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ian.birchall wrote:It is quite refreshing to see someone actually sticking to a contract they have signed in any sport.
I also think that Edwards must have taken a tremendous drop in salary to leave the dark side and this can only reflect his love for and desire to make something of the Club he was instrumental in driving to the heights it was.
We had a tremendous side with talent from 1 to 13 but having watched that side for years the driving heart of the side wasn't Gregory, Bell, Hanley or any of the other stars it was this man.
I am old enough to remember the tremendous fanfare when we signed Edwards on his 17th birthday and every last bit of that was worth it.
For me the Club lost its soul when we signed Millward, it has just got it back.

Welcome back Shaun

i agree with 99% of what you said apart from Shaun being the main force behind wigan back in the day....... ive seen greg, hanley and bell win games single handedly umpteen times......greg could come off the bench and change the game straight away( when he was in dispute).......hanley won games with individual brilliance on countless occasions....and bell, well my favourite all time player and most fearless leader...... debatably the best captain we have had in my time....... i cant remember that bloke being outplayed and always kept big mal meninga quiet when he played for the kiwis...... i remember when we used to always lose against wire..... players like cullen used to bully our players...... we sign bell and cullen is none existent

In reply to shaunedwardsfanclub, what I meant was that SE has been praised for seeing out his role in Welsh RU but some have questioned (on Twitter & I think on here) as to whether SW would be motivated to carry on to the rest of the season with Wigan. I just felt there was possibly an element of double standards.It must be very difficult for SW at the moment.

Incidentally, I think that IL gave the game away at the press conference when he said that they been considering the situation for 6 months. That takes us back to February-SW gave notice in May......

robbobillinge wrote:In reply to shaunedwardsfanclub, what I meant was that SE has been praised for seeing out his role in Welsh RU but some have questioned (on Twitter & I think on here) as to whether SW would be motivated to carry on to the rest of the season with Wigan. I just felt there was possibly an element of double standards.It must be very difficult for SW at the moment.

Incidentally, I think that IL gave the game away at the press conference when he said that they been considering the situation for 6 months. That takes us back to February-SW gave notice in May......

Sorry Robbo I misunderstood. Fair comment, everybody should be behind SW for the rest of the season.

If you have Wigan TV I am sure you will already have watched the interview with Edwards.

I found it very interesting for what he had to say about the differences or as he sees it, lack of differences between RU and RL.

For the benefit of those who do not have it, I will try and paraphrase what was said.

The interviewer said something like "there are a lot of differences differences between the two codes..." at which point SE pulls him up and he disagrees. He goes on to say "...both codes are about the big men in the middle gaining ground, two tricky half backs playing off the back of quick ball and the athletic guys on the outside finishing off. It was like that 50 years ago, it's like that now and it will be like that in another 50 years."

Further into the interview he does concede one difference. Which is in RL there is no tight five, the 6 foot 6, 21 stone forwards because in RL you do not have to win the ball whereas in RU you do. In RL you have it for six tackles unless you drop it (!) whereas in RU you will never have the ball if you do not win it.

This really chimed with me because if you hang about with RU types as I did when my son played the sport as a junior they were forever telling me how RU was a more complex game particularly in the forwards. Edwards in that interview just deconstructed it into a sport that like RL is quite a simple thing conceptually. Sure there is a skill in scrummaging properly in RU but the fundamental aims are the same. He also responded to another question about what you can take into both sports with "tackle, catch the ball and don't lose it".

I suspect this sort of clear thinking and a kind of back to basics philosophy is why he was so successful at Wasps and with Wales. Instead of thinking of himself as an RU coach he is was just thinking of the objectives of the game which he sees as the same in both codes.

This gives me a lot of hope that when he takes over the Wigan team he coaches will have paid a lot of attention to the basics. Solid tackling, good ball handling skills and retention being the key focus.

Watch the Golden point on SKY with Lam and Edwards they say that they have the same thing in mind playing to a structure and also letting players do their own thing to a certain degree. On the same programme K R was interviewed he did say that they were looking at other players to make the squad better.

podcast here
https://stitcher.acast.com/livestitches ... UOTJQ3BLOQ

jaws1 wrote:Watch the Golden point on SKY with Lam and Edwards they say that they have the same thing in mind playing to a structure and also letting players do their own thing to a certain degree. On the same programme K R was interviewed he did say that they were looking at other players to make the squad better.

podcast here
https://stitcher.acast.com/livestitches ... UOTJQ3BLOQ

thanks for the link

endoman wrote:As a Wiganer who has been in exile for 28 years this is the best news I have heard in all that time. Excitement has returned, roll on 2020. I hope Shaun gets some involvement next season, but do feel Lam is in an impossible position.

Ditto. I thought it would never happen Delighted

They both handled themselves well when confronted by Carney.
Edwards is a slippery character and well media trained.
I can see good times ahead with this mon in charge providing IL backs him!

I like Edwards. I like his attitude (no-one likes us, we don't care). He always gives 100%.

My one query over him is his lack of RL coaching experience/CV.

It may not be a factor at all, he may pick things up tactically, add them to his other skills and away you go. I really, really hope this is the case.

What will help him is the year he has before he actually starts.

I don't Agee with the characterisation of Edwards being "slippery" all I see is a dedicated Rugby man of both codes mentored by Monie and Bennet. Regarding the Driving force of the team during the 80's Edwards himself gave that plaudit to Ellety in a Tv interview together with Ellety &Martin. Bell too was an heroic player and captain. Happy days