Re: Fans Forum : Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:28 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

I mean, seriously. Where else do people think that someone like KR in particular, might be focussed?

Well during COVID he was doing the job of about 50 people.

Re: Fans Forum : Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:43 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

It might not have been popular, but I'd have preferred us not to re-sign French when we did. Nothing against the lad & he's a joy to watch but the side needed a prop.

can you imagine the melt down had we not taken the option to re-sign our best and most creative player?

do you not remember how dire we were last year without him?

WTF was the Tour de France about on IL's slides?

Re: Fans Forum : Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:51 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

I think that more accurately sums it up than "are IL and KR deluded?"

I'll never understand these Wigan fans - especially the ones who "aren't bashing IL and KR" (honest!) - who can never seem to resist having a personal dig at the club's brass.

I mean, seriously. Where else do people think that someone like KR in particular, might be focussed?

AL took the coaching reins in the midst of chaos: the Edwards betrayal followed by COVID. And he still got us to a final. On that basis, how much of an 'obvious mistake' was it to award him an extension?

How much foresight did IL and KR genuinely lack to not anticipate the collapse of AL's team last year? No one else I know saw it coming, either.

Most of us did spot the red flags when it came to Lam and very early on too. That's not just me, but others like Jukes who saw the signs from the 1st season. I doubt anyone can label him as being an anti IL or KR guy too.

Go back to the Leigh game, 1st game last season and it was obvious how bad the team was. No shape, no go forward and no hope. Go forward to the Hull CC game, same issues and this time no game plan. Watch the team fold at Catalan and see the frustration in the players and see the stupid pens they gave away. It only got worse too and holding onto him has only made Peet's job a hell of a lot harder imo. Maybe Peet wasn't the right guy to take over mid season, but I'm sure there were options to remove Lam and bring in someone who didn't have Lam's approach to discipline or Culture.

Also where's the line drawn between "not bashing KR" and letting things slip/speaking out about things that have a detrimental impact on the club? KR spoke after the 2014 WCC about needing size and we've only got that in 22. We've all rolled our eyes the new deal Clubb got and yet, have the same mistakes been made with Isa? KR at the last forum Rads said something like "Singleton is a Wigan type of player and one we've wanted for a while". Is that not worrying?

Re: Fans Forum : Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:57 pm  

nikos wrote:

can you imagine the melt down had we not taken the option to re-sign our best and most creative player?

do you not remember how dire we were last year without him?

WTF was the Tour de France about on IL's slides?

We did sign re-sign our best and most creative player. We bagged Hastings.

You also can't use hindsight to say how much we missed him. No one knew Field was going to get injured like he did. In a salary capped world, you can't have that luxury.

I'll call it right now for this season btw - I'd prefer another prop or 2nd row to be here than French.

Re: Fans Forum : Thu Mar 17, 2022 5:28 pm  

Cruncher wrote:

I think that more accurately sums it up than "are IL and KR deluded?"

I'll never understand these Wigan fans - especially the ones who "aren't bashing IL and KR" (honest!) - who can never seem to resist having a personal dig at the club's brass.

I mean, seriously. Where else do people think that someone like KR in particular, might be focussed?

AL took the coaching reins in the midst of chaos: the Edwards betrayal followed by COVID. And he still got us to a final. On that basis, how much of an 'obvious mistake' was it to award him an extension?

How much foresight did IL and KR genuinely lack to not anticipate the collapse of AL's team last year? No one else I know saw it coming, either.

I am not only referring to the actual performances under Lam.

The club have started making changes off the field such as the fans forum, community engagement, bringing in Wane so that Radlinski can focus on the business side.

My post is more aimed at why the above has only just started?

Re: Fans Forum : Thu Mar 17, 2022 5:37 pm  

We do have the benefit of Field showing what he can do now though - which can make both French & Field look a little bit of a luxury - but at the time, not resigning French would have been madness as he was our only bright spark in a otherwise lacklustre team.

These two are the players who get fans on their feet and excited about coming to a game - I don't see them as being exclusive and they can play together in the same team - I think we could have got another prop without sacrificing one of them. I do think French at FB, Field in the halves, Cust at 9 is by far our best combination - fits in players who are a threat in their more natural positions without sticking French/Field to the wing where neither are suited.

Where we have got our recruitment and strategy wrong is too many of the same type of players - as others have said.

Difficult decisions but these were the type of decision we got right in the 80's - letting nice people go who were not quite good enough or had been here too long. One or two of our young props need to be let go, Isa shouldn't have been resigned, Zak on the wing is looking like an expensive waste of talent - not his best position and probably paying him too much to be a bit part player.

This could have funded another prop and we have a far stronger balanced squad whilst keeping both Field and french.

Re: Fans Forum : Fri Mar 18, 2022 1:19 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

We did sign re-sign our best and most creative player. We bagged Hastings.

You also can't use hindsight to say how much we missed him. No one knew Field was going to get injured like he did. In a salary capped world, you can't have that luxury.

I'll call it right now for this season btw - I'd prefer another prop or 2nd row to be here than French.

Couldn't disagree more. French and Field in the same side is exactly the type of team we should be aiming to have at Wigan. Facilitate it by all means by surrounding them with the right players but it shouldn't be an either/or. Not resigning French when there are any amount of players we could reasonably lose before him would be criminal.

Re: Fans Forum : Fri Mar 18, 2022 6:46 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

We did sign re-sign our best and most creative player. We bagged Hastings.

You also can't use hindsight to say how much we missed him. No one knew Field was going to get injured like he did. In a salary capped world, you can't have that luxury.

I'll call it right now for this season btw - I'd prefer another prop or 2nd row to be here than French.

We resigned Hastings?

Wasn’t he on a two year deal and that’s what he stayed for?

It’s only after seeing Fields performances that people are mentioning not re signing French. Everyone at the time wanted it to happen.

Re: Fans Forum : Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:08 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Couldn't disagree more. French and Field in the same side is exactly the type of team we should be aiming to have at Wigan. Facilitate it by all means by surrounding them with the right players but it shouldn't be an either/or. Not resigning French when there are any amount of players we could reasonably lose before him would be criminal.

I agree that there's others I'd move on before French, but you can only look at who's ooc.

As with most things - look at Saints. They decided not to get into a bidding war for Coote as they already had a very good #1. That's allowed them to strengthen other areas and, as a whole, they are stronger. Coote might have been the better FB, but the players they've been able to bring in massively outweighs that.

We don't need two quality FB's in the side.

Re: Fans Forum : Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:28 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

I agree that there's others I'd move on before French, but you can only look at who's ooc.

As with most things - look at Saints. They decided not to get into a bidding war for Coote as they already had a very good #1. That's allowed them to strengthen other areas and, as a whole, they are stronger. Coote might have been the better FB, but the players they've been able to bring in massively outweighs that.

We don't need two quality FB's in the side.

You're right, we don't need 2 quality fullbacks in the side in principle but it's good to have 2 who can play to such a high standard in such a pivotal position to cover injury, loss of form and, in the present climate, suspensions.

We do, however, need 2 quality players in the side (well, more than 2 obviously, but you get the point I'm making). The question is not should we have one or the other but where do we fit both in the side. Both players can play multiple positions. Field 1 and 6 (and possibly wing) and French fullback and wing without question. I would argue that neither half nor wing are settled in our team so there is more than enough scope to fit them both in.

Tommy/Field halves with Cust at 9 or Cust/Field halves with Tommy spelling hooker both look potentially better than we currently have. We already know that French has the ability to be among the best in the league from fullback.

If you don't want to move Field then French and Marshall on the wings gives us pace to burn. There is no substitute for pace as we've seen from Field already this year.

In both instances we have a top quality 1 to cover injuries etc. I'm not sure what the downside is to be honest.