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cpwigan wrote:Tim is playing in the Queensland Cup Ellery. I think Tim's injury was the saving of our 2009 season. Surely you do not think Sam should have been kept in reserves for even longer?

2010 Pre season and Piggy is not here. He cannot blame Noble / Forshaw. Moreover when he arrived he in 2009 he struggled to train full out for 2009 IMO because his body is no longer up to it. You cannot abuse your body and expect to play at the top level IMO.

If he is great I will gladly hold my hands up and say so. I just hope MM gets an opportunity as a hooker and maybe Tommy Lu Lu.

IMO, the senior players let us down in 2009. The youngsters never did.

oldskool wrote:anyone else heard riddell wont be a wigan player next season?

GeoffN wrote:

highland convert wrote:Geoff. if you go back through the posts on virtually every page during the season it became habit to trash player. Riddell took the brunt of it. I am sorry but I cannot see any player lift his game in that atmosphere. I am sure on a couple of occasions Riddell was nominated as a candidate for MOM. Whether he ever got the final vote I don't know. Maybe he is here as a cheap replacemnet for MH. We don't know his wages. Mathers was wasted by the WW fans. Any supporter who barracks their own player as he goes for a high bomb has to question his/her loyalties. I still maintain there is a wide margin between the harrassment the players receive on here and constructive criticism. I don't need to be a happy clapper to come to that conclussion. I do look for a win but I don't take an infantile strop when we loose.
Jim

You see it as trashing, Jim, the rest of see it as valid criticisms of players that are not up to an adequate standard. We don't suddenly decide that certain players can do nothing right, we watch how they perform and rate them on their performances - the same applies equally to Fielden, Pryce, Roberts, any you care to name. Even Feca, despite being such a crowd favourite, is not exempt from criticism on his fitness, nor is Pat for his relatively poor goalkicking this season.

Similarly, most of us don't decide a player can do no wrong either; we praise the likes of Sam, Pat, George based on their performances. Apart from anything else, surely it would devalue that praise if it was given to all players indiscriminately, regardless of performance?

Your point about Mathers is wide of the mark, too - the eventual barracking only came about after repeat failures under high balls; earlier on it was more of a collective apprehensive holding of breath...again you misplace cause and effect. The howlers caused the barracking, not the other way around - and he still received generous applause on the increasingly rarer occasions he did catch one.

Pointing out that players have aspects of their game that need improving, or indeed that another player might be a better option in that position, should be taken by any professional player as a reason to improve, which is what we all hope for for the benefit of the team.

Lenagan & McGuire have, quite rightly, not named names when they pointed out that 2 or 3 players aren't as fit as they should be, but I think it's pretty clear to everyone who those players are.

"Mark Riddell has to do a lot of hard work to get himself fit, but when he's up and running, he's a very good player."