Re: Changes Needed
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:16 pm
Keeping O'Loughlin for another year would be madness. The kind of stupid sentimental (or just plain mental) decision that saw us sign Tony Clubb to a new 2-year deal. Sure, Lockers played well against Wakefield but he's also missed plenty of games, had ineffective performances this year and had an absolute stinker today. In what way is that good enough for one of our highest earners. In a salary cap sport a player is worth what they bring to the team and Lockers has brought less than Havard, Partington, Smithies and Shorrocks who have all covered the 13 role admirably when Lockers hasn't been here.
I'm a fan of Flower, but we need to move on. No point offering him a new deal just because he might not go to Toronto. He hasn't earned a new deal based on performance so why give him one. Tony Clubb, what's the point of him still being here? I hope he makes me eat my words when he returns, but if he does we'll have had to wait far too long to get those perfomances.
Hastings hasn't been outstanding but he's decent if we can get a dominant pack around him. If Jai Field is his replacement that's not good enough. He's a risk. A gamble. A step down based on what the two players have displayed so far in their careers. We need a quality, experienced halfback to compliment Smith or Field
We've got a good crop of young forwards. We need to keep hold of these but also make sure we bring in good players around them. What's the point in having Clubb or Flower backing up these young forwards when they are more often than not injury or banned. Ditch the old timers who aren't contributing enough and give the young players the support they deserve for their efforts.
Ultimately though, we need a coach who can identify where we are going wrong and fix things. The performance today wasn't a million miles away from our playoff semi-final defeat to Salford. Battered down the middle, lacking a plan B to get us out of trouble when our pack was struggling to make an impact.
Going with 1 recognised prop on the bench when it's tipping it down seems like a strange move. As does keeping our best kicker off the field for the majority of the game when it was clear that a strong kicking game was going to be worth a lot in such conditions. We've had some good wins this year, but we've had some shocking defeats too. We could have been clear at the top of the comp but instead have slipped up too often and we're now out of the cup. Of 3 major trophies on offer since Lam arrived we've won 0.
For a club with the wage bill of Wigan 1 trophy every 2 years should be a minimum. Maybe Lam has suffered somewhat by our marquee prop, who ideally should have fixed our lack of muscle down the middle, being a complete waste of time, but you'd still expect to see some improvements year on year but I'm not sure we're seeing that.
I'm a fan of Flower, but we need to move on. No point offering him a new deal just because he might not go to Toronto. He hasn't earned a new deal based on performance so why give him one. Tony Clubb, what's the point of him still being here? I hope he makes me eat my words when he returns, but if he does we'll have had to wait far too long to get those perfomances.
Hastings hasn't been outstanding but he's decent if we can get a dominant pack around him. If Jai Field is his replacement that's not good enough. He's a risk. A gamble. A step down based on what the two players have displayed so far in their careers. We need a quality, experienced halfback to compliment Smith or Field
We've got a good crop of young forwards. We need to keep hold of these but also make sure we bring in good players around them. What's the point in having Clubb or Flower backing up these young forwards when they are more often than not injury or banned. Ditch the old timers who aren't contributing enough and give the young players the support they deserve for their efforts.
Ultimately though, we need a coach who can identify where we are going wrong and fix things. The performance today wasn't a million miles away from our playoff semi-final defeat to Salford. Battered down the middle, lacking a plan B to get us out of trouble when our pack was struggling to make an impact.
Going with 1 recognised prop on the bench when it's tipping it down seems like a strange move. As does keeping our best kicker off the field for the majority of the game when it was clear that a strong kicking game was going to be worth a lot in such conditions. We've had some good wins this year, but we've had some shocking defeats too. We could have been clear at the top of the comp but instead have slipped up too often and we're now out of the cup. Of 3 major trophies on offer since Lam arrived we've won 0.
For a club with the wage bill of Wigan 1 trophy every 2 years should be a minimum. Maybe Lam has suffered somewhat by our marquee prop, who ideally should have fixed our lack of muscle down the middle, being a complete waste of time, but you'd still expect to see some improvements year on year but I'm not sure we're seeing that.