UNLUCKY,GOOD PERFORMANCE,BAD REF,PROUD OF THE LADS ETC...........

[Big D.]

Equality is a pipe dream !

It's not just about the money: the very status, achievements and history of the club itself should make us the greatest of them all, I know that nothing lasts forever but,it's criminal to see how we've fallen.

Sport isn't like communism , level playing fields don't exist, be it right or wrong. Look around the world of sport ! They changed the rules to try and stop us becoming elite.

My point about the football clubs is that we are no longer even in the top three, never mind two, in RL.

[jaws1]

Think you should listen to what our chairman thinks of the game and the future of Wigan Warriors .He is our biggest fan .
http://www.wiganwarriors.com/news_full.asp?newsid=3921

[cpwigan]

Neither does any club have a God given right though.

What is sad is when as supporters of the greatest club in the world all we can say and all our coach, our owner and many supporters can say is awwww well at least we gave it our best. We tried hard.

Sorry but if you pull the Cherry & White on 100% effort is a given. If fans are celebrating or taken aback that the effort was there then God help us.

The reality is we are not good enough. When it comes to the crunch winners find that little bit extra. So when it really matters Saints and now Leeds are victorious v us. Whatsmore they can do it without their best team.

Anybody recall Warrington v Wigan in the 80's, early 90's. Wire frequently beat us when it did not truly matter. When it did and there was no second chance, Wigan always won. So when we play Leeds think Wire late 80's. That is where we are.

However, remember Rome was not built in a day, it will be better next year, if not next year, the year after or the year after. Will somebody explain how Wigan RLFC will get better when we are losing our best player for 2009?

Maybe I am missing something. Maybe our No1 fan will invest in sprint coaches and so forth. Oh wait should he not have done that when he took over. Maybe if he had Feka would be able to play longer and be even better. Maybe if he had Colbon might have had the speed needed. Still we can always blame the referee. It will get better.

Some very good players coming to SL for 2009. We obviously were not interested in them. Let's hope we can find a replacement as good as if not better than Trent. Does anybody know of such a player?

No God given right. True. Just that cuts both ways and you do whatever you can to get the best out of what you have. Can anybody say Wigan RLFC do that?

Sod it 3 cheers for effort hi pip a ray

[cpwigan]

TEW the problem is that IL says it but does not deliver. A sprint coach is a pre requisite. He/she would make every player that bit faster including the future first teamers. Why has he not done the obvious/simple?

Noble. If you think that then we are in agreement. One thing that nags at me is we must have no set plays, a truly simply game plan if Phelps had he not had jet lag was able to fit straight in with so few training sessions. I would have thought it would take weeks to learn all the plays etc. Evidently not.

Is Phelps fast? He never struck me as amazingly quick. Mind you as you alluded to does it matter? Stanton and Ainscough are fast and Noble shows no interest. Tomkins is fast for a half back and Noble shows no interest.

[El Bobbers]

I don't think either IL or Noble can win. People call for Calderwood they got him. Drop Mathers people shouted (me included) he did. He doesn't give youth a chance - Colbon, Goulding, J Tomkins, Hansen has become a regular under Noble. IL doesn't use the salary cap as well as he should he lied to poor Micky(who isn't good enough based on many peoples ideas of comparing him to the good old boys)... Blah blah blah.

We dominated by far the best team in the league. As it turned out one lucky bounce to Burrow may have been the difference. May be a 50/50 decision went there way and not ours. Thats Life.

[El Bobbers]

Two Eyed Warrior, I didn't mean it literally he wasn't using the cap correctly, he is doing what he can. I was just making the point that no matter what Noble or IL do people will moan. I have no problem with either. I also think Calderwood should be playing.

You quite rightly point out they are currently stuck with what we have got player wise. When Noble first came the team started to play and we got them selfs out of relegation. Last season only one game from grand final. Yet we are rubbish apparently, with pretty much the same side barring Coley, Mathers and Carmont.

[El Bobbers]

people will moan

I think a lot of the moans recently have been justified, but i know what you mean thankfully a lot of people on here have good knowledge of rugby so at least its an informed moan

I don't deny it's an informed moan (thats what attracted me to this site) I just think some of it is a little over the top. I don't think we have the strongest of sides and it is going to take time to improve, because of the salary cap this can't be done overnight. Of course a lot will balance on how we replace Barrett.

[ancientnloyal]

Would anyone assume that IL and JL had 'little time' between the handover to fully assess the interior of the club and so not having enought time to recruit adequately before the season?

Saying that, is IL wrong not to bring anyone else into the coaching setup?

Im thinking that we will see changes in th'off season ready for 2009 ie specialist coaches to fully get a good training regime in place for 3 months pre-season instead of having a few sessions each week for 30 minutes?

[cpwigan]

Bobbers we all want the same thing but the club as it stands annoys me to the point I want to grab hold of the buggers in charge and shake em.

The players? I do not think are as bad as they way they peform week in week out. Anybody with an ounce of common sense realises that the cap makes things difficult. However, that applies to everybody. I think what truly matters is that your 4 or 5 top players have to be different class. You can see that at Saints and you can see that at Leeds.

At Wigan? I honestly do not think you can. Trent is and he will I presume be our highest paid player. So who in our grand plan are the others? By wages I presume Fielden. Well no matter what people say he is not so. He is a Noble signing so the present coach receives the praise/criticism. Feka. He does offer us something different but the problem is we cannot keep him on the field long enough and that irks me. Anybody/everybody can see he could be far fitter. Why have Noble and his coaching team not addressed that? Why have JL/IL not said what's happening Brian? We can control / influence conditioning/sprinting Why have we not done so? I am not saying we can replicate them but it is frightening to see how much backroom staff are employed by Man U in this respect. I keep asking myself why have we gone backwards in this sense? Noble has been here long enough but he seems to appoint people he likes rather than the best people for the job. Lockers. I am a fan/an advocate but this season has not been his best. Mind you I am not convinced he is used correctly. Noble? Our 5th highest paid? Pat? Tommy? Bailey? Our key players do not make enough difference.

Hock is our key forward. I am guessing we do not pay him that well. At one time he was on a shocking abysmal contract. I know it is better now.

With Trent going I worry we will lose a big part of the different class factor that is already in short supply. So if we do have those sort of players then we need to maximise what we can out of our players and that for me does not happen. I do not think Brian Noble can construct quality attacking plays. He has hung his hat throughout coaching on simple one out unadventurous percentage yardage plays and then at the right end of the field expecting his players to conjure up the magic themselves. Well sorry Brian we do not have those players. He should know that and coach accordingly. I actually feel that small slim players may as well find another club than stay here under Brian Noble because he cannot coach such players.

I do not have faith in what is happening and worse what you see at first team level some of us see at all 3 levels.

[DaveO]

You quite rightly point out they are currently stuck with what we have got player wise. When Noble first came the team started to play and we got them selfs out of relegation. Last season only one game from grand final. Yet we are rubbish apparently, with pretty much the same side barring Coley, Mathers and Carmont.

Listen to the latest interview from IL on the club site. He is, quite rightly IMO, not pleased its Leeds and not us in the semi's and is saying the fact we played well is no consolation.

It was the same thing last season with the play-offs. Great entertainment v Bradford but ultimately we didn't get to the final. And we need to be getting to finals and until we do, we are not good enough as a team.

It's also quite clear to me listening to IL he recognises where some of the problems are. The interviewer said the 3/4 line played well and he said yes they did but we need to be have more "incisiveness and pace". Makes Calderwood leaving even more strange.

He wants consistency as well because TL was praised and IL said he'd like to see more of it.

He is more succinct than Noble at identifying the problems!

Dave