wiganwarriordave wrote:I have to laugh at this thread, or i'll cry... Seriously... Have you listened to yourselves?
Here are the facts as i see them.
We finished top of the league, made the CC semi-final and came less than a few minutes away from the GF at Old Trafford.... We stuffed Saints 3 out of 4 times, and the time we didn't we still gave them a damn good run for their money with 12 men. Why all the doldrums? We're hardly Widnes or Castleford are we!?!??
The first half of the season, we were formidable, ruthless, and very impressive. Add to this some poor RFL disciplinary decisions, the farcical Exiles match in which we lost Tommy, and had to turn-around a lot of players in a short period. And we dropped form. Is this Wane's fault? No. Not in my opinion. He did the upmost with what he had.
Wane has appeased what Wigan fans have been wanting for many seasons in investing in youth. We've offered a few debuts, and IMO those individuals have performed well. The "rookies" of yesteryear (Charnley, Goulding etc) are now developing into solid experienced players who before long IMO will also become powerhouses of the next England RL generation, and for certain the foundations of the Wigan team for years to come.
As for the starting of this thread and the Leeds semi game. SW had a game plan, both in attack and defense. Swapping Pat to FB and dropping someone else in at wing puts players out of the positions they have trained for all week. Jack for Sam was a straight swap with less ramifications. And as stated earlier in this thread, Jack has impressed, and shown his ability under the high ball and had earner this opportunity. As for his performance, i thought he played well. The balls he dropped were very tough calls. Unless you have ever played FB in an RL game, or attempted to catch a high ball (or in particular, a high ball while being charged by 13 other blokes), you can't comment... I have (and yes, i dropped em too!). For those that are blaming Jack specifically. After watching the Wigan/Leeds game, did you go on to watch the Warrington/Saints semi and the Melbourne/Canterbury NRL final and see Brett Hodgson and Billy Slater fumble similar kicks??
The reason we lost the semi was a combination in my eyes...
a) Not having the aggression of Micky Mac
b) Lockers out of position covering for a)
c) Lack of Sam's attacking prowess, chiming into the line, kicking, creating overlaps, stepping and 2nd phases.
d) We only turned up for 40 minutes. The first half we looked clueless, Finchy was throwing passes to ground, we rarely had any dummy runners, we didn't build pressure and force repeat sets. We we're getting caught in possession and just looked out of sorts. Anyone remember Hock putting the fifth tackle kick in!?!?
e) Sinfield was pure world class and battered us all game. Lets take off our Cherry & White tinted glasses and applaud an opposition opponent when he plays a blinder.
The fact that we got within 2 points after going in at halftime against the current champions 11 points down is testament to Wigan. But those blaming SW, or JM are well out of order IMO.
Do you honestly think Wigan 2012 would have been good enough to beat Wire at OT? I will tell you what I think NO. We are some way behind Wire now. The only saving grace is that we will not be beaten easily at OT.
You can write a paragraph saying why we lost and how we only lost by a point. We LOST. Half your reason are pointless because guess what we lost in the CC Semi too. On both occasions we were not good enough when it mattered. Do you honestly think winning the hub cap is an achievement? Did Leeds try when we were flat track bullying them by 50 points Did Wire try to win every game or did they rest and blood youngsters? Did Saints even have a recognised coach for half the season?
BTW, if you think Sinfield is world class then you obviously watch a different sport than I do and see him pounded every time he comes up against genuine world class opposition like Australia.
We have a coach who was given 2 years priceless education and had the foundations laid. What did he do? Ignored it, criticised it because he and Gary Schofield knew better. Not much difference between Waney and Schoey, would you be happy with Schoey as Wigan coach?
Jack Murphy should have never been near that game. A major mistake by Waney. The biggest asking players to play a way they are not comfortable with under pressure. We had everything go for us in that game bar the last 30 seconds, before that ever call, every slice of luck went our way. Even when we improved in the 2nd half Leeds got the ball over the try line only to lose it, got in a try scoring position only to pass it to a Wigan player. Leeds could have won that game by 12 points or more.
The expectation at Wigan is success and winning. If you cannot hack as a coach or a full back somebody else comes in.