1) the club might have already appointed, just not electing to reveal it to the world just yet.
2) If they've not, I personally want to see them take the time to find the right man. Not rush just for the sake of making an appointment.

I hope that things are in hand because we can all see our rivals making good quality signings and we have still barely covered our outgoing players from earlier in the season. We are likely to see a rush for the door if the rumours have any veracity and need a plan. It is one thing to inherit a team but imagine having to take over a group made up of the leftovers and desperation buys whilst waiting to be blamed by the fans.

Obviously we all share the same concerns but it's probably worth remembering at this point that Maguire won the title with just 1 signing and Holbrook has done a similar job over at Saints this year. Signings aren't the be all and end all when a new coach comes in.

But did they find a full squad or one where a large number of senior and star players had just left and not been replaced? I cannot imagine that we have enough depth to cover the predicted exodus. Hopefully the lack of signings is a sign that some of the rumours are just paper talk. Did Maguire not bring three Aussies with him or am I getting confused again?

Madge only brought in Deacon in his first season and Mark Bitcon.

The Melbourne players joined in his second season.

I get some contracts will have been upgraded to take a portion of the salaries made available by player exits but when you look at the ins and out from the squad that ended last season to what we pretty much know will start next year, there surely has to be more in the pipeline-

Outs
Tierney
Gregson
C Farrell
Shelford
Gelling
McIlorum
FPN
J Tomkins
S Tomkins
Sutton
Bateman (rumoured)
Higginson, Forsyth, Bretherton, M Davies (rumoured)

Ins
Sarginson
Hamlin
Hankinson
Greenwood
Hardaker

The youngsters let go won’t count for much in cap terms but then nor will Hamlin or Hankinson coming in. We didn’t need to replace everyone on that list from players who left before this season and we won’t need to replace everyone who leaves this year due to players already here stepping up but even with a new coach hopefully freshening the place up, we still need at least two more (and probably three) IMO.

Judge it come 2019 I suppose but fingers crossed it’s in hand.

I'd tend to agree. The squad does seem a little short but, to be honest, I thought that post Noble. The Saints fans were bagging most of their squad last year too. It's a tough one to gauge until we see what a new coach can do with the likes of Williams, Hardakre and Hankinson, not to mention some of the younger lads coming through such as Kibula, Woods and Paisley. I'd hope for a couple more signings for sure but I'd hope we go for quality in areas the new coach feels most need rather than 'signings for signings sake'.

When you look at that, eight outs and four ins up to now this year, we've done o.k. and improved the league position by five places on the same time last year.

Five high earning forwards in that list so far replaced by one forward who may be on a fair wedge. The youngsters are still a couple of years off, or injured, so we realistically should be looking at one top class forward at the very least. If you add the likelyhood that SOL will only do limited minutes we should be looking at a couple. Also that list is the least worst case scenario so we could have a couple of other gaps to fill.

We certainly have gone ok but we could do better in 2019 with some wise investment. The squad will naturally be boosted by the experience the likes of Woods and Paisley have picked up and the returns of players like Manfredi, Burgess and Jack Wells (still to hear much from the club as to where he’s at). I’d be willing to shed a couple more players such as Escare and Tautai if it meant we could get some extra quality in positions we need for 2019.

+1

So who in the current Wigan setup is going to be the judge of how well the coaches do/did on this little test? Whoever it is must be seen as at least the equal of all the candidates on the technical side of the game otherwise how are they qualified to judge? It seems we already have a top coach lurking in our midst, the person judging this

It'll be Radlinski and Lenagan who make the decision.

Who would you want as the new coach Dave?

Edwards would be my first choice but if not him having read about him since his name cropped up the Storm's assistant coach, O'Brien.

Giving either of these two such a test seems rather pointless to me and even rather patronising Their records for the on-field aspects of coaching speak for themselves surely and they are having to submit to a test on coaching judged by two people who have never coached a top level RL side.

Of course I'd expect them to be interviewed over the wider aspects of the coaching role, such as (but not limited to) how they organise training, attitude to youth development and even how they deal with the media etc but I see no value in two people who have no coaching experience trying to judge coaches off the back of a video critique of a single game. It seems rather amateurish to me. The coaches record should provide the evidence they need of technical competence. The club may as well have asked you and me to be the judges.

Totally agree with this. To critique a single game won’t tell you much at all. Evidence based structured interviews would tell them a whole lot more.
Describe your leadership style, give us an example of how you have dealt with poor performance from a junior / senior player / team, how will you develop youth, how will you improve standards and values...etc? The responses backed up with evidence and real examples should tell them all they need to know.

What do the NRL assistant coaches do that British coaches can’t replicate? Starting with Madge who came over and took us to a new level, Holbrook has transformed Saints, Price has improved Warrington and Woolford is killing it at Huddersfield.
As much as I’d like to see Edwards back at Wigan (not just due to the romance behind it), I’m starting to hope Adam O’Brien gets the job. My only fear would be he’d be off as quick as he came if an NRL offer came in.

Pretty much my thoughts, O'brien seems like a great choice. However as with players, SL clubs just can't keep hold if the NRL comes calling. However Saints and Warrington are in the same position so we would hardly be at a disadvantage.

You’d imagine Saints will win at least two from three this year and the next time a job becomes available in the NRL Holbrook will be right at the top of the list. Granted turning Saints fortunes around won’t hold the same weight in Australia that Maguire turning a big club like Wigan’s fortunes around did but somebody will take note.

In terms of our position, Gary Carter of the Sun is reporting Lam is a done deal and he could be bringing Lachlan Lam with him. He may have just pulled it from the other Wigan forum where that rumour has been going around for a couple of weeks but we’ll see.

I watched The Storm put 40 past Canberra last night and the attack was something else. It was Obrien’s job to change the attack after the loss to Cronulla in the Grand Final. If he does become the next boss, and I too am starting to hope he does, he might not add 5,000 to the crowd for his first game but playing the open attacking game Melbourne now do it won’t take long for the crowds to come back.

Even if it is only for two or three years, they’ll be enjoyable to watch, and hopefully successful trophy wise. Craig Bellamy has said he’d like O’Brien to take over from him. He has a three-year contract, maybe it would be good for O’Brien to be a head coach for three years then step up to the Storm top job.

Wigan Today are reporting Adrian Lam set to take over from SW. Also bringing his son Lachlan with him.

The Storm's attack has certainly improved massively in recent times, but they do have Cameron Munster.

It's only worth getting vexed about this if you actually believe it.

However, if the bits I've underlined are the reasons why you disbelieve this highly unlikely story, then I apologise. I misunderstood.

So many rumours about Lam I'd expect that it will now be him.
He'll have his work cut out with recruitment following all the players confirmed and rumoured to be leaving.
Sam and Sutton going confirmed. Then we've Bateman, Williams, Tautai rumoured to be departing. Plus we don't know if Tommy and Lockers are going round again although I'd imagine Lam does. Then off field there's rumours about Peet and Bitcon.
A lot of work in front of him.

Is Lam the right man to take on such a large rebuilding? I'd want him to be fully focused on team tactics and on-field performance.

It's probably an unpopular opinion but I wouldn't be against someone like Tony Smith coming in for 12 months to assist with the transistion process in some way. Did a good job straightening out Leeds after Powell in 04 and at Wire from 09 onwards.

Half of that is Kris Radlinski’s job though.