An Ape for a Centre!!!

[Mike]

This thread is ridiculous - and its no supprise that the early comments were posted by people that didn't go to the match.

W'liki had his best game for Wigan since his first couple of matches - pretty solid in defence, and a good attacking break plus a try.

O'Loughlin did nothing wrong - no high shots, overall a fine defenceive display and not bad making a few yards either.

I can't believe anyone can critise the any players effort today - it was second to none.

My only complaint is that Aathon could learn a bit more positioning in defence a bit quicker. But give him a couple more seaons, and we might have the best attacking full-back in the World who's also a good defender on our hands!

Well done the lads

[jokerss]

your right, ashton is a fantastic talent, but in time his positional will improve, but also he does need to just lift his head and look around for the right support play at times, what a talent though

[DaveO]

wgnwrs posted:
I'm sorry buti don't really know where people re coming from, OK everyone's entitled o their opinion but for me O'Loughlin was extremely solid and reliable. No high shots what so ever. Also right David Vaeliki has been utter c**p for the whole of his Wigan career, but you know what i thought he did fine tonight. If somebody else like Rads (i'm not criticizing Rads here i'm just saying about his popularity) made that try for Ashton, we would have been raving over it. It was great play IMO.

Exactly. Call a spade a spade! For me both Lockers and DV have been poor most of season (in different ways) so when they have been poor saying so is not sacrilege (in the case of Lockers) or bandwagon jumping (in the case of DV).

Credit to both players tonight and the rest of the team (understatement).

Dave

[robjoenz]

cpwigan posted:
Hey what game where some of you armchair critics watching. DV, I do not rate, but tonight he did well. Strewth he even made a break.

The Lockers criticism. You are simply clueless. He's ournitty gritty man. He takes up balls on dead settling plays, he makes tackle after tackle. He puts everything into every game and keeps going no matter what.

The pack really is terrific.

What you have to realise cpwigan and Flash is that O'Loughlin doesn't make a 50 yard break everytime he takes up the ball, he doesn't have super fast feet that move faster than the human eye, he doesn't flick out fancy back handed passes with each carry therefore he must be useless. As for all this rubbish about tackling... who cares about tackling, isn't rugby all about running forward and scoring tries?

[GeoffN]

The only one I'd criticise tonight was Hock. at least 3 silly penalties and that daft knock on near the end when we were setting up for a drop goal.

[cpwigan]

It's a good call Geoff. Nobby hauls him off too when he starts losing the plot. Awesome talent but he does do the odd silly thing.

Carrying on Rob and others vein. Imagine if Lockers had made those two high shots. He would have been castigated by umpteen posters. Tonight it was Hock and I think Geoff is the first to mention it.

I just think our pack is great. Hansen has impressed me the last 2 matches too. Bit worried about losing Logan. Scully aint the answer IMO. A little early tip for next season, Fletch will be our player of the season (NEXT SEASON) recovered from his illness, fully fit and adjusted to playing long stints unlike the NRL he will simply get better and better.

[Fielden's Angel]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Those players I have mentioned are the weakest link in our team. I personally think we have a tremondous side because we won against all odds and we won without the effort of the centres and o loughlin. Albeit it O loughlin has improved and stoppped high tackling. Hock did most of that last night, but to me he will always be a second rate rugby player and is definately not captain material. Valeleki just acted like he was confused and uncoordinated last night!
Mcavoy gave alot more effort last night and it looked like his heart was in the game!

[Matthew]

To put it in perspective:

Just about everyone that posts on here thought that we would lose to Leeds. Of our 5 remaining matches (as of yesterday) this was the hardest. After a very close and high pressure game - which earlier in the season would have seen us fold like a deck chair in a hurricane; we came back from 8 points down to steal victory. We won and ultimately that is all that matters - had we lost then criticism would have been valid; we didn't, enjoy it.

If the players 1 - 17 play like that in the next 4 matches; we'll survive.

DV has been a monumental disappointment and I hope that they get rid of him next year. However credit where it is due he made a good break from Hanson's offload and showed good awareness to pass to Ashton. He also caught a difficult pass from Orr to score.

I still prefer Rads in the side to him - however I would much rather have the DV that played last night (errors included) than the ghost that has been playing in the number 4 shirt for the last 3 seasons.

[mario]

medlocke posted:
As for Lockers i forgot he was on the pitch, for what i did see of him it makes me wonder why certain people defend him so much

When the teams came out,Sky put up some Stats. One of the Stats was O'loughlin Wigans top tackler with 587 tackles this season!
He was the top tackler again last night!
That's why he gets defended!

[- psycho -]

Fielden's Angel posted:
Your full of s**t Flash!! As always!!

im sorry, but i have to disagree. alot what comes out oif flash is very sensible and is very truthful fact. if you did go last night, you would have realised that every single man in that wigan team played their heart out and deserved the win. vaealiki, probably his best peroformance tongiht in a wigan shirt. we are still week in the centres, hopefully the signing of bailey will play a major part in our centre problem. a few times when eleds attacked out wide our centres were made to look like clowns at a circus. BUT, i will not criticise, as we won, and no matter what people say or how they look at it, vaealiki doesnt deserve the criticism you are delivering, even if he does look like an king kong! his visual awareness to set up ashton was fantastic and so was the break before it. he also did well to take dannys ball in the air and go over. people say he is selfish when he has the ball. a few times last night, he was feeding the wiman the ball and calderwood was away a few times on that wing, only to cut back on the inside.

i thoguht the pack were amazing tonight and one of my highlights was when bailey tried to match up with feka and he got steem rolled, that was sheer strength. fielden is a collosus and has really made a difference. fletcher ahs really come out of his shell recently and is showing his class. hock, a few silly mistakes but some good offloads and good yards made. o'loughlin is always a target for the critics, but i have to give him credit to. he tacled well, carried the ball well, made NO mistakes and was unlucky with his debatable try decision. i have a feeling it was reefed but i will need to rewatch the footage.

overall, a great display and if you don't appreciate this, then i must say, visit specsavers i think it's buy one get one free this summer