I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water, what he needs is support IMO.

Also I think Clubb and Flower have been good signings, I like their commitment especially Clubbs Impact off the bench, yes he gives away the odd penalty but his aggression in defence is great.

The problem I think is with Joel and Mossop, they really need to pull their fingers out or I'd be looking to get rid. If they weren't Wigan lads I think they'd have already left or not come back.

With regards to O'Loughlin I think if he only played a handful of games a year he'd be worth it on the salary cap, the guy is a superstar and without him we are screwed. I'm trying to savour every minute of him playing because I do t look forward to him retiring.

All in all we need to either let the players have freedom in attack or bring in an assistant who can organise our attack.

Lockers is only on 100k max because of the homegrown/testimonial rule.

He struggled big time on Friday Lockers and whisper it quietly but he has done for a little while now in a Wigan shirt. He seems to be struggling to get any intensity in his play on a week by week basis. If you compare what he's produced for us over the past season and a bit to what he did for England against the Kiwis its chalk and cheese. Maybe his body just hasn't got what it takes to raise to those levels week to week but after a small lay off and a game to tune up at Dewsbury I'd have expected more.

I said in another thread he's one of our three most important players and he's our captain so we need him to try and raise himself to help pull us in to a bit of form. When we've got a fully fit squad you would imagine they'll look to manage his workload.

Thank God Wane isn't concerned by our dire attacking structures, heaven forbid he would put any time into fixing it. Best to get them doing a week of hill sprints instead.

When he comes out with comments that he isn't concerned, it really does worry me that he doesn't think we are far off. Does he not know the fans are bored stiff, and that even if we stop dropping ball, we will still be the most boring team in SL to watch? Does he think the fans enjoy watching a wrestle in defence and a team that literally catch and pass along a flat line?

Quote: Wigg'n "Lockers is only on 100k max because of the homegrown/testimonial rule.'" There has never been a homegrown rule limiting cap value (with the clubs voting that the marquee rule should come in instead) and the testimonial rule was removed when the marquee rule was brought in place. Since it's well documented Sam is Wigans marquee, there are no rules which stop SOLs value being whatever he's being paid (which I believe to be quite a chunk.) media.therfl.co.uk/docs/Super%20 ... 202016.pdf

Quote: Wigg'n "Lockers is only on 100k max because of the homegrown/testimonial rule.'" There has never been a homegrown rule limiting cap value (with the clubs voting that the marquee rule should come in instead) and the testimonial rule was removed when the marquee rule was brought in place. Since it's well documented Sam is Wigans marquee, there are no rules which stop SOLs value being whatever he's being paid (which I believe to be quite a chunk.) media.therfl.co.uk/docs/Super%20 ... 202016.pdf

This is my view also. Over the past few weeks people have been hoping that as players returned from injury things would pick up and that because while they were out we still scraped several wins we were in a good position and so we could kick on from there. That wouldn't be an unreasonable stance to take if it were not for the fact before the injuries hit our attack still looked clueless.

With ST back and when Farrell returns we may be better than Friday because the pair of them are players who offer some leadership. If MM comes back in August it could improve things again on that score but it may be too late by then. The trouble is individual players having a go and busting a gut is what we rely on. We aren't relying on good tactics and a good game plan so in my opinion even with a full team while it may be a bit better we will still come up short against better coached teams. That was the difference between us winning and losing the GF v Leeds, IMO.

I don't know how well your pack has played in previous weeks, but a lot of what you can do in attack is based on quick PTB's and forward dominance. There was only a spell of 10-15 minutes on Friday when our intensity in defence was poor and you started to make yards - and you scored your tries. It is hard to play attacking, off the cuff rugby on the back of slow play the balls due to dominant defence. You have dangerous backs, but I think you need a couple of props to become the Wigan you once where. Our props on Friday - Taylor, Watts, Bowden, Green (and Thompson/Ellis) all have excellent footwork at the line, which enables them to make better contact into defenders to either get a quick play the ball, or poke their nose through. Your props are pretty much built the same - Clubb, Crosby, Sutton - they just seem (to me) to be up and down players with no footwork/offload ability so if they are getting dominated, they cannot change the way they play

This is spot on!

Dumbest team? Or tactical?

I think Wane verdict will only be in at the end of the season. The injury list is large, but also intriguing. I for one don't believe that our injured player (bar Micky) are as bad, or require as much time off as they're being granted.
I do however believe Wane is playing a squad game resting our senior players rotating their playing time so they'll be fresh at the business end of the season.

In Wane's early days he won the LLS, then had a spend first team who were knocked out of the playoffs, I think at the same time 5th played Leeds went on to win the comp. He's learnt from this and being tactical about how and when he's full first team come to the fold.

In the meantime of resting senior players he awards the young lads with game time at SL so they're ready if needs must.

I imagine we'll come to in the next few months when the senior players are all back playing and given time to gel.

Well once again I had a very enjoyable weekend in Wigan. Just a shame about the rugby on Friday night, which was a bit rubbish.

It is getting to the point where I'm getting cautious about encouraging friends to accompany me, though.

It gets worse www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... -1-7912716

It gets worse www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... -1-7912716

There is still a club trained player rule. The maximum value of which is £100K. You get it in £5K chunks for every club trained player who completed 10 salary cap relevant matches the preceding season. So to get the full whack this season you would need 20 club trained players who had all completed 10 matches in 2015.

So the only game that matters is the GF? May as well not bother with a season ticket if that is the case.

I think it is pretty obvious what you suggest is just simply not true and that there is no evidence for it.