It's a fair comment, but then Madge's team was full of excellent players at the peak of their powers. The most impressive part of Wane's tenure was the way in which he kept delivering success whilst having to replace an unbelievably talented squad with, on the whole, young players and lesser replacements. Sadly that meant not really having the resources to be gunning it every friday from February to October.

Funnily enough I always thought the best rugby we've played week-on-week was in Wane's first season which ended in two semi-final defeats when the chips were down. In the years since I gave Wane a bit of a free pass for his 'getting us ready for the business end' approach because I saw it as a response to getting his fingers burned in his first year (and, ultimately, Wigan coaches are judged on the trophies they win). In retrospect, with declining attendances, maybe this was a bit short-sighted, so hopefully Peet can find a better balance this year.

Hard to believe we didn't win a major trophy in 2012 - we were ripping teams to shreds most week. Sam Tomkins was at the centre of both of those semi-final defeats against Leeds - in the cup he seemed to have a meltdown for 20 minutes and cost us 3 tries and in the playoff his injury led to the costly decision by Wane to start Jack Murphy (one of the worst selection decisions I can remember alongside the Endacott 2000 GF reshuffle).

Hahahaha. Tickled me this.

I personally love Wane and his passion for the club, as others have said if you listen to these podcasts it shows him in a different light and he’s a workaholic who leaves no stone unturned.
That said we didn’t play great rugby under him a lot of the time and for people expecting Byrne to turn into a monster I can’t remember a prop ever pulling up trees with Wane, he just wants them to hit the deck and play the ball quickly, he ideally wants smaller mobile props. I also worry about the dynamics with him either not being the main man of possibly Peet becoming his puppet.

I think the thing with Byrne though is not to expect Alex Walmsley but can we expect more intensity in everything he does? Absolutely.

That can come in many forms, it could be the intensity of his carries, so is he charging it in full tilt and making as much ground as he can before he finds his front? Is he putting the maximum effort in to running off the ball? So is he charging through the line, even when the plan isn’t for him to get the ball, so he makes room for others? (A huge issue for the side in general under Lam) Is he trying to smash people in defence and trying to inspire others by making repeat tackles?

That isn’t just aimed at Byrne and in fairness he does some of that at times but he along with Havard IMO need to find a consistently higher intensity to their games to kick on to that next level. The basics are all there for them to take the next steps.

The biggest and most simple improvement Byrne can make to his game is concentration, especially on early tackle-count hit ups. He makes too many unforced errors on tackles one and two. Should be a simple fix too.

Two of the things that really annoy me, losing possession on tackles one or two, along with the "kicker" getting tackled on tackle four leaving us with the likes of Farrell kicking on the last tackle.
They should be relatively easy fixes though.

I agree. In rugby terms it's inexcusable really along with giving a penalty away on the last tackle of a defensive set!

Should be already fixed now Hastings has left as he was forever getting tackled late in the tackle count - although we need someone who can actually put in a decent last tackle kick something we have been lacking for a while now.

Hastings was a nightmare for it, but it doesn't paint other guys or the wider team in a good light either. Last season, if you shut down Hastings, then you shut down Wigan. We need to be more like Catalan's as example of how it should work - shut down Maloney on the 4th and then Sam or Drinkwater take the kick.

If you replace Cust with Hastings, then others still need to step up.

Smith - I read a stat about him putting in a high % of kicks, but that stat didn't always tie up with what you see on the pitch. Smith needs to A - demand the ball more on the last play and B - be better at executing it too. He can't be letting Faz take the kick and he can't be kicking it out on the full either.

French/Zak - it shows how important the FB working as an extra pivot is, but it's one thing neither of these guys are that good at. French was originally touted as a 6 and I'd love to see him work on stuff outside of his running game. As it stands, teams know there's situations where he's not going to run it and they also know he's not an option for a kick either. That means it's easier to put pressure on in D.

Powell - As a former 7, you'd have hoped he'd have a decent enough kicking game. He's also experienced enough to read what's happening. Why pass it to a forward for a kick when he can probably do a better job? I know he's one of the greatest of all time, but Cameron Smith used to make these calls all the time and put kicks in from DH.

The above is exactly the type of stuff that the coaching team can have a massive impact on and, in turn, lead to the improvements we're all hoping for.

Powell has got a kicking game, even capable of 40/20s etc. The problem is he doesn't seem to use it as often as perhaps he should. Whether that's a coaching decision or a reluctance within himself, I'm not sure. The thing is, in the absence of a running game a la Roby or Clarke, he needs something in his game that they don't have and kicking could be exactly that. As you point out, Cam Smith's kicking game, especially on shirt kicks, was a very effective weapon for Melbourne. No one is suggesting that Powell is the next Cam Smith, of course, but it's certainly something that could, and perhaps should, be developed.

We all know that Lee Briers absolutely terrorised us with his kicking game at times over the years so 3-4 players should be (in theory) in a great position to be mentored by him to be at least a decent level by the start of the season.

You would hope that Briers can impart some of his guile and game nous to our pivots. I think that's one of the things that makes next season something of a journey into the unknown though. As we already know it doesn't always follow as shown by our lack of direction under Lam. Fingers crossed, I guess.

Powell needs replacing ASAP if this club is ever going to move, awful player that has been canonised by many on here due to him being a Wigan lad who came through the academy and the fact he has a high tackle count, though I suggest the majority of those tackles are third man in, the sooner he can be replaced by a very good Polynesian player the better

It would appear Wane and Peet do not share your opinion