I am sort of with you on this Chris.
I would love some wholesale changes however, we are where we are re contracts so next season we will be somewhat limited in what we can do.
Without knowing the exact details of individual contracts it is impossible to know what is the art of the possible and what is pretty much set in stone.

I would like to think that we could do at least the following for next season
Exit FPN, Narvette, Tierney and one of TL, MM or Powell. Even here I am assuming FPN wants to go back to Australia and we can move on players who may have time left on contracts with minimum payments to pay off their contracts.

That probably leaves us with the possibility of about 2 new additions on relatively low salaries ie I'm not anticipating any top or even 2nd tier NRL players. Personally I would go for 2 new props if possible.

Move ST to the halves and Escare to FB. Mullen to be cover for Escare.

I think then we are down to selling one or two players to help fund other changes. This for me would be the sale of one of our wingers probably Marshall or dare I say it Davies particularly if Manfredi & Burgess have long term injuries. This income could be then used for additional cover for either prop or second row. I would hate to lose Davies but for me you could put anyone outside of Gelling because he is never going to get a pass and as long as he can defend then that's as much as we will probably need.

All very much speculative and quite possibly a load of cobras but I think changes will probably entail losing player(s) that ideally we wouldn't even want to contemplate.

The year after look to exit JT, Clubb, TL or MM, Isa and ST if he isn't cutting the mustard in the halves.

As say totally and utterly speculative but I would be surprised that player or players wont have to sacrificed in the short term to help plug the gaps in the pack.

With regards SW my heart hopes that a new assistant may be sufficient but my head keeps on saying new coach.

Very testing times for IL. It would be interesting know how he actually feels. He must have loyalty to SW because of his record however, he would be blind if he thinks next years ST sales wont fall off a cliff unless fans see some changes on and off the park.

I'll put this here as it's relevant to the topic being discussed.

Rumours on the other forum saying Maguire is coming back and is due to be announced later this week - hmmm. I've had a message from an agent I sometimes play golf with who said the same thing and that it comes from contacts at Leeds - he did say he actually doesn't believe it as Maguire doesn't want to move his kids.

Not sure how I would react if it was true.
I thought that in his second year when we had significantly improved he squad we fell away quite dramatically at the end particularly against Saints in the playoffs where we were woeful.

The other rumour was Maguire to Gold Coast. Apparently they can't afford to pay top dollar to attract a new coach so Madge is unlikely to move there. Options may well have run out for him. It may be Wigan is his only choice.

I'd have him back, he is a good coach as he has proven. But if people on here don't like Waney's style of rugby they are unlikely to be pleased with Madge Mk II.

Not Wane and not Maguire, we need fresh ideas, we've not got a bad squad but the style we can only assume they're being told to play is killing the players, the fan base and the club.
It's supposed to be entertainment, watching Wigan is a chore, something being done out of loyalty rather than something I'm looking forward to.

I felt like we should have rotated more for sure, but we went unbeaten for 21 out of 22 games between mid-April and August that year which is incredible. As much as I've argued to give Wane another year, I'd definitely be happy to swap him for Maguire

As I have said in other posts I think the recruitment of former players was a mistake IMO driven partly out of a desire to prove what IL said about his policy of letting players leave if we had first refusal worked. The club has to my eyes not looked beyond these players when recruiting.



I would hope it would. He transformed an underperforming squad when he came over last time so I'd hope he do the same again. I am not sure where the tag of him being as boring as Wane comes from mentioned by others. I don't recall our GF and CC wins under him as boring.

I'd prefer Wigan to bring in a coach that could get more out of the good attacking players you have. The style employed currently is structured and when players don't do it properly it all falls apart. Also when you come up against better players it doesn't work as well. Maguire made Wigan very well drilled but he was ahead of the pack at that time. I'm not sure his methods are what you need now. Powell has shown at Cas that it's all very well playing to structure but you need the freedom to try things if they're on. I think too many Wigan players are playing within themselves and you need a new coach (not Wane or Maguire) to unlock that.

If you recall we only beat Leeds by a disputed Leuluai try and were hanging on against a team we were heavy favourites to beat, so the Challenge Cup victory was nice but definitely not a victory for any type of special rugby (Joel Tomkins' try aside). Madge should be able to improve the team but he would need to be ruthless with certain individuals. He certainly did nothing to bring through any of our younger players last time he was here. You've got to give Wane credit for that at least.

As I said I'm happy for Madge to return. I don't think he's the Messiah though.

The idea that Madge will not improve our style has come from watching the Rabbitohs on Premier TV since they won their GF. If you haven't watched them I understand your view, but your ideas are five years out of date.

Liam Farrell?

Yep, plus Charnley, Mossop and Tuson. McIlorum also became a starter under Maguire. Not bad for two seasons really.

We played our most attractive rugby under Wane in the two years after Madge left.

Since we lost Deacon and Harris as coaches our attack has steadily declined.

In MM's last season the wheels had startedto come off at the end on the season IMO.

If he returns i think he will make us harder to beat but will do nothing for improving the entertainment or likeability factor - quite the opposite i think.

If we are to change coach, and i think every team needs to freshen up it's coaxhing otherwise it gets stale then MM is the wrong option.

Fergie showed how to stay at one club by getting in the best young coaches, and changing them. We stopped doing that after Harris , and it shows.

He lost a shed load of top class players when they got Burgess back so he wasn't exactly dealt a good hand but even if he came back here and turned the clock back and had the team playing exactly as they were before in 2010 I still think we'd be better and more entertaining to watch for two reasons. He would as you suggest be ruthless (or as ruthless as contracts let him be) but most importantly whatever tactics and system he implemented he would ensure the players understood it and were fit enough to carry it out. I don't think the players have much of a clue what is intended under Wane and the number injuries the squad picks up non-contact related such as calf strains etc means we are constantly seeing players unfit.

The fitness is a big concern for me.

I hear a lot about Wigan players going out on the lash in 2017 ... it may be impossible to prevent that, and I'm aware (if bewildered) that some fans don't mind this at all, considering it some kind of human right (to which I can only respond how many Olympic athletes demand this right?). But certain players, and Sutton is the best example I can think of, look overweight to me (Note, I'm not accusing him personally of having a drink problem, just saying that he's looked out of shape).

I'm not sure that SW is the strict disciplinarian many think. When he was Madge's assistant, the rumour was that, of the two of them, he was the good cop.

Perhaps it's time for a bad cop to really start cracking the whip. Maguire may not be able to clamp down hard enough on a drinking culture to please me, but I'm damn sure he could enforce other measures that would ensure these men are lean and mean.

That said, I'd worry about bringing back a guy who left us seemingly at the drop of a hat during his last tenure. Undecided about this one.