Millward's Influenece

[ChrisA]

Ok we have seen some decent performances recently, I think that after a shaky start that Millward is finally getting a gameplan together that suits the players we have at the club. When he first came in confidence was at an all time low and we are heading for a major fall whether we got a new coach in or not, but what mattered is what we did about it and how we went about climbing back up the ladder and getting some confidence back. I feel we have done that very well under Millward and was definatley a good move get him in to manage the club.

Millward knows we cant play an expansive attacking game like Saints or Leeds etc, so he has had to adapt the team and get them playing to what is a pretty simple gameplan, it is simple but it has been effective over the last month or so. We have cut out alot of the silly errors we were making every game, including penalties and dropped ball. We are now keeping the ball for good precetage of the time and our kicking game has been alot better at the end.

Also a good number of players who have been slagged off on this and other message boards and in the press have really knuckled down recently and shown what they can do. The players I feel have benefited most are Moran, Orr and Danny Sculthopre and Newton, most people know they have talent, but their performances havent been what they could have been.

Moran has been superb in my eyes over the last 5 or 6 games and has really lead the team well in attack, hes always dangerous and his non-stop probing always troubles teams, his short kicking game is possibly the best I've seen in recent years, you know that if hes close to the line he can put the ball exactly were he wants it, plus his defence is solid he always goes low and often pulls off some really big hits. Also with Orr's improvment recnetly he has had some off the workload taken off him to leave to do what he does best.

Orr has also really improved as I said above, over the last 4 or 5 games he has helped take the pressure off Moran, he has taken the ball forward well and made several good breaks and setup a good few tries and scored a few himself, his kicking game has been spot on, I feel he should be left to do the long range kicking and Moran should stick to the short range close to the line. His defence is always a bonus and you know nobody is getting past him.

Scully has really shown lately that he is alot fitter, and that he can do the hard work and make the hard yards, we all know he has the ball skills and make offloads like not many others can, now we are seeing the stuff props are ment to do which is make yards and do the hard graft down the middle.

Newton has been back to his best recently especially considering hes playing in alot of pain every game, when Millward first came in Newton seemed to be a little quiet and not his usual self, but now he lookss like he wants to play and he is back to creative best, lets hope his injury today isnt goinf to finish him for this year, and we can get him through our last 3 games.

Also praise must be given to Hargreaves who has been nothing short of brilliant over that last 6 games or so, he came into the team without anything to prove really like the above players, but hes come in and been immense whenever hes played, I feel Millward will have an impact on him and really given him the confidence to go out and do aswel as he has done.

Millward does seem to be having a very positive effect on most of our players, but the guys above are the ones who maybe have points to prove and they have done that in my book and done it in style.
The future looks alot brighter now, the players are playing with a little more confidence and we all know about the quality we have coming in next season and the quality we have returning from injuries aswel. Couple that with the good form of some of our current sqaud and next season should be a good one.

[mike binder]

ChrisA posted:
Ok we have seen some decent performances recently, I think that after a shaky start that Millward is finally getting a gameplan together that suits the players we have at the club. When he first came in confidence was at an all time low and we are heading for a major fall whether we got a new coach in or not, but what mattered is what we did about it and how we went about climbing back up the ladder and getting some confidence back. I feel we have done that very well under Millward and was definatley a good move get him in to manage the club.

Millward knows we cant play an expansive attacking game like Saints or Leeds etc, so he has had to adapt the team and get them playing to what is a pretty simple gameplan, it is simple but it has been effective over the last month or so. We have cut out alot of the silly errors we were making every game, including penalties and dropped ball. We are now keeping the ball for good precetage of the time and our kicking game has been alot better at the end.

Also a good number of players who have been slagged off on this and other message boards and in the press have really knuckled down recently and shown what they can do. The players I feel have benefited most are Moran, Orr and Danny Sculthopre and Newton, most people know they have talent, but their performances havent been what they could have been.

Moran has been superb in my eyes over the last 5 or 6 games and has really lead the team well in attack, hes always dangerous and his non-stop probing always troubles teams, his short kicking game is possibly the best I've seen in recent years, you know that if hes close to the line he can put the ball exactly were he wants it, plus his defence is solid he always goes low and often pulls off some really big hits. Also with Orr's improvment recnetly he has had some off the workload taken off him to leave to do what he does best.

Orr has also really improved as I said above, over the last 4 or 5 games he has helped take the pressure off Moran, he has taken the ball forward well and made several good breaks and setup a good few tries and scored a few himself, his kicking game has been spot on, I feel he should be left to do the long range kicking and Moran should stick to the short range close to the line. His defence is always a bonus and you know nobody is getting past him.

Scully has really shown lately that he is alot fitter, and that he can do the hard work and make the hard yards, we all know he has the ball skills and make offloads like not many others can, now we are seeing the stuff props are ment to do which is make yards and do the hard graft down the middle.

Newton has been back to his best recently especially considering hes playing in alot of pain every game, when Millward first came in Newton seemed to be a little quiet and not his usual self, but now he lookss like he wants to play and he is back to creative best, lets hope his injury today isnt goinf to finish him for this year, and we can get him through our last 3 games.

Also praise must be given to Hargreaves who has been nothing short of brilliant over that last 6 games or so, he came into the team without anything to prove really like the above players, but hes come in and been immense whenever hes played, I feel Millward will have an impact on him and really given him the confidence to go out and do aswel as he has done.

Millward does seem to be having a very positive effect on most of our players, but the guys above are the ones who maybe have points to prove and they have done that in my book and done it in style.
The future looks alot brighter now, the players are playing with a little more confidence and we all know about the quality we have coming in next season and the quality we have returning from injuries aswel. Couple that with the good form of some of our current sqaud and next season should be a good one.

got to adit chris that is 1 of the best post ive seen for a while ,the only thing you seem to of missed out his the way he his using the youngsters int the squad,giving them a go then taking them out,and leaving them bitting at the chomp because they like what they have felt and they want another go ,keeping them fresh and not burning them out,keep it up basil you allways had my support

[DaveO]

Good post ChrisA.

I would be disappointed if Orr was shown the door at the end of the season given his recent run of form. He seems No. 1 favourite amongst some for the chop in favour of...well I am not sure who realisticaly.

Moran has imporved as well but neither player is perfect and I think what Millward has done is he has got these two playing to their strengths.

Moran can't throw a long pass for toffee in my book. Whenever he tries it they go looping through the air and are easily intercepted. He is much better with short passes and short kicks along with his support play.

With Orr finding some form I think he will have had less pressure to try and do everything.

I think a few games without injury has helped Orr get some confidence as well.

I bet the pair of them can't wait for next season and a bigger pack to play behind.

We just need one more centre and we should be set.

Dave

[ChrisA]

DaveO posted:
Good post ChrisA.

I would be disappointed if Orr was shown the door at the end of the season given his recent run of form. He seems No. 1 favourite amongst some for the chop in favour of...well I am not sure who realisticaly.

Moran has imporved as well but neither player is perfect and I think what Millward has done is he has got these two playing to their strengths.

Moran can't throw a long pass for toffee in my book. Whenever he tries it they go looping through the air and are easily intercepted. He is much better with short passes and short kicks along with his support play.

With Orr finding some form I think he will have had less pressure to try and do everything.

I think a few games without injury has helped Orr get some confidence as well.

I bet the pair of them can't wait for next season and a bigger pack to play behind.

We just need one more centre and we should be set.

Dave

I agree about Moran Dave, he is superb with the shortball and his short kicking game, I loved his try yesterday and his reaction when he scored it, I always love when players celebrate with the crowd as well as the other players, it shows he wants to play for us and wants to do well for us the fans. As you say also once he gets behind a big athletic pack rolling forward he will have alot more space to work in, he will aslo have alot more options with the players coming in returning being that little wiser off the ball than what we have now.

[thegimble]

DaveO posted:
Good post ChrisA.

I would be disappointed if Orr was shown the door at the end of the season given his recent run of form. He seems No. 1 favourite amongst some for the chop in favour of...well I am not sure who realisticaly.

Moran has imporved as well but neither player is perfect and I think what Millward has done is he has got these two playing to their strengths.

Moran can't throw a long pass for toffee in my book. Whenever he tries it they go looping through the air and are easily intercepted. He is much better with short passes and short kicks along with his support play.

With Orr finding some form I think he will have had less pressure to try and do everything.

I think a few games without injury has helped Orr get some confidence as well.

I bet the pair of them can't wait for next season and a bigger pack to play behind.

We just need one more centre and we should be set.

Dave

Im glad people are realing Orr is a decent player. Hes been absolutly hammered on here at times.

Hopefully he will get better and come next season with a decent pack he will get back to his best. Agree with you on Moran.

But if we put pressure on teams they will get more space top play in.

[ChrisA]

thegimble posted:

DaveO posted:
Good post ChrisA.

I would be disappointed if Orr was shown the door at the end of the season given his recent run of form. He seems No. 1 favourite amongst some for the chop in favour of...well I am not sure who realisticaly.

Moran has imporved as well but neither player is perfect and I think what Millward has done is he has got these two playing to their strengths.

Moran can't throw a long pass for toffee in my book. Whenever he tries it they go looping through the air and are easily intercepted. He is much better with short passes and short kicks along with his support play.

With Orr finding some form I think he will have had less pressure to try and do everything.

I think a few games without injury has helped Orr get some confidence as well.

I bet the pair of them can't wait for next season and a bigger pack to play behind.

We just need one more centre and we should be set.

Dave

Im glad people are realing Orr is a decent player. Hes been absolutly hammered on here at times.

Hopefully he will get better and come next season with a decent pack he will get back to his best. Agree with you on Moran.

But if we put pressure on teams they will get more space top play in.

I have stuck up for Orr everytime he has has been slated on here, even at times when he didnt deserve it, I did it because I felt he was a much better player then what he was showing, he is now starting to prove that now he has had some regular games and our pack has started going forward alot better, he got the motm against Hull in the League Express and he was Millwards motm too. He is playing well and he is forming a good partnership with Moran, the two of them are really starting to prove trhe doubters wrong.
I have made several topics on here about what I feel were the reasons behind their lack of form, citing no go forward in the pack, no real support and injuries as the main reasons, all those are being put right and we are seeing two different players now in Orr and Moran, they are running the show and leading the side well around the park.

[cpwigan]

I think he is certainly playing to the strengths of the players rather than asking them to play beyond their / the teams capability. He's utilised skills like Morans short grubbers and seems to have given players greater self cionfidence so Orr is now running the ball as he did for Cas.

[wiganrldeanh]

I acnt stand it when people "diss" Orr as they only look at his attacking form. If you watched him alot then you would realise that the reason he cannopt attack like most stand offs do is because he is having to tackle a hell of alot. Therefore the forwards are not doing as good of a job in defence but you also have to realise that we have a small pack and that is one of the reasons for this. IMO is orr stays on he will be able to play more of an attacking game

[Fraggle]

wiganrldeanh posted:
I acnt stand it when people "diss" Orr as they only look at his attacking form. If you watched him alot then you would realise that the reason he cannopt attack like most stand offs do is because he is having to tackle a hell of alot.

The criticism of his attacking play has come from his lack of effectiveness at times when we've had the ball - he shouldn't be defending when we're the team going forward! He plays in a position that involves attack as well as defence, and there have been times when he's been doing one a lot more than the other.

The other criticism has come from the fact that many of us saw him play a lot better at Castleford than he has shown for much of the time at Wigan. It sounds like we're finally getting that kind of play from him, which I think we'll all be happy about. I think that accounts for a lot of the criticism of players, when we know they can do a lot better than their current performances are showing (Wild and Aspinwall both fall into this category as well IMO).

[Doveoverdave]

Doug Stand posted:
Hold on... now I know on a previous post I have said that I would cease with my witch hunt on Danny Orr... but that doesn't mean that I'm going to join Hayleys fan club as it seems a few of you have.
Danny Orr up until the Wakefield game has been at best poor.
We have had constant threads on this which I've no wish to open up again... the jist being he was kack because no settled half-back partner, wasn't fit, did too much tackling blah, blah, blah... I rebutted those claims in particlular the one of defence. No offence meant here Dean but I just thought it was inherently wrong on Danny Orr's part that he was defending so much and this was not a feather in his cap for me more lack of common sense.
Personally I think it just came down to Danny Orr was trying to hard.

So yes Danny Orr has improved and I feel it's no co-incidence that Millward is in charge and Danny Orr is playing better.

I for one am delighted and I hope he become what you all think he is only better... but I'm not getting carried away just yet.

I'm with you Doug.
He's had a couple of decent games and suddenly all is well with Orr? He's been crap for 2 years!!