Riversiders meeting

[pete&kaz]

Knew last week

must of been late on last week as the committee didnt know who was attending when we had our meeting

jeepers mike even i knew this last week (only after reading it on here though)

[cpwigan]

The successful Wigan teams of the 80's and 90's had specialist sprint coaches (Bill Hartley, Chris Butler). Given IL believes we lack pace could either MF or PV explain why we no longer have a specialist coach. The difference between scoring and being tackled is often less than half a yard. An expert sprint coach might be able to add that vital difference to our players.

[cpwigan]

Feka makes a huge difference when he is out on the pitch. Unfortunately, his playing spells are limited and have remained constant almost as if the coaching stuff withdraw on a time basis. It is clear that Feka could be far better conditioned and if he was he could play for longer and we would do better. Why have the coaching staff not been able to extend the amoubnt of time Feka plays per match. It is possible, Inga the Winger was transformed from the player that first arrived at Central Park into a faster more athletic and better player through repeated session on Rivington Hill.

[josie andrews]

Feka makes a huge difference when he is out on the pitch. Unfortunately, his playing spells are limited and have remained constant almost as if the coaching stuff withdraw on a time basis. It is clear that Feka could be far better conditioned and if he was he could play for longer and we would do better. Why have the coaching staff not been able to extend the amoubnt of time Feka plays per match. It is possible, Inga the Winger was transformed from the player that first arrived at Central Park into a faster more athletic and better player through repeated session on Rivington Hill.

Are these your questions CP? if that is what you want me to ask I will do that and give you their reply tomorrow (if I can remember word for word)

[cpwigan]

lol They are Josie. Put it how you want. I use a paragraph where a sentence would suffice

[josie andrews]

lol They are Josie. Put it how you want. I use a paragraph where a sentence would suffice

I will quote it word for word (except for some sp) and try and get their reply written down or ask someone to do it for me

[cpwigan]

Mano reckons they have had a sprint coach working with the backs recently. If they tell you that. Say why not the forwards too.

[josie andrews]

Mano reckons they have had a sprint coach working with the backs recently. If they tell you that. Say why not the forwards too.

Yes, just saw it. Will do

[josie andrews]

Mano reckons they have had a sprint coach working with the backs recently. If they tell you that. Say why not the forwards too.

Right CP, they do have a sprint coach Trevor Painter, who trains his wife who is in the Olympics! And they also have a woman as well. The sprint coach works with the 18's, 21's and the first team.

Feka can play for longer but it depends on the play apparently. Because he is targeted he sometimes gets caught up and thats when they take him off. Nine will more than likely give a better update cos I've got a memory like a sieve

Sean O'Loughlin should be fit in about 5-6 weeks.

Karl Pryce is chomping at the bit and could play this season he is to have another scan next week to see if the bone in his foot has healed. It was a very serious injury and although he had it operated on when he was at RU they brought him back to play when it wasn't healed and he broke it again.

Talking about the Leeds game- PV said we outplayed them in all departments more tackles, more runs, offloads etc but we just didn't have how he put it the 'killer instinct' to put the points on the board. Also he said that in five years that Silverwood has been reffing, he always sides with the home team !

MF was asked about any special diets and said that they had a chef at Orrell and that they eat a lot of proteins fruit etc, also that they all had very lean bodies?

[Nine]

At the Riversiders meeting last night were Assistant Coach Phil Veivers and Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Forshaw. The main points as I remember them (and anyone else who was there, please add things as I can’t remember all of it) were:

Active negotiations are under way for a replacement for Trent Barrett. No names given, as you’d expect, though. My impression of what was meant, though I could be wrong, was that it has gone beyond putting feelers out and we are negotiating in detail with someone.

On Feka (cpwigan, Josie did you proud!): Mike explained that it is not a question of Feka not being fit enough to do more game time. When he is on he is devastating and if it were possible to leave him on for longer and retain the same level of performance then the coaching staff would do so. However, the nature of Feka’s body, his genetics, is that he is blessed with strength and explosive power - what Mike called a “fast-twitcher” (I’ll explain that in a minute). This means that after a burst of activity his body needs some recovery time before he’s ready to go again with the same effect.

Further conditioning will not change that physical fact - any more than you could condition a 100-metre runner to run a succession of 100-metre races at the same speed, one straight after the other. It means that while we’re on attack he is devastating but once we’re defending for any length of time the other team targets him around the ruck area to use up his fuel and take advantage of the fact that he’s less agile than the others. Mike said that there are times that he thinks Feka’s being taken off too soon, but he realises that Brian and John Pendlebury, up in the stands, have a better view than he does and can read it when teams start to target Feka – so it’s their call.

The fast twitch muscle fibres help you move explosively, with speed and strength, but tire more quickly then slow twitch fibres. Slow twitch fibres fire more slowly but are more efficient in using oxygen and help with sustained, steady muscle use. We are all built differently, so top sprinters (and power players like Feka) have more fast twitch fibres than the norm, whereas long-distance runners (and e.g. a possible 80-minute player like Andy Coley) are blessed with more slow-twitch fibres.

That’s my explanation, by the way, so if it’s wrong don’t blame Mike! I’ve read that Olympic sprinters have about 80 percent fast twitch fibres, while marathon runners tend to have 80 percent slow twitch fibres – so no amount of running up Rivington Pike is going to turn Feka into an 80-minute prop (at least at the level of performance we’d want) while no amount of strength conditioning is going to turn Mark Calderwood into an impact forward. It’s how they’re made. Mike said that Inga was a centre which is an easier position to play and requires different things of your body than prop like Feka, so it's hard to make a comparision.

We do have a sprint coach - it used to be Jenny Meadows (the Olympic athlete’s) coach but as they are now working towards Beijing there’s a new one in place, and they work with both forwards and backs on a Tuesday.

Phil was disappointed to learn that we struggle to get team sheets for people going to Orrell, so have trouble putting names to faces, especially in the Under-18s, and he has promised to talk to the secretary there and get them done, We offered to provide a couple of people to go round with them if needed.

There were some robust views expressed about referees from the floor and some honest opinions from the stage. Without giving too much details that might drop anyone in it, let’s just say we were all like-minded! The idea that Russell Smith might be a good replacement for Stuart Cummins as referees’ controller was well-received, too.

On Silverwood - it is important to note that Phil said his penalty count in 97% of cases favours the home team. This is NOT that same as saying Silverwood "favours the home team" as that implies he's bent and it's not what Phil said and we don't wnat to land him in it. The penalty count could favour the home team because simply the away team commits more offences; or it could be that Silverwood is unconsciously affected by the crowd. And let's remember that he's reffed us at home too so presumably we "benefited" when he did!