21-man squad to face Hull FC

[Wintergreen]

Its clearly not looking great for George Burgess, that said, its wise of us to sign Brad Singleton! Good Business! If we need to cut Burgess loose (presuming he cannot regain full fitness), lets do it ASAP! I have no doubt Burgess is on the top end of the scale regarding salaries at the club.

Ideally, Smithies would start at 13 and SOL would interchange with him or as an 8 or 10. I actually think we sometimes miss SOL at 13 (especially his leadership and experience), hopefully his fitness and stamina have improved.

Cant understand the fascination with people thinking Chris Hankinson is a 'Wigan standard' centre. He is good for a conversion and that's it, doesn't supply his wingers, doesn't have great pace and doesn't have the creative flair of someone like Gildart. If he was two stone heavier, id consider playing his at 12 (possibly). If he was that good he would have squeezed out Sarge last season.

How do we do that? He is contracted?

Why would this have happened?

My initial thoughts too.

However, we don't know the terms of his contract.

Let's hope IL and KR were not so stupid to have not built in some clause. If they haven't then we face the prospect of using up cap space on a player that doesn't play. Add SOL to the mix and there would be a lot of cap space warming up the stands.

[jackthelad]

I dont have any concerns about Burgess he is crocked its simple..
What I am more concerned about is why Hankinson has been totally dropped out the squad, its a joke, this lad is not getting a chance under Lam??

Who would you drop, Gildart or Hardaker?

No one has mentioned dropping Gilly or Zak?? Its about not being in the squad!!

[jackthelad]

Its clearly not looking great for George Burgess, that said, its wise of us to sign Brad Singleton! Good Business! If we need to cut Burgess loose (presuming he cannot regain full fitness), lets do it ASAP! I have no doubt Burgess is on the top end of the scale regarding salaries at the club.

Ideally, Smithies would start at 13 and SOL would interchange with him or as an 8 or 10. I actually think we sometimes miss SOL at 13 (especially his leadership and experience), hopefully his fitness and stamina have improved.

Cant understand the fascination with people thinking Chris Hankinson is a 'Wigan standard' centre. He is good for a conversion and that's it, doesn't supply his wingers, doesn't have great pace and doesn't have the creative flair of someone like Gildart. If he was two stone heavier, id consider playing his at 12 (possibly). If he was that good he would have squeezed out Sarge last season.

CW you often mention the wigan standard, what is this standard you speak of...? eg.sarge never passed the ball, made loads of errors yet gave his all, interested to know how many other players you'd consider not up to wigan standard?

[Mike]

Its clearly not looking great for George Burgess, that said, its wise of us to sign Brad Singleton! Good Business! If we need to cut Burgess loose (presuming he cannot regain full fitness), lets do it ASAP! I have no doubt Burgess is on the top end of the scale regarding salaries at the club.

Ideally, Smithies would start at 13 and SOL would interchange with him or as an 8 or 10. I actually think we sometimes miss SOL at 13 (especially his leadership and experience), hopefully his fitness and stamina have improved.

Cant understand the fascination with people thinking Chris Hankinson is a 'Wigan standard' centre. He is good for a conversion and that's it, doesn't supply his wingers, doesn't have great pace and doesn't have the creative flair of someone like Gildart. If he was two stone heavier, id consider playing his at 12 (possibly). If he was that good he would have squeezed out Sarge last season.

CW you often mention the wigan standard, what is this standard you speak of...? eg.sarge never passed the ball, made loads of errors yet gave his all, interested to know how many other players you'd consider not up to wigan standard?

And even he was in front of Hankinson! How does being in the squad help Hankinson?

[lucky 13]

I get that fans think coaches have favourites but it may be more than just favouritism. Attitude in all its guises from how you train, to when and how you turn up to train, how much you trust someone's game and so on.
Someone mentioned Charnley and Wane at Wigan, yet we see Charnley in Wanes international squad? With Lam we could see he didn't fancy playing Joe Greenwood but he's knuckled down over lockdown and since his return off loan made the most of his chance and played well last few games and been picked.
You can only make some of the people happy some of the time .

[doc]

From the few matches Hankinson has played (he cant have played 10 first team games since he signed) I don't see how anyone has watched him enough to criticise him. From what I have seen he has shown some nice touches and think he would improve with an extended run in the team. Unfortunately for him whenever he has played a game or two he has ended up with an injury and had to drop out of the reckoning. He's certainly no worse than Bibby, although I would say Sarginson, who was much maligned by many on here, was better than the pair of them.

[CheshireWarrior]

Its clearly not looking great for George Burgess, that said, its wise of us to sign Brad Singleton! Good Business! If we need to cut Burgess loose (presuming he cannot regain full fitness), lets do it ASAP! I have no doubt Burgess is on the top end of the scale regarding salaries at the club.

Ideally, Smithies would start at 13 and SOL would interchange with him or as an 8 or 10. I actually think we sometimes miss SOL at 13 (especially his leadership and experience), hopefully his fitness and stamina have improved.

Cant understand the fascination with people thinking Chris Hankinson is a 'Wigan standard' centre. He is good for a conversion and that's it, doesn't supply his wingers, doesn't have great pace and doesn't have the creative flair of someone like Gildart. If he was two stone heavier, id consider playing his at 12 (possibly). If he was that good he would have squeezed out Sarge last season.

CW you often mention the wigan standard, what is this standard you speak of...? eg.sarge never passed the ball, made loads of errors yet gave his all, interested to know how many other players you'd consider not up to wigan standard?

And even he was in front of Hankinson! How does being in the squad help Hankinson?

For my money, Chris Hankinson (like Joe Bullock) was always something of a 'shot in the dark' signing players from the championship without previous SL experience stepping up.

There's not doubt IMO Bullock has proven to be very solid and a fine signing! If I recall correctly (and I may be wrong), wasn't Hankinson brought in to cover injuries towards the end of 2018? If he is match fit, it looks like he is going down the Escare route of being surplus to requirements.

My perception is I look at Gildart and see a superb centre, very much the complete package! I dont see any of the similar qualities In Hankinson (except his ability to slot conversions) and ultimately think we should be investing in a similar centre to wear 3 going forwards. It also stands out like a sore thumb the fact he never plays? If he offer so much (and I'm not saying he is poor, I'm saying he isn't Wigan standard), why isn't he forcing Bibby, Burgess, Hardaker, Gildart and Manfredi out of the back line? Frankly, I though Joe Burgess looked very sluggish indeed in 2019! I thought Gildart made his look 10-15% better than he actually was! That's what I mean by a 'Wigan standard of centre'. If Burgess was carrying injuries he shouldn't have been playing tbf.

Although, as we never see Hank, its hard to pass any judgement, I'm sure I'm talking *hite and really he is our Jarrod Croker!

Based on 2019/2020 form, I dont think the squad would be hugely decimated with the departures of Chris Hankinson, Joe Burgess, Tony Clubb, Sean O'Loughlin, Romain Navarrete and Jack Wells. Not a question of Wigan standard, the best days are behind them IMO at this club!