL's stewardship, now the coaching has been sorted out the focus will switch to the squad and signings.

If we don't do better in 2010 despite what people see as a better coaching set up it's inevitable iMO the squad will start to take the blame and so the fans will look for quality signings. They will anyway IMO and the signing record under IL so far has IMO been poor and so that needs to change as well.

Dave

Fair enough. My interpretation of "next level" was finals/silverware not beating Castleford and Wakefield at home whilst losing to Saints at Murrayfield. Didn't realise we had become that ambitious

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!