Re: Smith to Saints

[OAMJSONA]

he is slower than a snail on sand

[Southern Softy]

I feel very sad that a lot of supporters will now have to find some other player to unleash their bile on just when they had really got their teeth into Matty Smith.
I will be very sorry if he goes and feel that he has rather been driven out by a combination of an inadequate coach and a minority of supporters who simply transferred their annoyance at the club not being successful on to his shoulders.
He is an honest, hard-working professional player with flashes of real inspiration. I will miss him and the team will.
As for his replacement, much though I liked Tommy when he was with us, I do remember that he often played half or all of the matches towards the end of his spell at hooker. I'm not sure I see him as a No 6 or 7 these days. Suspect Sammy is being lined up to move to the halves.

[shaunedwardsfanclub]

I feel very sad that a lot of supporters will now have to find some other player to unleash their bile on just when they had really got their teeth into Matty Smith.
I will be very sorry if he goes and feel that he has rather been driven out by a combination of an inadequate coach and a minority of supporters who simply transferred their annoyance at the club not being successful on to his shoulders.
He is an honest, hard-working professional player with flashes of real inspiration. I will miss him and the team will.
As for his replacement, much though I liked Tommy when he was with us, I do remember that he often played half or all of the matches towards the end of his spell at hooker. I'm not sure I see him as a No 6 or 7 these days. Suspect Sammy is being lined up to move to the halves.

He has been poor hence the stick he has got. He was a stop gap and Wigan made the mistake of extending his contract. Fans have not/will not drive him out of Wigan the directors will make what they think is the best decision for the club. As for Matty, he has a young family and a four year contract at Saints is the best he can hope for. You have to be ruthless in sport if you want to be a champion and that is exactly what the chairman wants. I think that we will promote from within rather than recruiting but Tommy will be no1.

[pieaterinLeigh]

To be honest while I wish Matty the best of luck, relatively speaking as I never want the Stains to do well, I'm not sad to see him leave.

I've not been a vociferous critic of his, but at the same time I've found his performances at scrum half very uninspiring. His lack of pace means he rarely breaks the line, his direction of our patterns of play are pretty predictable meaning we end up playing a lot of one up rugby and he generally only does well behind a dominant pack. This is why for me William's performances alongside him in our halves have stood out all the more, he's been the unpredictable, exciting antithesis to Smith's mundanity.

I can't put all of that down to coaching or SW's tactics, Matty is a senior player so should be making more of an impact on the park than he does. He will also be on a good slice of our salary cap so moving him on is a good move in my opinion but even with Tommy back I'd love to see us bringing in an experienced half back even as a relatively short term 1 or 2 season fix as we have in the past with Kenny, Finch and Barrett.

My ideal player, who Williams could learn a lot from I and would be really exciting would be Benji Marshall who doesn't look like he will stay at St George after the season end. Obviously he's not been as outstanding the last couple of years and that type of move would be salary cap permitting, but given Tommy looks to be combining a coaching role as well as being able to spell at hooker an additional play maker like Benji would make us a lot more competitive in a league that's becoming more and more size and defence oriented.

[cpwigan]

I am not a huge Matty Smith fan BUT in his time at Wigan he has won international honours, helped win competitions for Wigan AND always been selected by Wane with hardly any absences due to injury. So IMO, he cannot be damned as mediocre or very poor.

Do I like watching him play. Not really but then who is better in SL? Gale at Cas probably but no chance of signing him! Wire overseas halves, no chance of signing those and probably not Ratchford either.

I honestly believe Thurston could wear Cherry and White and find it incredibly hard under Wane. The playing system of Wane is AWFUL and no one has tried to follow it more than Smith. Wane not Smith is to blame!

The only way we get attacking joy is when players have some special talent that bypasses Wane. Williams ability to take on the line is a product of Williams not Wane. A Bateman step is a product of Bateman not Wane. Unless a player has some extra special running ability to overcome the Wane philosophy, he will look ordinary in attack. Our hooker look great in defence but no hooker has ever looked great in attack under Wane. Likewise his prinicipal half back has never looked good in attack either.

Any team beating Wigan has to earn it and they are gassed afterwards BUT so are the Wigan players on a regular basis despite the very best conditioning. Blame Wane!

[cpwigan]

Unless something happens. I presume Tommy will play half alongside Williams with Sharrock as their reserve or even Sam Powell if Wane cannot get him game time.

How Wigan play with or without Wane WILL BE EXACTLY THE SAME until the coach is replaced.

[Wiganer Ted]

Smith improved massively under Long's coaching at Salford hence why we signed him. Long will be his coach again.

As for our halves and pivots, the attrition rate is horrible! Smith is our only ever present and he is leaving.
MM has missed most of the season, Sam T has missed 12 or so games. Lockers and Williams around the same.

We need a lot of cover for our halves and pivots and this needs to be a priority. The injury toll is dreadful.

Williams and Lauluai I'd imagine will be 6 & 7, MM 9 Sam T at 1 with Lockers 13.
Tierney and Hampshire can cover fb and wing plus Hampshire is cover for the havles.
Powell can cover 6,7 & 9.
Shorrocks can cover the halves.
Back rowers can cover 13.

If all our signings for 2017 are complete then Hampshire must return and be senior in selection to Shorrocks.

Smith has had Williams playing 6 alongside him as well as Powell, Lockers, Gregson & Shorrocks.
Some of those names playing at 6 shows how stretched our cover for the halves and pivots has been this year.
Hampshire MUST return and hopefully no one else in those positions will be leaving.

[pieaterinLeigh]

I see what you mean CP, he has won international honours but mainly by a combination of being the best of a bad bunch of English scrum halves, being a non disruptive character and playing for a high profile club. Had he played for a club that had lower prestige and performed how he has for us would he have been selected internationally...?

I'm not saying he's poor, just that I'd expect and like to see a better player as our senior half back. Yes he has helped us win trophies, but at the same time we have had a number of occasions where we have been beaten in trophy winning positions. If we'd had a less predictable scrum half, those defeats would have been less likely in my opinion.

I think it's too simplistic to blame it all on Wane, if a "Bateman step" is a product of Bateman, then similarly Matty's lack of skill or choice to stay with the predictable should be a product of Matty and therefore he should take the blame for this. A senior half back sets the tone for the team's attacking play, and the best halves have the ability to catch the opposing team unaware by doing the unexpected. What I'm simply saying is that Smith doesn't do that.

At the same time does the coach have to take some responsibility, yes of course he should! That's why I'd like to see a more attacking "flair" player replacing Matty. While the coach sets the overall strategy for the team, an 80 minute game doesn't follow a set pattern and when defensive formations break down that's when the most creative players like Sam, Ratchford, Sandow, Thurston etc can make the biggest difference.

I see Matty leaving as an opportunity for us as a club to address this as an area where we are lacking at the moment

[Wigan Watcher]

I sense people thinking " O no he is not that bad, maybe we should have kept him he has done a lot of good" No no no, he has not been good for Wigan and we will only be better with someone else with quality to take his place. Just look how we have performed this season people, see how many tries he has scored, how many vital passes he has made, how many creative plays that were down to his individual brilliance and how many goals he has misses that would have won us games... No no no this is the best news in a very long time believe me.. I said at the beginning of the season how our plays would pan out. Guess what!

[LooseHead]

MS has had to be 'it' for half a season when Williams was injured. When the opposition know you can only play to whichever side of the ruck MS was at, it becomes bloody hard work. Matty never complained, played for the people around him and has played with knocks this year that in years gone past and a squad with more options would have seen him take a week or two off. He also had no desire whatsoever to go to Saints and wanted to fulfil his contract at Wigan but has, in effect, been shown the door.

Im not a huge MS fan but I think it's clear that he is a good pro, a better player than this season has allowed him to be and the sort of player we'll miss next year because we'll struggle to keep Tommy on the pitch for 3 games in a row.