CHRIS ASHTON TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!

[turf]

Looks like Ashton's heading for a centre sppot then. But I do NOT want to see him on the wing again.

Mind you, he won't be up against big Lesley every week will he.

[GeoffN]

turf posted:
Looks like Ashton's heading for a centre sppot then. But I do NOT want to see him on the wing again.

He needs to be back at fullback, where he belongs. Bradford won't be dropping Platt, despite all his errors in defence, Saints won't be dropping Wellens despite his nightmares against the Broncos and Wakefield; we shouldn't be dropping Ashton from his best position for one slight error (which he made up for many times over, both in scoring his try and saving at least two more - the tackle on LV and the time he played the ball dead against 2 Bradford chasers).

[x-laura-lvz-calderwood-x]

GeoffN posted:

turf posted:
Looks like Ashton's heading for a centre sppot then. But I do NOT want to see him on the wing again.

He needs to be back at fullback, where he belongs. Bradford won't be dropping Platt, despite all his errors in defence, Saints won't be dropping Wellens despite his nightmares against the Broncos and Wakefield; we shouldn't be dropping Ashton from his best position for one slight error (which he made up for many times over, both in scoring his try and saving at least two more - the tackle on LV and the time he played the ball dead against 2 Bradford chasers).

If thats the case then why was Calders dropped?

[gillysmyhero]

ancientnloyal posted:
The reason may lie with Calderwood, I was shocked he was 'dropped', a very poor move for Noble.

But Brian had to do something and putting Ashton on the wing meant pace, instead of Withers. Ashton isnt really a winger as we all know and his positioning was off many a time... just the way it is? Ive seen the sin bin again and thought it was a tad harsh, Vainakolo may have made the most of it.

ancientnloyal posted:
The reason may lie with Calderwood, I was shocked he was 'dropped', a very poor move for Noble.

But Brian had to do something and putting Ashton on the wing meant pace, instead of Withers. Ashton isnt really a winger as we all know and his positioning was off many a time... just the way it is? Ive seen the sin bin again and thought it was a tad harsh, Vainakolo may have made the most of it.

Withers played well at fullback and IMO should keep his place for the HKR game.Ashton was poor on the wing but that is not his falt as he is not a winger.Ashton will learn a lot from withers on fullback play.Does anyone know why Calderwood was dropped & wether he travelled to Bradford for the game? because my brother saw him in wigan outside the old Bee's knee's at 9.00 pm.I dont understand people being concerned about Ahston's weight,what weight he has put on will have been done under the club's supervison to bulk him up without looseing any pace.Noble likes to have big players in every position,look at the Bradford team he created.

[TedMac]

Don't know how you can say Withers didn't have a good game. He made more breaks than anyone else, held up big Joe over the line and worked hard all night. Candidate for man of the match for me. I know he's old but he played better than Chris. I'm a big fan of Chris but he's off the boil a bit this season. While we're talking about full-backs, why on earth did we let Melling go?

[DaveO]

TedMac posted:
Don't know how you can say Withers didn't have a good game. He made more breaks than anyone else, held up big Joe over the line and worked hard all night. Candidate for man of the match for me. I know he's old but he played better than Chris. I'm a big fan of Chris but he's off the boil a bit this season.

I agree with GeoffN. Ashton needs to be played at full back despite how well Withers played there v the Bulls. It is a quite worrying that Nobby may see that game as justification for giving Withers the full back slot full time and so will repeat dropping Calders and having Ashton out of position.

Ashton has not been that bad and v Wire did a great ball 'n all tackle one on one for example.

While we're talking about full-backs, why on earth did we let Melling go?

So Nobby could sign Withers (and Millard). Isn't it obvious?

Dave

[turf]

The ball and all tackle - The one where Stevo said, "Great tackle there by Ashton, should have been penalised".

Get lost Stevo!!!! He just couldn't accept that a 19 year old kid was doing so well for our team.

[GeoffN]

x-laura-lvz-cal derwood-x posted:

GeoffN posted:
He needs to be back at fullback, where he belongs. Bradford won't be dropping Platt, despite all his errors in defence, Saints won't be dropping Wellens despite his nightmares against the Broncos and Wakefield; we shouldn't be dropping Ashton from his best position for one slight error (which he made up for many times over, both in scoring his try and saving at least two more - the tackle on LV and the time he played the ball dead against 2 Bradford chasers).

If thats the case then why was Calders dropped?

A tactical blunder, in my opinion.

"Noble explained that England winger Mark Calderwood's late omission was a tactical ploy to switch Chris Ashton to the wing and Odsal old boy Michael Withers to his more accustomed full-back role."

from http://www.wigantoday.net/ViewArticle.a ... ionID=5938

I hope he's learned from it. As DaveO has said elsewhere, it had echoes of Millward's strange selections. Fair enough, Withers did well at fullback, but he's been doing well at centre too. For the first time in years we've been able to have the same settled side 3 games running, then Noble throws away any advantage.