The thing is, you could argue wigan's trip to wembley is a result of circumstance as much as anything else, you only have to look at the run to see that. If you take the 2 recent CC wins and the scrape past bradford (all teams in the bottom half) out it becomes claer wigan's form has been below par for a considerable amount of time. The last decent performance was warrington away, which i remember wigan were missing quite a few as well.

Well you had some easy cup runs, but that did not stop you crowing!! The fact is, we are there, you are not...... Simples.


And if you want to see a hard cup run, look at our last winning run.

I can hear Mr Wane's excuses already.......!!!

Has anyone ever thought that maybe, just maybe, the play off system isn't that badly broken it's just that Leeds are a very special outfit? Was golf broken just because Tiger Woods started winning all the time? Or tennis when Federer dominated?

The fact is that only one team has even made the GF from outside the top 3, let alone won it, and that side had already done three in a row. If another team manages it then there may be a point, but as it stands theses arguments all sound like a lot of sour grapes from fans of teams watching a period of serious dominance. If there was such a thing as an easy route to the Grand Final then you get it by finishing top and only ever playing teams who finished below you and at home - I'm sure that was the plan for Leeds at the start of the season.

If anyone genuinely believes that people like Peacock, O'Loughlin, Roby, Westwood or Lunt would ever just accept a defeat because the regular season 'doesn't matter' then you need your head read. That's not how you become a top level sportsman.

No they weren't and you missed the point. Now it looks unlikely we will finish top people are speculating where is best to finish and it's no necessarily second. If a team can't finish top the best place is 5th IMO.



Certain fixtures [iare[/i impossible but whether a team finishes first or fourth we already know it must play another top four side at least once.



I'd agree with that provided it doesn't involve pushing players who are carrying knocks to play. I don't think we have rested players as often as you suggest anyway. Moat of the time they have been injured. The only time I think players may have been rested when fit in the last few weeks was v Saints and even then I am sure injuries were mentioned for some.



I don't disagree with that either. While there have been injuries and players have not been rested as often as you suggest I think Wane has experimented too much and rotated the younger players virtually every week. He probably thinks this is wise so as not to burn them out but my view is he should have picked the "best of the rest" when senior players were actually injured. For example every time Lockers is out Burke should play 13. That means less disruption than the half backs having to work with a different loose forward. Same kind of thing when the half backs have been out.




I agree that we should have ideally been playing our best team and thus hopefully this would have won us some of the games lost such as Cas at home and allowed us to rest payers for the final this week but apart from the odd occasion I don't think resting players has been as prevalent as you think. So we have ended up here only partially by design. Genuine injuries are as much to blame as anything and we have a had a bit of a shocker with those this season.

“Never before on the rugby fields of England has so much been made of so little by so few”

If finishing top mattered we would risk players at 85% fit. As finishing top doesn't matter they are classed as injured. I don't know the last time Sam and Lockers played together in the league. But they were both fit for the 2 cup games but injured for the league games either side. I agree with Wane's thinking, but that way of thinking shouldn't matter because the league should mean more.

Don't be so defensive, I'm merely stating facts.

As was i

Very difficult to give players in a large squad like Wigan enough playing time when we no longer have a reserve league and the next level is only up to eighteen.

Scrapping the Under 21's with a allowance of a number of overage players was a bad mistake and should be changed for next season.

Gelling being a classic example.

I doubt there's a plan to finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th as each position is pretty much the same. You get a home playoff match at some point and a defeat in week one isn't a crisis.

Since we were guaranteed 4th place which I think was after the Magic weekend our performances have clearly dipped and our 'star' players have missed games with injuries and illnesses which has given the reserves/youngsters a run out. Note that they've been fit for the Challenge Cup matches.

Personally, I think SW has learned his lesson from last season and is focussing on having a fully fit squad come September who have just won the Challenge Cup. Obviously that's just my opinion and it could be wide of the mark and we may well limp out the playoffs again.

did we set out at the beginning of the season or even 5 weeks ago to finish 4th? No

Now we're 3rd is it prudent to look and see who we would rather play in the first week of the play-offs? Yes

If come the last week of the regular season we're 3rd and level on points with Leeds and Hudds are guaranteed top spot i would be all for putting the reserves out against the Rhinos because i would rather go to Huddersfield than Warrington. I do however think with a full side we can beat anyone btw.

If you win the first week of the play-offs you're at home for a crack at old trafford.

I also think Wane has tried to learn from last season and that is why people have missed out with knocks but would have played last year.

Ultimately the proof of the pudding is in the eating!!

if we win at Wembley and win at Old Trafford he's a genius, if we win nowt he's a dope!!

The scenario exists for both Wigan and Leeds to go all out for a defeat in the last game of the regular season!

That, is a scary thought....

I think your right, he's changed tactics and woke up to the fact that 4th is as good as 1st pretty much so from that moment 4th place looked assured and we were progressing nicely in the cup we've started to rest players.

The one worry is our lack of form and even bigger lack of momentum that has come out if these rests. We must be in the middle of one of our worst runs for a few years at the moment and whilst there are reasons for that, form can't just be turned on like a tap.

We really need to build up some momentum and form, starting this week at Catalans.

This cup final will make or break our season in my opinion. Winning the cup should get us going again but I feel if we lose the cup final the team will find it hard to pick them selves back up in time for the play offs.

Also winning the cup will take a lot of pressure off us going into the play offs knowing we already have a trophy in the bag.

We need to look at Leeds for inspiration if we get beat at Wembley. They've used that dissapointment to fire their play off campaign in the past two years and you can only admire their resolve.

We on the other hand turned our season in back in 2011 after winning the cup. We totally lost focus and somehow managed to lose twice to a poor Saints side in the play offs.

I think a lot of people are excusing very poor performances from a number of players

Its been at least since we played london in may away since we actually put in an 80 minute performance and didnt look like scaping home.

Challenge cup accepted but not exactly had the most challenging teams to play

I share your thoughts and opinions. [u Especially those![/u

Warrington went into the semi final as the form team in Super League. They lost.

Form means nothing in a one off knock out match.

Leeds got hammered on the last game of last season to a 12 man Huddersfield, and still won the playoffs. Form means nowt. The regular season is truly meaningless and just a way of getting money out if the fans pockets. Why not just have a straight knockout between the Super League over 4 weeks to decide the title and be done with it? Any big club that doesn't perform and loses can be classed as 'bottling it' to use RL Fans forums greatest phrase.

Agree to a certain extent, belief does count for more than just form does, in a positive or negative way. Belief with good form is a much better platform for victory than belief on its own, but when belief turns into over, or misplaced confidence when you don’t have good recent form I think wining is much harder.

The only team that can have any claim whatsoever that league placings don't matter is Leeds - and they're a special bunch with real pedigree in play off rugby. If Leeds finished top and had home advantage throughout the play offs you'd put your house on them making the Grand Final, that other teams don't is as much down to Leeds' quality as their own failings.

As for form not meaning anything? Leeds got hammered by a Huddersfield side that seem to have their number, but that was at a time when we were actually playing quite well - to assume that a Wigan side with no comparable pedigree for delivering when it really matters can go from playing pretty badly AND losing to suddenly turning it back on and do well in the play offs because a couple of players (albeit special ones) are back on the park is breathtakingly arrogant.

Do people really struggle to see that, whilst this play-off system isn't perfect, it's only Leeds that have managed to make it look completely pointless. Every other team has had the chance to, but strangely they've not managed. Why is that do you think? Is it the system, or is it the teams?

I think this thread (as many others like it on other teams forums) shows that our game is turning into a right mess!

All season long all you read is, the weekly rounds are nothing, its all about the play off's, it shouldn't be like that, if you finish top you are the Champions.

But now...

After hitting a bit of poor form it all falls by the wayside, and it's okay as it means we can aim for 4th!!...really aim for anything but top spot is now acceptable??, most other team sports (football, union etc...) would see a coach/manager sacked for something like this!

Yes it might throw up a few tasty games in the playoffs, but all that will do will give the RFL the perfect excuse as to keeping the playoffs, I'd rather be seeing games like that week in week out, not just in September/October but I wont hold my breath!