Re: Maurice's worst mistake...

Discuss all things Wigan Warriors. Comments and opinions on all aspects of the club's performance are welcome.
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mario
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Re: Maurice's worst mistake...

Post by mario »

Coming back to Wigan,but he's made so many, how could you possibly pick just one.
Warrior Wills
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by Warrior Wills »

Mario- who would you have in his place then ???

I don't know, up till recently he has been a good chairman overall. Lets be honest the salary cap issue has not helped us / him.

Letting Briscoe go was a mistake, no doubt about that. However, nobody would of predicted the season he has just had at Hull, I think he has surprised a few people. Still wouldn't pick him before Rads!!

Robinson - I was still not convinced about him. Most over rated player in Wigan's squad last season for me. But in saying that still could come back and bite Chairman Mo on the bum. Personally I would of kept him ( just as cover) working understudy to a new signing.

Leting Johnson go - I have not got a problem with that either.

Look at some of the fantastic signings that Maurice has made :

Edwards
Gregory
Offiah
Ferguson
Kenny
Miles
and many, many more.

I wouldn't swap him for any other.

Look at what happened when he left, and let that B***ARD Jack Robinson take charge. Talk about leaving the rat in charge of the cheese larder!!!

No way would Chairman MO of let the Tesco deal go on. If left to MO we would be watching Rugby in a modernised Central Park were we belong.

Cut him some slack - it seems to me alot of people are making him a scapegoat!!!
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pacman
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by pacman »

Couldn't agree more!!

With all the youngsters that have come through the ranks at Wigan in the last few years, Chairman Mo has had two choices

1) Pay them the wages that they'd get elsewhere ie. 20K+
2) Get rid

He's getting slated whichever option he chooses. No player, playing in Wigans first team now is going to want to play week in week out without picking up 20K+ a week, thats a fact. So with that in mind at least 17 places in the 20/20 rule are taken up straight away, leaving 3 places. Well given Wigans usual injury list it would be quite fair to say that we will have 3 injured players all the time, so thats the 20 places gone.

So he gets rid of Luke Robinson, the savour of all Wigan, the player who would of single handedly brought the glory days back!! Or so messages on this board would have you believe.

People have been dismayed that Mo could have even thought of getting rid of such a player. The same people who have been crying all season about how much we have missed Adrian Lam, and how they want him to play when not fully fit etc. Now call me a cynic but isn't that double standards?!

How can people one minute cry that they want a crocked scrum half in the last year of his career to play instead of the child prodigy who they would have you believe is the greatest player of all time?

The fact is Luke Robinson isn't the player people are making him out to be, if he were then why didn't Bradford get him to replace Deacon, Saints to replace Long etc. Simply because he isn't as good, he's barely stayed in Super League with Salford, he couldn't even replace an injured player at his current club, but maybe we should have kept him just because he's fit!!! :tong:

Ps Mike - maybe consider changing the web address to www.Luke-Robinson.com, as there seems to be more Luke Robinson fans on here than Wigan fans these days
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mario
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by mario »

He could pay the young players the wages and not get second rate aussies in.
The job he did in the past, could'nt you have dragged anybody off the street then who would have done the job as well? He may of not been to blame for us leaving central park,but the money problems at the club were partly his fault.
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Mike
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by Mike »

pacman posted:
So he gets rid of Luke Robinson, the savour of all Wigan, the player who would of single handedly brought the glory days back!! Or so messages on this board would have you believe.

People have been dismayed that Mo could have even thought of getting rid of such a player. The same people who have been crying all season about how much we have missed Adrian Lam, and how they want him to play when not fully fit etc. Now call me a cynic but isn't that double standards?!

How can people one minute cry that they want a crocked scrum half in the last year of his career to play instead of the child prodigy who they would have you believe is the greatest player of all time?
It might have been an idea to keep Robinson seeing as we don't have any scrum-half for next season though.... :eh:
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Warrior Wills
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by Warrior Wills »

I see it as he is paying the youngsters Hock, Brown, Wild , Aspinwall, Tickle, Smith etc...........

Second rate Aussies like who ?

Dallas ? Who would you play instead of Brett then ?

Vaialiki ? ( is that how you spell it) I don't think he is on the wrong end of the age scale!!

Davico & Seu Seu (again is that how you spell it) With Smith and O Conner gone we need these kind of players coming into our squad. Without Farrell's brilliant displays at prop last year we would of been in deep trouble.

We have to have a blend of experienced players and young talented players. Without the above three signings who would you play?

I am confident that we will have a class scrum half signed by xmas, probably after the Tri nations.

As for dragging in anyone of the street to do his job, I'm afraid you are away with the fairies there mate!!

Lindsey is hugely responsible for the " Glory Days" as we seem to put it. Bringing in coachs like Graham Lowe and John Moonie coachs who you had probably never heard of before coming to Wigan. It isn't easy getting teams to gel even it is packed to the rafters with internationals. I think John Dorathy proved that.

He is Wigan through and through and he has my full support and respect.



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mario
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by mario »

He had money to throw around like no other club did. If you can't get the best coaches and players in that situation then it's a poor do. I t may be more than a rumour that he doubled Vialikis wages to come to Wigan. He may well turn out to be a great signing,but he has'nt set the world alight yet.He was a like a kid in a candy shop, he went to get Gasnier, could'nt get him so he bought anybody. T he only decent signing that i see he has made is Seu Seu, but we will find out next season. He kept Lam a season too long at the expense of Briscoe, he lets Robinson go and then signs Godwin and would'nt give Craig Smith another contract. Looks like he's agreat chairman.
Do you think the chairman should decide the players that go in and out instead of the coach?
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robjoenz
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by robjoenz »

There is one thing that we all to seem to agree on and that is that Maurice was a good chairman in the glory days, singing Edwards, Gregory, Offiah etc. etc.

You said it though Wills...
...up till recently he has been a good chairman overall.
I would interpret recently as the past couple of years. If a player doesn't play well for two years he's gone!

He can't seem to manage the salary cap. It's ok to say the salary cap has hindered his job but Hetherington and Caisley seem to manage it extremely well compared to us.

The way he treated Briscoe was terrible, offering him a bit part contract then changing his mind by which time he'd decided he'd not stay where he was not wanted.

The reason for letting Briscoe and Johnston go was to keep Adrian Lam for half a season. Now for me we ought to have thanked Lam for his years of duty but let him know it was time for him to retire because in this salary cap climate we couldn't afford to keep a place vacant. Lindsay, however, did not do this!

He blamed the 20/20 rule for not keeping Robinson which is clearly a lie in light of signing Godwin. A decent chairman would not lie through his teeth to the fans especially if he is 'Wigan through and through!'

How much say did Denis Betts/Mike Gregory have to do with our signing for next season? They are supposed to run the team are they not? Maurice jollied off to Aus, spent weeks trying to get Gasnier, when he finally decided he didn't want to come he waded in doubling Vaealiki's wages instead of negotiating a deal. Could this be why we have to let players go?!

Three top class props with international experience at the highest level have retired since last season. We have signed one top class prop (Seuseu) in replacement. We have also signed a 31 year old prop with no representative or national team experience. Now to me losing three props and signing two props gives a deficit of one, and considering we have had a prop crisis this season which is part to blame for finishing 4th yet we aren't preventing this from happening again.

However, this is me naivily assuming Maurice is telling the truth and that we have no room left under the salary cap thus we can't sign another prop.

Then of course there is Robinson, not quite the answer to all our prayers as you so sarcastically suggest Pacman but nevertheless a scrum half is better than no scrum half as Mike quite rightly points out.

Robinson may not have had the greatest of seasons but he was not given the same chance as Danny Orr, for example. Now was this to do with Maurice Lindsay making the signing...? I might be being cynical here but I think so! Robinson was one of our best players towards the end of the season and letting him go is IMO 'most definately' a big mistake.

Now I won't pretend to know who I'd prefer as chairman, I just know that I'd prefer someone that could do the job he's required to do without overlapping into the coachs role. I would also like a chairman that was honest and told the fans the truth and it amazes me that anyone is happy with a chairman that does not provide the above.
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MrsLam
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by MrsLam »

The reason for letting Briscoe and Johnston go was to keep Adrian Lam for half a season. Now for me we ought to have thanked Lam for his years of duty but let him know it was time for him to retire because in this salary cap climate we couldn't afford to keep a place vacant. Lindsay, however, did not do this!
This isn't what was being said at the time though. I remember when it was announced he was staying, and I don't remember anyone on here complaining. He'd had a great season and losing him at the time would have been a disaster. Let's be honest, he hasn't had an outstanding season..not many have but his experience alone has probably kept us in super league this year! (maybe over exaggerating a little there..)

What you've got to remember is like it or not we're just fans, I don't think any of us have any experience in the managing/directing/chairman side of a rugby league job and therefore we can only guess at what is going on at the JJB.

As members of this board we all know that rumours are flying around all the time and therefore we can't count anything thats being said about players wages being doubled as being true. Where's this information coming from and how do those people know? They don't, and we don't believe the rumours of us signing Long/Deacon/Moran bla bla so why do we choose to believe those about Mo?

I'm not sure what happened with the whole luke robinson situation, as far as I'm concerned he's gone now and he's not coming back I don't care about the reasons behind it, I just hope that it is the right decision in the end and it probably will be. Like any other chairman he's made mistakes but as has already been mentioned how can you say that his mistakes cancel out all he's done for us?

The ideas there, bringing in the youngsters, signing more experienced props, not sure about second rate we'll see when they get here, maybe they'll settle in purrfectly and we'll have a surprisingly good season next year.

He's let a lot more than Briscoe, Longy and Robinson go but the others are forgotten because they never came to anything...are we complimenting his ability to see that they were never Wigan standards? I bet you the amount of good decisions he's made outnumbers the amount of bad, a lot of us just have selective memories.
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GeoffN
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Re: Maurice's worst mistak...

Post by GeoffN »

A chairman should be judged on results, the same as a coach. Maurice has been building for the future for the last ten years, and what have we won in that period?
One Grand Final and one Challenge Cup.
In 10 years.
That's not good enough for a club like Wigan.

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