Lockers as Head Coach? Yeah it’s a nice thought but he’s been coaching less than 6months. It’s far, far too early to even think of him in that role. Look at Keiron Cunningham for what being given the top job too soon achieves. He needs to learn his trade (again) and develop as a coach before he even gets anywhere near the top job. Lockers as the next Head Coach is an absolute no.

Absolutely, we promote former players to head coach far too often in this country. I dealt he would need 2 or 3 years in the back room staff, 2 or 3 as an assistant then either a couple in charge of a championship club or a further couple as an assistant to a different head coach. He should be 10 years away from that position IMO.

I'm not saying Lockers should be the next Head Coach, but he's definitely been coaching longer than 6 months. He was involved with the academy for more than one season whilst he was still playing, not sure how many.

Being involved is different to coaching though, he may well have taken a few sessions, been to a few games but ultimately it’s not really coaching. As Trainman said he should be years away from that role. He’s a Wigan legend, a no doubt hall of famer in Wigan and RL. I would hate him to be in the top job too soon and his reputation tarnished like Cunningham’s was at Saints. As a mate of mine said “Cunningham was a quality player but a f*****g sh**e coach”. Patience is key here.

Oh for sure I agree with that and instantly thought of Cunningham when it was mentioned, just wanted to point out he has been doing stuff. I'm not keen on anyone coaching players they played alongside, I can't remember that ever going well.

I would love it if Lockers managed to get an assistant coaching job in Australia for a few years and then came back as our head coach.

He's obviously knocked back a lot of NRL offers though as a player so I guess it's unlikely.

Why should he go to Australia to cut his teeth?

I don’t understand.

I doubt he’d go the NRL to be honest. IIRC he rejected it because of family reasons, if wrong I’m sure I’ll get corrected. I can’t see that having changed since which is a shame but it isn’t at the same time. He’d learn a great deal and [ipossibly [/i develop more as a coach but on the flip side we get to keep him in British RL

I don’t think it’s just Lockers we have plans for coaching wise.

The club think very highly of our current captain in relation to coaching, it’s likely this was significant to his appointment as captain, he’s a lot smarter than I think people give him credit for.

Isa no issues, "worthy of on field penalty"

*Heads to the VT and Wakefield boards to see the meltdown

Even during his post match moan Chester said Johnstone's injury had nothing to do with the defeat.
Nothing to see!

Because hardly any British coaches actually make the promotion to head coach and look competent these days?

It's no secret that the best coaches in our game are Australian, and most 'new' ideas flow from the game over there so why not go and learn off a current NRL head coach?

Not sure about that. It's about 50/50 between British and non-British coaches in terms of SL trophies won. Wane, McDermott, Radford, Watson and Powell are all fairly successful recent British coaches, then to a lesser extent Ward and Ford have done well with limited resources too. Tony Smith is Australian but all his coaching experience has been over here and he has continued to be successful for 20 years.

Noble also.

was Noble not assistant to Elliott though so maybe helped him

I was talking about recent coaches but yes he was another successful British coach

Using that theory Wane assisted McGuire?

yes and your exactly right

Shaun Wane took a while to get to head coach though. Probably not far off 50 before his first season?

McDermott is definitely the anomaly as he was a very young coach and quickly successful. Although he does credit a lot of his learning to Tony Smith when they were at Huddersfield together.

The other ones I wouldn't want at Wigan.

Do you think Lockers will be ready for the top job after a few years being an assistant with us? He's known nothing but Wigan RL since a teenager. I'd much rather he go and explore other club's setups, styles, and bring those learnings back to us in a few years than live the "legend becomes coach" dream.

Maybe he doesn't even want to be a head coach anyway and all this is redundant

No, I don't think it ever goes well having someone coaching people he played alongside. I was just pointing out that we have plenty recent good British coaches.

Lam's kids are all grown up back in Australia and he's in a relationship with a Wigan girl and has been for some time.

Then if he settled here and prepared to commit and Lenagan and Rads think he’s worth it, I hope we tie him down on a longer deal when the time comes. Until they do that he still feels like a caretaker in my mind.

I’m sure I read somewhere on here one poster possibly Rogues that IL has an informal policy/understanding on awarding contracts on trophies won.

I think it was more an understanding between coach and chairman.

1 trophy is 1 year, 2 is 2 year, 3 is 3 years.

I'm definitely an IL "happy clapper", but IF that's true then it flies in the face of almost every successful sports team in recent memory. The majority of successful sides seem to be the ones that have stable managers and sides. The all time great sides go even further and have the same manager for 10+ years.

I genuinely don't know how having a manager on rolling one year deal is a benefit? I'm sure I read in the week that the Storm are having issues with their 2022 recruitment as there's uncertainty over who will manage them next year. If a team like the storm, with their players, are having issues then surely it must be a hindrance to us too?