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Does anyone have any ideas. He was clearly not fit out of touch and a liability at times.... Surely we have enough fit players in the squad. For me Bateman should have played at 13.

Time to go gracefully now.

1st name on the team sheet when fit?
Surprised by his off-the-baller.
TBF, we should've been 2/3 tries up early doors. A lot of wasted chances.
And a decent kicker would be nice. Why is MS kicking trying to kick penalties? Was like watching union?

sc74 wrote:1st name on the team sheet when fit?
Surprised by his off-the-baller.
TBF, we should've been 2/3 tries up early doors. A lot of wasted chances.
And a decent kicker would be nice. Why is MS kicking trying to kick penalties? Was like watching union?

Blame the clubs for getting rid of reserve grade for this situation

Wigan simply attempting to get him match fit after so long out by putting him straight into the first team (and in a tricky cup tie) showed the folly in that.

Never going to play for Whitehaven either so we are stuck with playing him until he finds his form and fitness

Wigan Watcher wrote:Does anyone have any ideas. He was clearly not fit out of touch and a liability at times.... Surely we have enough fit players in the squad. For me Bateman should have played at 13.

Time to go gracefully now.

Because Wane chose to play him! Why is Joel not playing in the pack, where he is more effective? The odd injury shouldn't mean that you disrupt your team by selecting players out of position.

shaunedwardsfan​club​ wrote:

Wigan Watcher wrote:Does anyone have any ideas. He was clearly not fit out of touch and a liability at times.... Surely we have enough fit players in the squad. For me Bateman should have played at 13.

Time to go gracefully now.

Because Wane chose to play him! Why is Joel not playing in the pack, where he is more effective? The odd injury shouldn't mean that you disrupt your team by selecting players out of position.

Name a Centre of experience in the squad to fill the position when Gelling and Thornley are out injured and Sarginson is not playing as well as last season. The only other player with experience, Charnley is on the Wing due to injury of Manfredi.

And with O'Loughlin clearly not up to fitness and form, Bateman is needed like you say, at Loose Forward.

Taking Tomkins away from Centre will further weaken the team in the three quarters while we have sufficient back row forwards and it is only one positional change in the circumstances stated.

I think to be fair,the management should have looked at how weak we were in the centres,pre season.its a massive position.although I don't rate Joel ,as a centre,I don't think we have a choice but to put him and sarge there(for now).its pretty worrying atm.Thornley must be due back some time soon.
I keep preaching that we should release Bowen and buy a centre on loan.sarge can then go to fullback.it will also give us more options to swap and change.I still think loaning out Hughes was a big mistake( considering our lack of centres)

Whelley Warrior wrote:

shaunedwardsfan​club​ wrote:

Wigan Watcher wrote:Does anyone have any ideas. He was clearly not fit out of touch and a liability at times.... Surely we have enough fit players in the squad. For me Bateman should have played at 13.

Time to go gracefully now.

Because Wane chose to play him! Why is Joel not playing in the pack, where he is more effective? The odd injury shouldn't mean that you disrupt your team by selecting players out of position.

Name a Centre of experience in the squad to fill the position when Gelling and Thornley are out injured and Sarginson is not playing as well as last season. The only other player with experience, Charnley is on the Wing due to injury of Manfredi.

And with O'Loughlin clearly not up to fitness and form, Bateman is needed like you say, at Loose Forward.

Taking Tomkins away from Centre will further weaken the team in the three quarters while we have sufficient back row forwards and it is only one positional change in the circumstances stated.

Taking Tomkins out of the pack severely weakens our game. We are Wigan, we should have ample cover for the three quarters, given that we have not means that our recruitment has been inadequate. We knew at the start of the season that Thornley would miss a large proportion of the games and yet we made no provision if more injuries occurred - that in my book is bad planning. It looks as though we may be trying to rectify that position by signing a utility player for next term!

By the way, we have thrown plenty of inexperienced players into the team over the last two or three years so why not one more? We need to stick with a winning team and replace like for like when injuries occur.

Finally, it did us no good on Friday night so I don't understand your point.

Tomkins from the pack has been a disaster! Whether people like him or not but Gelling has been missed but so too has Joe the 2nd rower. To me Lockers is the best Wigan player I have seen of his generation but you bring him back when it is sensible. Perhaps Bateman has suffered too and likewise the team.

Nevertheless, if Lockers is fit you have to have him in the 17. To be honest whilst he gets back to fitness he offers a great interchange hooker / reserve half back / loose forward.

He's probably Gym fit but not match fit.
The only way to get him match fit is to play him.

Imagine the outcry if we'd lost to HKR and Lockers had been in the Whitehaven squad to get him match fit.

If we tlkin about players why could we not have fitted matty bowen in. Play Bowen FB play Hampshire Wing/Centre or alternate with Williams then Tomkins in pack etc
WIGAN TILL I DIE...
ps Still in hospital (everyone a saint or wire hossie in Walton)