Wigan squad for Leeds

[Wintergreen]

"Don't panic, Captain Mainwaring!"

Abysmal performance, but Peet's comments afterwards were spot on. Along the lines of "Saints may lose the odd game, bit they never lose for lack of intensity/energy/commitment." It's a lesson we need to learn, and we will learn it.

Which is why a 42 point thrashing isn’t just a “bad day at the office” I keep seeing all over various forums. If Peet recognises that and has said it as diplomatically as he can then fair do’s.

Let's see what happens.

[Wigan_forever1985]

There are a couple of key differences between us and Saints and maybe saints and the rest of the league which is why they are dominating IMO

the main one is recruitment - im not on about signing the best players here im on about they are proper about their recruitment they always ensure that they have players to match the positions and are good in their positions for the way saints play

They also dont stand on sentiment a key feature of them moving forward after KFC - lussick has been brought in at least 1-2 seasons in advance of Roby leaving to ensure its seemless. Farges was sent packing to make way for dodd likewise coote for welsby. They dont stockpile a position and the club comes first - like if Amor had been a wigan player we would of probably given him 2 years and sent bachelor away.

Wigan have automatic picks which is suicide for any top club, you look at the top clubs and i mean dominant clubs players are never given automatic starts - City of today or Utd of old in football if someone could do it better doesnt matter who you are or what youve done youre out, its sport not look after my mates

Wigan have too many passengers nd whats worse a lot of them are in the automatic picks and its fine against the sub standard league for 90% of time but in big crunch matches it will catch you out

Good points raised, they are better at finding players at championship level (Warmsley, Bachelor), finding players in Wigan (Makinson, Welsby), overseas signings (Paasi, Nqama, Sironen) and succession planning (Dodd, Coote).

Course they are... Foster, bringing matty Smith back (I liked Smith for us.but he was at the back end of his career when he resigned for saints), swift, Richardson. My point being they have had just asany average to poor players flattering to deceive we just don't have a vested interested in theirs compared to pulling ours apart.

And they didn't succession plan. If they had the cap space to keep coote he would still be there.

Blood and sand yes they are currently the form team of superleague and have been for a few years but so where we at one point.

Call me a happy clapper or whatever but even with all these insurmountable issues with players we apperently have, we are still the only team with silverware currently this year.

Your point about smith though is exactly my point - smith was brought back during the jobs for boys that kfc was running - that is currently going on at Wigan

Sam Powell will get picked every single match he isn’t injured - doesnt matter how he plays doesnt matter what he does he will not ever be dropped - same for Tommy same for isa

And yeha people wil pass that off as having a go at powell but the point is

It’s not whether or not powell should be picked it’s that no matter what he will be picked - that’s why wigan will not topple saints anytime soon

Until wigan put performance over face we will always been in and around. But never dominant

[nathan_rugby]

Good points raised, they are better at finding players at championship level (Warmsley, Bachelor), finding players in Wigan (Makinson, Welsby), overseas signings (Paasi, Nqama, Sironen) and succession planning (Dodd, Coote).

Course they are... Foster, bringing matty Smith back (I liked Smith for us.but he was at the back end of his career when he resigned for saints), swift, Richardson. My point being they have had just asany average to poor players flattering to deceive we just don't have a vested interested in theirs compared to pulling ours apart.

And they didn't succession plan. If they had the cap space to keep coote he would still be there.

Blood and sand yes they are currently the form team of superleague and have been for a few years but so where we at one point.

Call me a happy clapper or whatever but even with all these insurmountable issues with players we apperently have, we are still the only team with silverware currently this year.

Your point about smith though is exactly my point - smith was brought back during the jobs for boys that kfc was running - that is currently going on at Wigan

Sam Powell will get picked every single match he isn’t injured - doesnt matter how he plays doesnt matter what he does he will not ever be dropped - same for Tommy same for isa

And yeha people wil pass that off as having a go at powell but the point is

It’s not whether or not powell should be picked it’s that no matter what he will be picked - that’s why wigan will not topple saints anytime soon

Until wigan put performance over face we will always been in and around. But never dominant

Agree on Powell but O Neil hardly set the world alight so the issue is more availability of a better / different style hooker.

Until his injuries this year, Tommy was playing very well so I see no issue with Peet picking him. The issue will be if he is retained for next year when he’s had 3 big injuries in quick succession now.

Partly agree on Isa. Every team needs those players that go unnoticed and do the hard stuff but he offers nothing. In Peets fairness I am sure there was a large period he didn’t play this year and wasn’t injured. May be wrong though and he was injured and it didn’t get disclosed.

Overall though I think we did need to start being more ruthless in our decision making on players. Thinking back to the Clubb extension, Isa getting 2 years etc

[fozzieskem]

Every team.needs an isa type player one who just does stuff and goes pretty much unnoticed trouble is this year he's been poor and that he's being noticed being poor is a worry,most players of his type go about their business and get on with the job it was a mistake to give him another deal.

O'Neil is still young but reading posters on here proclaiming him the second coming has me wondering if I'm watching the same player,he's awfully similar to the reviled Powell yet most on here are sure he's the one...I hope he is but he's similar,no very si.ar to Powells style of play I dont know why wigan go with this but year on year they do all I see in O'Neil is a continuous product from the hooker line that's been done before.

[nathan_rugby]

Every team.needs an isa type player one who just does stuff and goes pretty much unnoticed trouble is this year he's been poor and that he's being noticed being poor is a worry,most players of his type go about their business and get on with the job it was a mistake to give him another deal.

O'Neil is still young but reading posters on here proclaiming him the second coming has me wondering if I'm watching the same player,he's awfully similar to the reviled Powell yet most on here are sure he's the one...I hope he is but he's similar,no very si.ar to Powells style of play I dont know why wigan go with this but year on year they do all I see in O'Neil is a continuous product from the hooker line that's been done before.

Agree with all that.

Isa racked up a lot of meters on Thursday, he should have just gone second row and we had KPP at centre where he has more space and can cause more damage.

[Barney841]

Every team.needs an isa type player one who just does stuff and goes pretty much unnoticed trouble is this year he's been poor and that he's being noticed being poor is a worry,most players of his type go about their business and get on with the job it was a mistake to give him another deal.

O'Neil is still young but reading posters on here proclaiming him the second coming has me wondering if I'm watching the same player,he's awfully similar to the reviled Powell yet most on here are sure he's the one...I hope he is but he's similar,no very si.ar to Powells style of play I dont know why wigan go with this but year on year they do all I see in O'Neil is a continuous product from the hooker line that's been done before.

Exactly why players like Nicholson and McDonnell leave.
This work hard gets on my nerves.
I said yesterday you should work hard no matter who you are, if not you should be dropped or get rid of them.
And to say O’Neil is like Powell is rubbish.
Powell isn’t quick with the ball, he barely runs to get the defence on the back foot or to help the forwards but he is good in defence.
O’Neil likes to run has got pretty good instincted when to do so as well, his defence is ok but could be better

[doc]

Sadly the full stats for the Leeds team are not on the SL website, but the 5 players they have listed made as many clean breaks and tackle busts as the entire Wigan 17. They were very effective in closing down French/Field and seemed to have attacked Marshall's side of the pitch more than French's.

Ellis had a much better game than I initially thought being the only player other than Farrell and Marshall to crack the 100m mark. Cooper's stats were also better than I expected.

The French penalty for the tip tackle was ridiculous.

The only bright spot for me were the two superb cover tackles from Field and Marshall. Field covered the ground that quick he had to slow down to time the tackle.

[nathan_rugby]

Fields one vs one tackling is immense. I don’t recall ever seeing him miss one.

[morley pie eater]

The idea that Isa, Powell or whoever else is an "automatic pick" when fit, is often stated as a fact. It isn't.

As has been said, Isa wasn't selected despite being fit for a good chunk of this season. He's had a run at centre since Thornley got injured. Tommy gets included, "should've retired" - but didn't he steady the ship in the final, resulting in a cup win?

I'm not going to go over old ground (yet again) re Powell. My point is that the automatic choice trope is just someone's opinion. Repeating it over and over again doesn't make it true.

The reasoning that follows is a house built on sand - a "straw man" argument. You makes an unproven claim as though it's fact, and then you argue against it.

[DaveO]

The idea that Isa, Powell or whoever else is an "automatic pick" when fit, is often stated as a fact. It isn't.

Isa isn’t but Powell is. When was the last time he didn’t play other than when injured or suspended? I can’t recall one such occasion. Has he ever been dropped? Not to my knowledge which might not be a problem if he was any good but he’s not. The fact he’s always in the team is a big problem. Isa was good value when he was signed but he’s past it now. Powell is just crap. Worst no 9 in the league bar none is not an exaggeration.