It gets worse every time i watch it. For me, the report system is a joke. Its only giving the ref an excuse poo out of a major decision.

Ganson is the best ref in SL.

As for gutless? He's one of the only refs that actually tries to enforce rules on foul play and dissent. A gutless ref wouldn't send off a player in the first tackle of a test match.

I agree ganson normally is fair with sendings offs, like 8 seconds with mozza at JJB stadium GB V AUS but he must have had a word in his ear to keep ablett on but he should have walked for thuggish behavour.

True. Scary, but true.



That's what makes the Ablett cop-out so blatant.

I shared that view until Friday. But I was less than impressed with what followed. The biggest disappointment is that Ganson too, it seems, is very quick to send Wigan players to the sin-bin, but very slow to mete out the same punishment to those we are playing. Something I'd never have said about him before.

This both annoyed and concerned me on Friday.

ganson no balls we dont need that sort of thuggery in rugby leauge red hall red faced

The biggest problem that we face going into the play-offs is that referees seem to be very lenient with Wigan's opposition. Whether this is merely a bad run of luck or something to do with the ridiculous bleating about Wigan's "tactics" coupled with the usual anti-Wigan bias in the RL establishment remains to be seen. At the moment though, it is worrying. Fortunately we were significantly better than Leeds in all areas on Friday and managed to win despite being much more harshly policed than Leeds on infringements. As we move into the playoffs and have to beat the likes of Stains and Wire then if this continues things are going to be difficult. William Hill have us at 6/5 to win the GF. I think those odds flatter us, particularly with the way we and our opponents seem to be being refereed at the moment.

I'm glad you say this. It shows I'm not the only paranoid one around here.



But, joking aside, while we fans only really tend to see it one way, there have been some stand-out examples of - shall we say - 'odd' refereeing, at our expense, this season. Last Friday was one. The Leeds game in the cup was another. And then there was the away Huddersfield fixture, in which the opposition coach had appeared to actually threaten violence against our players beforehand.

Note, I'm not complaining about Wigan incurring a load of penalties. That happens when you apply a strong, smothering defence. I'm talking about Wigan players being subjected to incidents of thuggery (which occurred in all these games), the culprits going unpunished, and then Wigan players being sinbinned for technicalities. There may have been other matches which I've now forgotten, but these three come quickest to mind.

I'm not sure what, if anything, we can actually do about this. Wigan's official policy seems to be to not complain - at least not in public. And this may be sensible. When you've got a controller of referees, who is apparently answerable to nobody, and who, during his own playing days, regularly showed poor judgement and was accused of having an anti-Wigan bias, I don't imagine it would take much to goad him into giving us an even harder time.

But you're right - it's definitely starting to look as if someone is out to stop us, and I don't how much longer the club will let that go on for without questioning it.

In the words of Kurt Cobain, "just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you."

Well if that viewpoint constitutes being paranoid

then i have to admit to being a fully paid up member of the club

Agree with all this. Saw Friday´s game in an Irish bar in Madeira, where I´m still enjoying the sun!

I have posted various comments these past few months about the inconsistency of certain referees and like others am very concerned what might happen in the Play Offs with Ganson, Bentham or Silverwood refereeing or being VR. So many decisions have gone against Wigan this season in close crucial games, it does make you wonder.

As I´ve said before, Ganson was the ref in the 2 Challenge Cup S/F defeats and 3 Play Off defeats. We have of course won games with him reffing, but....?!!

How many games have Saints lost with him reffing and how many Warrington games have they lost when Bentham has been ref?

Notice that Ganson awarded a dubious try to Saints on Saturday as VR. Didn´t see it - just read the report.

Bottom line, though, is Cummins is to blame for appointing them to those games!!