In and Out

[MrDave]

Since the season is pretty much over now; I been thinking who should go, who needs to stay and who needs to come to Wigan.

OUT
Amos Roberts
It might only be his first season but an experienced NRL winger shouldn't be struggling to catch a ball. Most of the time he doesn't seem interested in playing for Wigan, perhaps if Noble dropped him and played Ainscough for a while Roberts might realise he has to try abit harder. Personally I would just get rid and go with Ainscough, like I mentioned elsewhere same weakness as Roberts but much better in attack.

Stuart Fielden
How long have we been waiting for "the return of the real Stuart Fielden" abit too long in my opinion. He might do a lot of tackling but is partially useless in attack. Wigan could spend his wages on someone cheaper and better, there are plenty of better props than Fielden in the Super League.

Iafeta Paleaaesina
I'm starting to think his 10 'blast spells' were much better than his 20 minutes of doing nothing that we have now. Warrington highlighted his inability to defend and he had only some come on the pitch. Much like Fielden offers very little in attack at the moment but doesn't do any defending either.

Thomas Leulaui
Is not a decent scrum half and defiantly not a decent hooker. A good opportunist try scorer but so is Sam Tomkins and Sam offers a much better all-round game than Tommy. Sam needs to be paired with a half back who is more of a play-maker.

Brian Noble
His time must be up now. Time to bring in a proper coach who will get the best out of the talented young players in the team.

TO STAY
Paul Prescott
Probably Wigan's best prop at the moment and at the age of 23 he has plenty of rugby ahead of him. Is excellent in attack and puts in some good tackles when defending, unlikely Fielden he doesn't go 'looking' for tackles but he makes them when he needs to.

Sam Tomkins
Goes without saying...the lad is very talented.

Joel Tomkins
Not the finished article but he has an excellent attacking game and is not bad in defence either. With a good coach helping him he would be by far the best second row in super league.

Mark Flanagan
Does as much defending as O'Loughlin but is still effective in attack so perhaps O'Loughlins days are numbers if the team is picked on form.

Lee Massop
Should be developed into a prop and replace Stuart Fielden. Already better than Fielden just needs to have a long spell in the first team.

Mike McIlorum
Before he got injured he was best hooker in the Wigan team. Really improved a lot this season and the team seemed to play a lot better with him on the pitch. If Mike hadn't got injured I think Wigan's attacking play would be a lot better than it has been.

IN
Danny Brough/Ben Jeffries
The sort of half back who would work well with Sam Tomkins. Both are proven in the super league so no need to waste a year waiting for them to adjust. Myler would have been an option was well if he had not signed for Warrington.

Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook
An excellent young prop forward who will probably be moving to a 'big' club eventually so Wigan should get in their first. Lenagans connections with Quins should help perhaps a trade for Fielden. A front row with Precott, Scarsbrook, O'Carroll and Massop is definatly one build for the future.

Admittedly I don't watch enough rugby to no other players who wigan should sign especially not from the NRL. Anyone got any suggestions for an enforcer prop that Lenegan has been unable to find.

[GeoffN]

The problem with all those "outs", of course, is the fact that they're all under contract, some for 3 or more years yet. Unless we can persuade them to walk, or find another club to take them off our hands, we're stuck with them.

I'm all for dropping some of them to the reserves, though, to see if that motivates them.

[medlocke]

Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook will never come north as long as he a hole in his arse, he is too proud of what they are achieving at the Quins being southerner and all that, you can tell when he is interviewed that he wants to play in London for the majority of his career

As for Feka, he had a crap game, it wasn't his fault that their coach was better than ours and made it his game plan to constantley play towards the big fella, Noble is the man at fault for never using the big guy as he should be used. If feka was released and signed on with another team and proseeded to lose weight and became better than he is, those same experts that wanted him gone would be screaming blue murder.

I doubt any of this crap would be getting brought up if it had just been a weekly SL game, talk about over reaction, God, if we had got to Wembley we would have only got shown up by Saints yet again, i'd rather have gone out of the cup today than to have been put to the sword by the plastic scousers yet again.

[MrDave]

I doubt any of this crap would be getting brought up if it had just been a weekly SL game, talk about over reaction

Its just an end of season sort of topic, with four average looking games to come and some what inevitable end to play-offs on the horizon I think its time to look to whether the squad need improving for next season.

The problem with all those "outs", of course, is the fact that they're all under contract, some for 3 or more years yet. Unless we can persuade them to walk, or find another club to take them off our hands, we're stuck with them.

True, Roberts is the least likely to move on having only signed last season. If Wigan wanted to they could offload Feka and Fielden to other club as I would image a few 'lower' club might be willing to take the gamble. Likewise Leuluai might fit into a different club better than he does at Wigan.

[GeoffN]

I doubt any of this crap would be getting brought up if it had just been a weekly SL game, talk about over reaction

Its just an end of season sort of topic, with four average looking games to come and some what inevitable end to play-offs on the horizon I think its time to look to whether the squad need improving for next season.

The problem with all those "outs", of course, is the fact that they're all under contract, some for 3 or more years yet. Unless we can persuade them to walk, or find another club to take them off our hands, we're stuck with them.

True, Roberts is the least likely to move on having only signed last season. If Wigan wanted to they could offload Feka and Fielden to other club as I would image a few 'lower' club might be willing to take the gamble. Likewise Leuluai might fit into a different club better than he does at Wigan.

I doubt they could afford them, and Tommy's just signed a new 3-year deal...

[Shevi 4 life]

I disagree with letting brian noble out, we are a very young side, and we cant expect him too turn over silverware, straight away.

We have also accomplished a huge amount with him, the 3 seasons he's been in charge for wigan (full seasons) we have had 2 final eliminators, and 2 challenge cup semi's (with the possiblity of another final eliminator) we are very much on the brink.

Regarding tommy and sam tomkins i do agree with you entirely, Imo when mark riddel was on the field we were looking like a well organised side, that is why they bought him.

Regarding who you would bring in too replace tommy, i disagree with, because imo they dont have the qualities we want/ that trent barrett used too have.

I have been in australia for the past 3 weeks, and have watched nearly every NRL game and spoken too a few fans, and some players, it has also been in the papers about super league clubs signing NRL players.

I can safely tell you each team in the NRL and possibly super league, has one player, either in the second row/ prop forward that consistently makes yards, and whom i would regarding as being an "enforcer", in the papers it was announced that wigan were looking at Carl Webb from North Queensland (i could not tell you if the media were messing you around or not) but unfortunately, as wakefield have just signed there big front row player, Shane Tronc, they would not release Carl Webb from his contract.

Paul Prescott
Probably Wigan's best prop at the moment and at the age of 23 he has plenty of rugby ahead of him. Is excellent in attack and puts in some good tackles when defending, unlikely Fielden he doesn't go 'looking' for tackles but he makes them when he needs to.

Not at all, Andy Coley is better than paul prescott, Imo prescott did us more damage then he did too warrington, He dropped the ball on numerous occasions on our own twenty. Imo i think you could say he cost us the game (if the number of times he dropped the ball was actually picked up by gansen.)

[medlocke]

Mr Dave, i wasn't having a go at you personaly with the over reacting crack, it was a dig at the whole fanbase in general.

IMO rather than try and get rid of Tommy who is forging a nice little partnership with Sam, i would rather see McIllorum leave and for us to try and acquire Scotty Moore, then we have got some real class when Piggy leaves the field

[MrDave]

IMO rather than try and get rid of Tommy who is forging a nice little partnership with Sam, i would rather see McIllorum leave and for us to try and acquire Scotty Moore, then we have got some real class when Piggy leaves the field

It will take a lot to convince me that Tomkins and Leuluai is the most effective partnership. They seems to play the same sort of game just on opposite side of the pitch rather than one complimenting the other style of play. I'll give them time but if Tommy has a 3 year contract is it really worth waiting 3 years to find out it doesn't work?

As for McIlorum he has been hit and miss in his Wigan career, he was doing well until he got injured. The hooking situation at Wigan is a difficult one. Up until recently I would have said that McIlorum and Leulaui were the best at hooker but with Riddell improving it's hard to say who is the best out of the three. Personally I think it would be abit short sighted by Wigan to get rid of a good young hooker in Mike McIlorum perhaps dual registration for two years or so until Riddell decides to leave or retire.

[GeoffN]

Mr Dave, i wasn't having a go at you personaly with the over reacting crack, it was a dig at the whole fanbase in general.

IMO rather than try and get rid of Tommy who is forging a nice little partnership with Sam, i would rather see McIllorum leave and for us to try and acquire Scotty Moore, then we have got some real class when Piggy leaves the field

So in order to improve the team we have to get rid of the best and most consistent hooker we've had this season? McIlorum has been excellent for us and really kicked on from last season, so it's incredibly harsh to say that we should let him go, especially when he was adding new aspects to his game all the time.
Scott Moore is undoubtedly a class player, but McIlorum is not the one we should be looking to get rid of. In fact, McIlorum is probably the player we miss the most right now.

Very much so, I said as much a few weeks ago. In particular, we miss his marker tackling, which is where both Saints and Wire have exposed us in the last 2 games. Riddell is improving, but he's still too slow and runs out of steam too quickly.

[jackoh]

I agree with Fielden going , Feka i think should go to as he doesn`t have enough match time .
Lulu I must agree is not a scrum half, however he wears his heart on his shirt which makes up for his shortcomings , he is an hooker .
However has Lenegan has just given tommy an extension on his contract and the 2 props are here for another year we are stuck with all 3.