To you, what is "The Wigan Way"?

[ancientnloyal]

Been hearing alot of "The Wigan Way" and similar phrases but what is The Wigan Way in your opinions?

[LORENZO]

Just as the crest says on the players' shirts - 'Ancient and LOYAL'
The motto when it became a borough -'Progress with unity'

I have been a Wigan supporter for 60 years now and I always believed the Wigan way to be Hard, Honest, Hard working and True to your home town wherever you may live.

[LORENZO]

Just as the motto the players wear on their shirts says - 'Ancient and LOYAL'
I was born and bred in Wigan,and have been a supporter for 60 years. I believe the Wigan Way to be Hard working, Honest, Tough and Loyal to the town wherever you may now live.
Players joining the Wigan team must, in my opinion, accept the above principals or not bother coming.
If you come from Wigan and are not prepared to accept these terms then there are always other clubs.....

[DaveO]

In simple terms Professionalism on and off the pitch in everything the clubs does. Which translates into attention to detail.

Wigan first started down this track years ago when they did (for example) employ Bill Hartley (a former GB international 400m runner for those who don't know) to improve the running technique of the players to extract half a yard of extra pace out of them by getting them to run properly.

In the modern era with sports science as advanced as it is, it's using that to monitor and improve the players performance. From that would come attention to diet including not getting tanked up on a regular basis. In other words "the Wigan Way" puts obligations on the players to buy into a culture focused on extracting the last ounce of potential out of them and accepting some sacrifices have to be made in terms of lifestyle.

Outside of the day to day running of the squad it's a desire to be the best by assembling a squad with that goal. Not with a goal of just using home grown talent. Years ago I remember reading Wigan would sign anyone who they thought would improve the team. In the dark days of overt racism if a black player would do the job they still went for him. South African RU player? In the same team. So it's also about constant improvement of the squad. If a better player comes along in a certain position Wigan would not hesitate to move for that player.

I think currently Wigan fails on both counts. It may have a top conditioner in Bitcon but he's working with a hand tied behind his back if players are getting ratted on a regular basis.

In terms of the squad, recruitment simply does not seem to be based on trying to find the best players available (I don't mean NRL stars but the best actually realistically available) on a constant basis. In fact we don't seem to have the scouts we used to who uncovered players like Jason Robinson or more lately a Carmont or a Richards. The "project player" is a modern invention used to cover signing average players the club would never have looked at previously.

I also don't think the Wigan Way is a system where the players are mates with the coach. A coach can be loyal to his players as in protecting them from the press or whatever without being their mate.

Currently when Rads comes out saying the bad behaviour seen on that video is not how Wigan do things it says to me there is a heck of a lot of difference between the image the club likes to project and the one that actually exists.

[Josie's friend]

If this Joel & Sam thing was against what the Wigan way is then why did they re-sign Sarge? After all Sarge was well know for going out drinking and making a show of himself, plus he was released from the NRL after his altercation with a bouncer.

More hypocrisy for Rads

[chrisjjonesy]

Everyone also seems to have forgotten that Bateman bottled Mossop on a night out. 'The Wigan Way' continues

[medlocke]

Everyone also seems to have forgotten that Bateman bottled Mossop on a night out. 'The Wigan Way' continues

No he didn't

[No straw damn us]

I wonder what parallel universe some people live in?
Read Jason Robinsons book. What about Gary "lager" Connolly, Andy Gregory, Sean Long etc etc etc. Why was Brett Dallas not at the Wigan shirt presentation in Sydney!!
What about Joe Lydon?

And it's not just at Wigan, I remember seeing two Great britain internationals rolling in the gutter in Sydney when on tour in 1992. The Tomkins brothers were totally out of order and should pay for their misdemeanors but lets not pretend it's a one way street.

What evidence do you have Dave that Wigan players are getting ratted" on a regular occasion? Have you seen them?

[wall_of_voodoo]

What evidence do you have Dave that Wigan players are getting ratted" on a regular occasion? Have you seen them?

I know players are entitled to life away from rugby but I have seen past players (well they were current at the time I used to drink around town) tanked up in and around Wigan

In fact. Nigel Wright's career ended from a pub related accident and had nothing to do with playing - shame. Club couldn't get rid fast enough as he was a bad influence on the juniors of that time

From working with amateur players I do know one of the biggest blights on teams (especially Wigan, Wire and Saints - can't speak about others) is the white stuff sniffed from the frequent visits to the toilets. Been going on quite a while now and I'm gobsmacked more haven't been caught.

Maybe it's because it is out of the system after 3 days

[DaveO]

I wonder what parallel universe some people live in?
Read Jason Robinsons book. What about Gary "lager" Connolly, Andy Gregory, Sean Long etc etc etc. Why was Brett Dallas not at the Wigan shirt presentation in Sydney!!
What about Joe Lydon?

And it's not just at Wigan, I remember seeing two Great britain internationals rolling in the gutter in Sydney when on tour in 1992. The Tomkins brothers were totally out of order and should pay for their misdemeanors but lets not pretend it's a one way street.

The "parallel universe" I live in is one where in other sports, such as swimming and athletics the athletes are disciplined enough not to go and get plastered and in most cases even drink at all. The fact Connelly drank like a fish etc is neither here nor there.

RL and Wigan in particular like to present the good clean image while at the same time the reality is different. It's not much use Rads slagging off the Tomkins brothers for not being role models if the club doesn't insist that they behave as role models in the first place. And before you say the club can't do that, most employers these days seeing you being such a tit croppiong up on social media outside of work as something that can constitute grounds for disciplinary action. My employer would not be keen shoving me in front of customers if there were a video doing the rounds of me behaving like that. Just the way it is in the age of social media. Bad behaviour from past players in the 80's and 90's was immune from such scrutiny. They could well have had very different careers were the subjected to the same back then.

What evidence do you have Dave that Wigan players are getting ratted" on a regular occasion? Have you seen them?

Do you not go on facebook or twitter?