Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:13 pm  

Blobby: you speak sense.

I think in all the knee-jerk reaction from Friday night (as much from me as from anyone else), we have missed a couple of very encouraging things. Firstly, how many times did we drop the ball on Friday night? Aside from Foster's drop (and that was helped by a big bash on the back just as he was collecting it), I can't remember us knocking on. I'm sure we must have but certainly nowhere near the rate we had been knocking on up to that point. I think our completion rate on Friday night was something like 96% (as opposed to around 76% for the Dragons).

Secondly, we didn't run laterally. We ran forward all night, even when we were giving up the ghost defensively. That too is a significant improvement on our play so far this season.

We did collapse defensively, although the last try of course shouldn't have even been an option given Leon Pryce's infringement from the preceding set of six. However, we shouldn't have to rely on referee competence to see us through and clearly a major amount of work needs to be done on our defence. Although the problem is bound to be structural to some degree, especially post Jammer, I do think it is also an attitude problem. We need to maintain our intensity in defence as well as attack. Hopefully that will come in time as we adjust to the new team layout.

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:13 pm  

Blobbynator wrote:

Who knows what will happen, but we looked worse last year. We were in a right mess after the Wire & Quins 'home' games but came good in the end.

I still think Royce is finding his best side which has led to lots of rotation and errors from the side.

Why Would it take this long to know his best team? It's not as if we've signed 6/7 players in. We've lost pryce, eastmond, graham and Moore and replaces them with laffranchci, hohaia and flanaghan.

I've just got a feeling he ain't got clue what hes doing and last season spared him the blushes with the injuries.

By rotating players this year, he's completely contradicted himself as last year his favourite excuse was he can't fiend the same side. The injuries was a blessing in disguise for him.

My biggest worry from Royce being in charge is the recruitment. I'm pretty certain he will be on a one way flight back to oz at the end of the year but god help the next coach that's got to sort the mess of recruitment he will leave behind!

I can cope with no old Trafford appearance this year but his methods will set us back years and years.

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:19 pm  

St pete wrote:

Why Would it take this long to know his best team? It's not as if we've signed 6/7 players in. We've lost pryce, eastmond, graham and Moore and replaces them with laffranchci, hohaia and flanaghan.

I've just got a feeling he ain't got clue what hes doing and last season spared him the blushes with the injuries.

By rotating players this year, he's completely contradicted himself as last year his favourite excuse was he can't fiend the same side. The injuries was a blessing in disguise for him.

My biggest worry from Royce being in charge is the recruitment. I'm pretty certain he will be on a one way flight back to oz at the end of the year but god help the next coach that's got to sort the mess of recruitment he will leave behind!

I can cope with no old Trafford appearance this year but his methods will set us back years and years.

+ 1

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:32 am  

St pete wrote:

Why Would it take this long to know his best team? It's not as if we've signed 6/7 players in. We've lost pryce, eastmond, graham and Moore and replaces them with laffranchci, hohaia and flanaghan.

I've just got a feeling he ain't got clue what hes doing and last season spared him the blushes with the injuries.

By rotating players this year, he's completely contradicted himself as last year his favourite excuse was he can't fiend the same side. The injuries was a blessing in disguise for him.

My biggest worry from Royce being in charge is the recruitment. I'm pretty certain he will be on a one way flight back to oz at the end of the year but god help the next coach that's got to sort the mess of recruitment he will leave behind!

I can cope with no old Trafford appearance this year but his methods will set us back years and years.

I do know what you mean Pete and if you look at my posts (not that I expect you to - I am just being anecdotal) I have had the same view of Royce from the minute he was appointed not just from this season. He's a really good guy but I just don't think he's a coach that makes a difference and squeezes that extra bit out of us when we need it - many of the pundits in Australia said the same when he got the job.

I also suspect that he will not be here next year and hope that we are working on bringing in someone absolutely top class. If the rumours about Nathan Brown have any substance I think that would be quite an interesting appointment - he's quite well regarded in the NRL and for me that's the real measure; not the views of forum members who sometimes get carried away with emotion not knowledge (and before anyone flames me I class myself amongst them at times). If it's not true then I hope we get someone with a pedigree who can change us into winners - it's only that extra 5% we need.

The mitigation for me is, ironically, the players who are underperforming at the moment. Wherever you sit on the the play offs/league debate what we have proved is that our players generally step up and become very competitive when they need to. I just think we lack that killer instinct in finals that's all and in reality we are no more than a couple of players away from getting back to where we were a few years ago. This year's recruitment has indeed been strange as I simply don't see where Lance will play given that Gaskell is such an exciting player and Laffranchi is not what we needed in a particular position. They are not bad players - just the wrong ones IMO.

The one I was most excited about was actually Flanagan given how he should have developed in Oz.

Keep the faith. As someone else said it's not how you start but how you finish and we tend to get better as the season progresses.

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:52 am  

TheJudge wrote:

It pains me to say it but at the moment we are miles behind Wigan in every aspect of the game. .

I'm getting deja vu here from last season!!

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:55 am  

Div wrote:

I'm getting deja vu here from last season!!

Most Saints fans are very simple creatures capable of very simple reactions only unfortunately it seems... Losing an early season non-entity game means we are the worst team ever, the players all need sacking, the coach needs tarring and feathering and shipping off to Alaska, we're going to struggle to even make the playoffs etc. etc. You'd think that some might have learned by now even with their tiny, tiny little brains... Bit depressing to see it every single season really...

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:06 am  

1) For the first 55 minutes of that last game we looked really good.
2) Catalan got lucky with a lot of ball bouncers during the last 15 minutes, how often does that happen where every 50/50 bounce goes the way of one team?
3) Catalan had the benefit of some dodgy calls at key moments.

It's not all doom and gloom.

Saints let off athen got themselves in a panic mess for the last 15 minutes. They will learn from that.

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:28 pm  

Donkey OTay wrote:

1) For the first 55 minutes of that last game we looked really good.
2) Catalan got lucky with a lot of ball bouncers during the last 15 minutes, how often does that happen where every 50/50 bounce goes the way of one team?
3) Catalan had the benefit of some dodgy calls at key moments.

It's not all doom and gloom.

Saints let off athen got themselves in a panic mess for the last 15 minutes. They will learn from that.

....you forgot to mention number 4 - our defence , especially on the goal line has not been good enough thus far.

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:56 pm  

Hi all and thanks for the glowing praise of what our 'Ape' is achieving over the lump.

Feel free to all come along to the DW on Sunday and watch free flowing rugby at its best and to see how a well marshalled defence look like.

We may well be the best supported team in SL, but there is always room for a few more and anyone wanting to defect will be welcomed

Re: Sorry to say it, but how good do Wigan look? : Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:31 pm  

Last few games we have looked pretty good yeh but im not reading too much into wins against Bradford and Castleford. Lets see how we do sunday against a good side, aslong as were top 4 at the end of the year weve got a chance of winning it. Wire will walk the hub cap.