Leeds and Saints have better teams this year.

Gelling has missed an awful lot of tackles all season, his defence is very poor at times. O'Loughlin hasn't been himself this season at all either or certainly hasn't been what we have come to expect.

2 seasons ago we was superb in the league and won the hub cap which in my opinion is pants when you don't go on and win gf.Last season poorer in league and won the double its about winning when it matters.Yes people pay alot of money for all games i gave up my season ticket because of the structure of the league.We will possibly lose are next two in my opinion aswell but if we get to gf you will all be there and all will be forgotten.

We (the giants) have a better side too in my opinion.
Salford certainly do.

But both have been terrible on occasions this year, just less so than Wigan.
Saints have had a couple of hammerings against Wire & Catalans and there were doubts to Brown's coaching abilities. I think we could have taken top spot at a canter but again the performances in the last third of the season has put paid to that. I do think its planned (despite SW's comments), just like it was last year.
Now last year we got away with it due to the end result, this season he will be judged on performance and results in the playoffs.

Its a risky strategy but with high reward, however you gamble with supporters patience when it comes to purchasing season tickets, especially those half season tickets (IIRC last season only one out of the 7 home gamess were won), I bet sales in those took a nosedive!

Season ticket numbers and average attendances are well down on where they were 2 or 3 seasons ago. It's fair enough "playing the system" if it works, but fans get more and more disillusioned with poor performances and will be less inclined to attend every home game or travel away.

The comparisons with last season are a bit wide of the mark anyway, last season we were clearly coasting as we were still in both competitions. This year we have had two weeks off to get our preparation right and make a big push for the league leaders. We've thrown that away now and could well drop out of the top 4 before the playoffs start.

From the moment we had top 4 last season we costed the remainder of the weekly rounds and rotated the team to give players rest and get them ready for the play offs. This season we have struggled at times and look poor against mediocre sides who were beaten by our weakened sides last season. Either we are holding a lot back or we are a lot weaker than we think. And for me our 1-17 is not on par with last season.

Watched Wigan and RL for the last 62 years and been a season ticket holder for the last 40 but now im thinking that this is the last time im renewing my season ticket.IMO RL has been going downhill since the introduction of SL the games are no longer competetive the Challenge Cup is not the same as it was before SKY and RL went the way with the GF concept.With the new league structure coming in next year I dont think is the answer tried before in I think Belguim and the Scotland FL threw it out.I never missed a game home or away when we played in Winter something to do to pass the winter months over now I have not the passion any more I think RL is dying on its feet.

Wow can't believe some of the posts on here , my opinion is whoever wins the Wigan v Leeds game next week and gets in the top 4 will win the comp . No one will fear Cas or Saints who are going to be first and second . You are still favourites with the bookies to win the Grand Final and despite poor recent performances i reckon from now on in you will be back in the big match frame of mind .

Wigan will be at old trafford. I'm sure of it. They are saving themselves (mentally as much as physically). The players have been there and done it, so has the coach. I think the bookies have wigan as favourites as well.

It might not be the performance that Shaun would like but after several results like it one has to conclude that it is a typical Wigan performance. It remains to be seen whether they are playing the system again but either way I am losing interest in the games. I usually like going to away games but this season I decided not to go to most of them. All the ones they have played badly in like Bradford, Wakefield, Widnes etc I avoided and am jolly pleased I did so. Let's hope that the new system next year will change club's attitude to the league.

I now hope that Cas finish top as they seem like the only team that has played consistently well throughout the season. If Saints finish top then good luck to them but it says something about the state of the league when the top team has played so poorly in many games. Even against Leeds they were completely dominated for most of the game. At least last year nobody could argue that Huddersfield were not worthy of finishing top despite other teams playing the system.

I couldn't agree more, since the introduction of summer rugby the game has gone on the decline and a rapid decline at that. I've watched wigan since 1980 and have been a season ticket holder for at least 25yrs but for the last three or four seasons its been an effort to attend matches. Gone are the days when you couldn't wait for christmas & new year, not for the festivities but because it was Saints & Wire coming up and they were games i'd waited all year for. Then the rounds of the challenge cup would start, sat near the tv or radio waiting for the draw with fingers crossed hoping for a home tie, we would even do our own "draw rehearsal" beforehand to try and force a bit of luck our way, knowing that if we drew a big name at home the sold out signs would be up as after all this was "the challenge cup" the trophy everyone wanted. But now it just means nothing, no one is interested anymore, even the final fails to sell out, you no longer need to camp out for tickets two days before they went on sale in fear of missing out on a ticket and thats when wembley held 95000, you can basically walk up to the stadium on game day and buy one now.
All everyone is concerned about these days is being in the grand final, people aren't even concerned about the playoff games clubs basically have to beg supporters to attend them. I don't know what the answer is but something needs to be done about the game, i would at the drop of a hat vote to return to winter rugby at least then we would be able to again witness the touring teams in a three game test series along with club v country games that (especially at wigan) had an atmosphere that made your hair stand on end, but alas.....this ain't never gonna happen. I feel sorry for the younger generation of supporters because they know no different, however i do and believe me i know which i prefer.

Am I completely missing something here?

Why on Earth would switching back to a Winter season make the game better and increase attendances? And why would it mean we would see touring teams again?

Because both the NRL and super league both run parallel now that we play in the summer, tours used to start at the end of the aussie season and the beginning of ours and vice versa when GB toured down under, all we have to look forward now is to tri nations which to be fair is rubbish. As for attendances has summer rugby really increased attendances? Answer: No it hasn't. Has the game improved since we reverted to summer rugby? Answer: No it hasn't. Do the same four teams still win everything as per pre 1996? Answer: Yes they do, Have we improved on the international scene since the switch? Answer: No, Australia still win at a canter.
I know we will never revert back to winter rugby but when we all look back and say where everything went wrong i think you will find that 1996 will be high up on the list as one of the biggest mistakes the game as a whole made.

Yeh that's not something I agree with either. Summer rugby as a whole isn't the problem, it's how the league and cup are integrated within the season, and the fact that teams don't need to be consistently competitive to eventually challenge for the title. I do think next season one of the big problems will be addressed, in that you can't drop off and risk dropping out of the top 4. Maybe it hasn't gone far enough to sufficiently reward finishing top, but it is much better than what we have had since the top 8 PO system was introduced.

I do think with the restructuring of the league next season the timing of the challenge cup should have been changed also. At this time of the season fans are expected to shell out for too many games, and fans inevitably pick and choose and hold out for the biggest games so crowds for the regular PO games and the CCSFs suffer. From next season it is also going to mean that the cup final is going to be smack bang in the middle of the "Super 8's" stage, which is ridiculous IMO. Moving the cup final back to the spring would help this.

With regards to our current form, it's difficult to tell whether we are biding our time ready for a big push in the POs or if something has gone wrong behind the scenes with our preparation. Regardless of comparisons with our squad in previous seasons, there is still a hell of a lot of quality in this season's squad and some of the performances can't simply be explained by "the team's not good enough". Around this time last season I categorically stated we wouldn't be anywhere near the GF, and right now I'd be tempted to say the same, but if this group of players can reach full form and fitness they are more than capable of competing with Leeds, Saints, Warrington, Huddersfield and Castleford in the playoffs.