Are fans to blame?

[cpwigan]

Superb away record, fans are superb at away matches. A game at the DW is a highlight for 99.9% of opposition players. The pitch, the crowd, Wigan. Imagine, the opp coach'

"Dominate early, kill the crowd and let the crowd turn on their own and watch the confidence drain from the Wigan players. Easy picking"

RL, any physical contact sport is an incredible mental test. I watched the Hull KR team get off the coach before the 85 CC SEMI Final, full of seasoned internationals absolutely crapping themselves and THEY GOT BEAT. I watched a Widnes team of 10 foot tall players beat an injury hit Wigan in a Championship decider with an Offiah hattrick.

You have heroes. Tough iron men that vomit their guts before taking that field. The stress / mental anguish these players go through is staggering.

Confidence and belief are 2 key ingredients in sport.

Most (not all) RL players are at the low end of the intelligence spectrum. These sportsmen are very tempremental and difficult to manage. Perhaps that is why the younger players are, the better/easier they are to control? Often RL is a 2nd or 3rd choice pick of talented sportsmen.

Modern British Sport particularly physical contact ones are littered by failure, capitulation, unexplainable failure to meet expectations. Maybe we have become a nation of losers? A recent report highlighted the lack of desire and determination in young people. Personally, I think that is too simple.

I do know if you shatter the confidence and self belief of anybody then they are far less likely to work/achieve their optimum. So, Wigan fans maybe the ludicrous OTT villification at the DW and beyond is actually part of the reason for our dreadful home form because there is clearly a home / away difference.

Very hard to turn the other cheek, to scream for a team playing poorly, getting beat but hey what does the booing / OTT attacks achieve? The exact opposite of what you want. Still moaning and complaining is a love of we Brits and something we find much too easy.

The potential bigger picture is even worse. Maybe, just maybe we are a bunch of losers and a 3rd rate sporting nation that will never amount to anything?

[the winky one]

CP What have you had for breakfast today?, fascinating reading but a bit too intense for most people.The first bit about the crowd sounds really interesting,but i'm not sure about the rest, you lost me at that point.

[exile in Tiger country]

You imply CP that the fans are against the team from the start.
This is not true.
The fans turn up week in, week out, with an expectation that the team will do them proud.
When the team seem to care little for the shirt thay wear, the club that they represent the fans, quite rightly, express their dissatisfaction.
If the players were being booed on, I could undersatand your point, but they aren't.
So to blame the fans IMO is wrong.

[cpwigan]

You imply CP that the fans are against the team from the start.
This is not true.
The fans turn up week in, week out, with an expectation that the team will do them proud.
When the team seem to care little for the shirt thay wear, the club that they represent the fans, quite rightly, express their dissatisfaction.
If the players were being booed on, I could undersatand your point, but they aren't.
So to blame the fans IMO is wrong.

Sub conciously Exile, the fans may be approaching home games differently / negatively. The away form is far far better than the home form. This trend contradicts known logic.

We know fans approach away games far more positively, far more supportive than they do home games. Even, the positive reception is different but rest assured the reaction to a simple early mistake, the mumbling / groaning, the funeral atmosphere becomes apparent very quickly at home matches. Compare it to our darkest hour and one of the Wigan fans greatest - the escape from relegation.

Expectations at Wigan have always been huge, 2010 has rekindled those expectations. Several years prior to 2010, fans were far easier to please.

Confidence is paramount in sport. Dureau could not get a first grade game in the NRL, regularly criticised. Chase exactly the same. Turn on players and they become shambolic wrecks. Maybe, the inability of players to catch high kicks exemplifies that.

I am not better. Nobody villified Mathers more than me, Tim Smith too. Pryce? who hasn't riddiculed him.

Imagine Finch. New country, new club, returning from serious injury, far too early because the club says they have no choice. Is he going to play better or worse the next game? How is Goulding going to approach the next game?

Nobody exemplifies the importance of confidence more than Amos Roberts.

Given, fans have blamed everybody/anything then perhaps we need to take a damn good look at ourselves and possibly we are part of the problem rather than a solution?

[TonyH]

You imply CP that the fans are against the team from the start.
This is not true.
The fans turn up week in, week out, with an expectation that the team will do them proud.
When the team seem to care little for the shirt thay wear, the club that they represent the fans, quite rightly, express their dissatisfaction.
If the players were being booed on, I could undersatand your point, but they aren't.
So to blame the fans IMO is wrong.

Incorrect, what CP implies is that opposition coaches know that our home ground is a fortress and If they can silence that fortress early, players confidence decreases as well as the fans' and the feeling around the place changes. Don't think I've ever heard our fans chanting and singing when we are losing. Leeds Rhinos' fans are the most vocal in the league and will always chant for their side no matter if they are winning or losing.

It's interesting that players confidence when they walk out onto the field has been brought up because yet again 3 weeks ago i posted about the look on Roberts face as he walked out and law and behold he had a shocker, people never seem to listen to me but then a few weeks after I say something that very same issue will arise, cheers.

[josie andrews]

cp, you appear to be getting quite mellow in your old age

[the winky one]

Tony and Cp how do you rectify the confidence issue for each game since everyone has a different personality, ie some are agressive and focussed while others who may be returning from injury etc are quite cautious for a while..how do you get everyone to be confident all at the same time? it's such a difficult area.

[cpwigan]

cp, you appear to be getting quite mellow in your old age

I know, frightening, I may have lost my RL mojo

Anybody remember Rocket Ronnie Braithwaite. An incredibly average alliance stalwart winger who was prone to making errors. Wigan gave him his 15 minutes of fame in the late 80's ? picking him for the first team. He played superbly. The Wigan fans literally sucked and dragged Rocket through tackles, through games. It is IMO one of the most memorable monents of my time as a Wigan fan, the fantastic reception/encouragement the Rocket got.

[TonyH]

Tony and Cp how do you rectify the confidence issue for each game since everyone has a different personality, ie some are agressive and focussed while others who may be returning from injury etc are quite cautious for a while..how do you get everyone to be confident all at the same time? it's such a difficult area.

Very good question Winky and my Answer would be to have a change around of the side, one of my philosophies as a coach is a happy team is a busy team, lads who enjoy playing with certain other team mates will play better IMO. I noticed that Sam and Tommy get on pretty well and seem to compliment each other so I would probably put them back into the halves. Also players respond to pressure, throw Logan Tomkins or Joe Mellor in off the bench and see how they go, they will play well and try their absolute best to keep their place, just look at young Clark at Cas, he is immense.

[bootsnall]

Confidence comes from within. It comes from knowing your opposition and knowing that you've trained hard, to play easy. It comes from knowing your team mates and having that trust in them and the pre match/half time team talk. If that first tackle was a big one. If that first touch was a defence splitting one. If that break resulted in a try. If that kick went over. These are all issues that give a team confidence. For goodness sake folks, are we suggesting that we cheer that dropped ball, shout for a tackle to be missed and half heartedly celebrate a try? No! The fans are humans too and they're not collectively wrong. We played Catalans on Friday. Who? We are champions! Who are they? No, the fans do as the fans see and it's certainly not their fault for not politely tolerating an embarassment at the hands of Catalans. The fans pay the money. The players receive the money. Fans opinion counts, won't go away and is here to stay, in every sport! We have been lacking in a few key positions recently and we need some continuity in those positions, even if the player isn't a regular in the position. A good team will always rally round, like they had to when LIMA was sin binned v Leeds. We're lacking organisation and the 'team spirit' is not there like last year. You only need to look at Warrington or Hudds for that team spirit.