I dont understand that if its true - he cold have brought charnley in and played pat at FB. Locky is never a number six in the memory of man and all the play stopped as soon as he got the ball.


A bit panicked now!!

Crickey I hope that's wrong.

If it's not, mighten we go with that side but Sam doing both roles of FB and SO?
fb in defence
So in attack

Completely needless but maybe we will with that as a way of having an extra forward on the pitch.

Worried as Ken now!

If roberts is not playing why put him in the 19,

Agreed - seems a total waste of time naming Roberts in the 19 if he is not playing. Not when the likes of Phelps, Mrash, Charn or Pryce are available and could be included.

Lockers at 6 - now that's a gamble and not a good one, how many times has this been tried in the past and failed....

Odd with Lockers at 6.
The only reasons I can think of is that he played 6 at schools and amateur level. Though that is a very long time ago.
He must have trained well at 6 and MM doesn't want to lose Sam's threat from full back.
The key to me still is to play four props. He's going with four so we should more than match HKR forwards although Galea is always a threat.
Beat the HKR pack and the game is ours no matter who plays 6.

I knew there'd be someone eventually, but I must admit I didnt' think it would be as soon as two weeks after we'd won our first piece of silverware in 8 years.

Is this definitely the team? 48 hours before kick off, was it all nailed on?

There may yet be changes - but as some have already said, play 4 props and we'll hopefully dominate up front. Maybe that's MM's/Wane's plan -beat them up front and even have a "physical" stand off.

That's a big overreaction don't you think?

After the transformation we've made under Madge this year, I think he's perfectly entitled to go with what he thinks is the right call. If we lose the game because of it, then it's his error.

To begin to lose confidence in him as a coach is just ludicrous IMO.

Granted that was a bit strong, and probably wasn't the right term to use.

Maybe it is a measure of how good a coach he is that my confidence in him is huge to begin with and he has made me enjoy watching Wigan again BUT that still doesn't take away from the fact he's made a few team selection errors in the past and we have lost those games and IMO it's been due to those errors. Hindsight is a wonderful thing in sport but if we go with Lockers at SO and our attack is stifled then I believe it will be due to that selection. I am not a rugby coach in any shape or form but I think we have better choices available.

(If we lose tomorrow shall I get my MM OUT thread ready???)

That is the key point. Madge saw how Lockers goes at 6 and he is just no good there. Why on earth pick a player at 6 who you just saw have a poor game there?

I'd even pick Phelps at 6 before Lockers given Phelps has supposedly done OK at 6 in the under 20's.



If as alluded to Roberts won't play then Phelps should play at f/b. I don't think he is any better defensively in that position than Sam but the issue is with the half backs.

Just what is the obsession with playing Sam at 1 anyway? If Sam does not play in the half backs on Friday Madge wants shooting as he has basically lost the plot.

Dave

roberts has to play full back in my opinion. SOL is not a 6 in the memory of man, he's the best loose in the comp sams the best 6 in the comp and before he was injured amos was the best 1 in the comp! It's not rocket science is it?

In testing times it's always good to go back to basics IMO.

For me we know Tommy & Sam work as a HB pairing and when Lockers played at 13 our attack was the best in SL. Sam is probably the best #6 in SL and, IMO, Lockers is the best 13 in SL. Let's use these quality players in thier natural position for this massive game.

A lot of our good early season form came off the back of Amos but I don't think we are that much of a one man team that we couldn't have added Phelps in at #1 and lost to much momentum.

I'm still confident we'll win.

I think after last week there has been a HUGE knee-jerk reaction from our fans.

Ok, Lockers going to 6 isn't ideal, but we do forget that last week we only lost by 1pt to the Grand Final winners for the last 3 years, who played very well, on the other hand we didn't play anywhere near our potential. If Madge doesn't think Amos is fit/confident enough then we have to trust in him. He has named 4 props, which many if not all of our fans have asked for.

A little worrying Lockers being at 6 but I'm just hoping we'll have to much for KR anyway. Then hopefully come semi-final time either Deacon will be back or we'll have more of a shuffle of the team to get Sam back to 6. The short turn around this week maybe part of the reason why Madge doesn't want to do to much tinkering with the lineup.

It is not a knee jerk reaction to say Lockers is no good at 6. It has never worked.

As to last week the wheels came off when Deacon went off and Lockers went to six. Surely you can see that is what happened? We lost our way with that change so to start a game with that formation is nuts IMO.

It's clear to everyone we have better options. As someone just said why not go back to basics and play Sam and TL in the halves and Lockers at 13 because earlier this season we were on fire with that combination?

We may still beat HKR but we won't win the week after if we persist with this combination should Deacon still be out.

Dave