Predictions For Next Year

[dany2k]

Over recent years I have always been optimistic as to how far Wigan will go, particularly this year, as based on last summers end-of-season run I really thought we would win the Grand Final for Super League 9.

However, my optimism is dwindling... fast.

Eight players are leaving/have left the club. Connolly, Pongia, Hodgson, Robinson, Cassidy, O'Connor, C.Smith, Lam.

Unbelievably, we have been led to believe that only three will come in: Vaealiki, Seu-Seu, Davico

I know we have renewed contracts for many players this season, but SURELY they havent raised enough to mean we have to lay off five extra players to break even.

We are playing a Stand-Off as our first chance scrum-half next season in the shape of Danny Orr. We are apparantly going to have a young 18-year old as Orr's understudy, who has never played a Super League game.

We only raise our game against the bigger teams.

We are un-interested in performing against so-called inferior clubs. (Widnes, Castleford, London)

We are un-interested in performing away from home. (defeats at Huddersfield, Warrington, Widnes, London, Bradford x2, Leeds)

When Farrell doesn't perform, we have no hope.

Conversely, teams like Leeds and Hull perform to the maximum week in, week out, piling on the points against the teams at the lower end of the table. Bradford also look too strong for us to overthrow. The important thing with these three teams, is the fact that they rarely go down to shock results. Leeds have only "dropped" a point against London this season (defeats at Saints and Wigan not being classed as actual shocks). Hull's lone shock results have been at Castleford and Widnes I believe. Meanwhile, The Warriors, like I said before have had "shock" results at Widnes, Warrington, Huddersfield and London.

At the beginning of the season, Saints looked absolutely unbeatable, and with Sean Long to return next season I think they will get closer to that form once again (not that I'm a fan of Sean Long)

My prediction for next Year: 5th Place.

Believe me, I dont like writing this message. My dad is a lifelong Wigan fan, and every season it is me (fan for ten or so years) that tells him how well we will be doing the next year.

I dont think so anymore.

[MrsLam]

I'm in almost the same position, my mum and dad have both been life long fans although my dad doesn't come with us anymore for reasons I won't go into, and I'm always the one saying "Next year we'll do it.../Next time"

This year we had a bad start (as usual) but then we came strong when Orr and Lammy clicked and I really thought we were aiming for at least second place but somewhere somehow everything went wrong for both us and saints. Last Saturday just completely summed up the last month and I'm not normally the kind of person that says "That was sh**" after any match, I'll normally find some positive in the way certain players performed or the effort that went in.

I'm not sure what exactly has gone on at our club in the last month but something is seriously affecting our play and it needs to be sorted fast. Last year there was a lot of hope at Wigan in our youngsters and how much they would do for us in the near future but at the moment we're just looking like a weak team.

Eurgh, all that negativity there!
We'll beat the Rhinos this week you know, not having two weeks of embarassing scores.

[dancer]

Considering we are not allowed to negotiate with any home based players yet, I say wait and find out to see if we make bids for Sean Long or Ben Jeffries which have both been mentioned in the press over the weekend and today. You can start making you doom and gloom judgments when the club has said our recruitment is over, because it clearly isnt is it. Ben Jeffries would be a good signing, he is a class player who is still young, he would be a signing for the future and for the present. As for the players we are letting go you can agree with most.

[ian.birchall]

Dancer, I might agree with half but not most, why o why are Hodgson (last seasons top scorer), Robinson (the Future), ToC and Smith going with Davico coming in, sloppy planning by Maurice. I think Seu Seu will be a good signing perhaps Vaelaeki but as everyone says we have shown this season we cannot start/finish with 4 props so I do not understand why we are proposing to stat with only 3 next year, unless of course we are going to sign Lynch from Cas when they go down. :doz:

[robjoenz]

Dancer, according to a Dennis Betts radio interview recruitment is over. We will operate with our stand-off at scrum-half and he will have an academy understudy. The fact these things have been mentioned in the press prior to the date when clubs are allowed to negotiate implies that it's just rumours made up to get us all talking. Surely if Wigan were interested in signing someone they wouldn't leak it because it would hamper our chances of signing them (Gasnier!).

If, however, we do sign another scrum half then we might as well face up to the fact that Lindsay is an even bigger t****r than we first knew. He has blamed the 20/20 for having to let Luke go. To me this basically says; 'I have crap management skills.' Out of the 20 players he could pay £20kpa to he neglects a scrum-half, one of the most important positions.

I don't think Wigan will get any better whilst he is still picking and choosing who we sign and worse still offering them rediculous wages to avoid negotiations. All he wants to do is buy big money NRL players to 'try' and get immediate success at the expense of future stars because he is too impatient to wait a few seasons.

Over the last two years the future was looking really bright but now with his 'management' of the squad we are looking less and less likely to win trophies. Sod the salary cap to give an even playing field just get each club to take it in turns to have Lindsay as their chairman.

[the grinch]

the longer wigan go without succsess the less chance of signing any top players!the more home grown talent we GIVE AWAY the less chance of any succsess! can anyone see a pattern emerging here! maurice has been very good to wigan in the past and im hopefull he will have something up his sleeve for the future. the current squad isnt going to win anything. we played no one in this years challenge cup right up to the final and then we fell to bits. and so the league is the same we can beat anyone but not when it matters! maybe we did need a clearout but we also need quality players to replace the ones who leave.

[robjoenz]

Lindsay has been good in the past when he could just throw money at players to join the team that won everything. His stategyless strategy just doesn't work anymore and he is causing Wigan's downfall.

Look at the players in against players out, there is a massive inbalance, if Mo is telling the truth that we are really at the hilt on the salary cap then we are definately paying some players too much. I have no complaints about what Farrell and Radlinski get because they do fantastic jobs, but look at how he signed Vaealiki, doubling his wages to secure the deal, they've said we're 'sorting him out for life.' However, to pay these wages they must bin Robinson and leave us with no scrum-half.

[dancer]

robjoenz posted:


I don't think Wigan will get any better whilst he is still picking and choosing who we sign and worse still offering them rediculous wages to avoid negotiations. All he wants to do is buy big money NRL players to 'try' and get immediate success at the expense of future stars because he is too impatient to wait a few seasons.

Disagree, so your saying he doesnt support our young players enough

Ok then what are:- Tickle, Hock, O'loughlin, Wild, Mark Smith, Aspinwall, Brown, Sculthorpe, Colbon, Melling, Beswick, Hansen, Hargreaves, Prescott ?

They are all young players who are contracted to Wigan and will be involved next season, thats 15 young players who will all be involved with the 1st team, and as I see it he is bringing in 3 overseas players with quality and experience to compliment them.

Saying that he isnt promoting the young talent is a load of rubbish, is 15 young British players not promoting youth enough ?

O.K the players he let go

Briscoe - was unfair to keep him as he wouldnt be first choice and movin Rads is just stupid.

Hodgson - Works hard, unlucky with injuries, but at the end of the day just wasnt good enough.

Robinson - decision seems a little crazy at the moment, lets wait and see if we sign anyone before we condemn it to much.

[Fraggle]

dancer posted:
Disagree, so your saying he doesnt support our young players enough

Ok then what are:- Tickle, Hock, O'loughlin, Wild, Mark Smith, Aspinwall, Brown, Sculthorpe, Colbon, Melling, Beswick, Hansen, Hargreaves, Prescott ?

They are all young players who are contracted to Wigan and will be involved next season, thats 15 young players who will all be involved with the 1st team, and as I see it he is bringing in 3 overseas players with quality and experience to compliment them.

Saying that he isnt promoting the young talent is a load of rubbish, is 15 young British players not promoting youth enough ?

And this is almost certainly the reason why we can't bring in any more players, we've filled the squad up with kids and presumably offered them contracts that fit into the 20/20 rule meaning there are no more 20k contracts available for players from other clubs. We've released/are releasing 8 players, but we've promoted quite a few kids to the first team so in counting players in and out you need also to consider Beswick, Hansen, Hargreaves, Prescott, Colbon. Melling etc etc. It seems to me that someone has made the decision that Robinson, for example, isn't likely to be as good in the long term as someone coming through the ranks, and to retain that player they've made the decision to release Luke now so that a good salary can be offered to this future star. At the end of the day, £20k isn't much of a salary, and if we're having to offer that money to some future star coming through then someone else has to go to compensate for that.

[robjoenz]

dancer posted:
Disagree, so your saying he doesnt support our young players enough

Ok then what are:- Tickle, Hock, O'loughlin, Wild, Mark Smith, Aspinwall, Brown, Sculthorpe, Colbon, Melling, Beswick, Hansen, Hargreaves, Prescott ?

They are all young players who are contracted to Wigan and will be involved next season, thats 15 young players who will all be involved with the 1st team, and as I see it he is bringing in 3 overseas players with quality and experience to compliment them.

Saying that he isnt promoting the young talent is a load of rubbish, is 15 young British players not promoting youth enough ?

O.K the players he let go

Briscoe - was unfair to keep him as he wouldnt be first choice and movin Rads is just stupid.

Hodgson - Works hard, unlucky with injuries, but at the end of the day just wasnt good enough.

Robinson - decision seems a little crazy at the moment, lets wait and see if we sign anyone before we condemn it to much.

Saying we don't promote youth would be rubbish... who said it... cos it wasn't me lol. I just think it was rediculous to get rid of Briscoe and Robinson who I think will go on to play for GB; and Hodgson who was part of the GB set-up last season.

We've also only offered players like Hock a one year deal and other players two year deals, does this give them a certain future? The likes of Bradford are repaying their top young players with five year deals (e.g. Deacon). Lindsay on the other hand gives out small contracts so he can get rid when he wants someone overly expensive.

Briscoe would have slotted well into full-back and Radders could have played centre, or with Kris' injury spell each season Briscoe would have provided better cover than Connolly.

Robinson showed great talent last season when he was able to interchange with Lam before he got injured. Then we rushed him in too fast and he didn't develop properly. Maybe he wasn't ready for the no.7 jersey just yet but we should have signed another scrum-half for him to understudy.

Hodgson, although some argue he wasn't good enough for first choice centre, he was decent cover for injuries when he gets his confidence back (same with Paul Johnson). I think he'll play really well for Salford, a new start and all.

There are eight players leaving the squad this season and only three (overpaid I'd bet) players coming into the squad. This means we have five less squad players next season, we've had a centres crisis that led to a bad spell earlier on in the season, now we're in a forward crisis which has taken it's toll several times. This is why we are only fifth! We have not reinforced either of these positions over the last few years have we? In fact we've got less props than last season and less centres than two years ago.

Better salary management would have meant we could have kept Robinson, Briscoe (if Radders would have moved to centre), Johnson and Hodgson and allowed us to bring in several new props, a centre and a scrum-half and we'd have had a squad the size of most SL sides. It seems to be that because of Lindsays rediculous antics dishing out contracts we have no spare money to reinforce the squad.