Haha same every year, see you at Old Trafford in October.

Well I like a bet. I wil offer you an additional point to whatever Paddy Power is offering right now I.e if 3/1 I will give you 4/1

I did do Bateman a disservice looking at the stats on the superleague site. I thought Gelling had made the most ground (he made 135m or thereabouts) but Bateman made 189 metres to add to his 44 tackles.

He's a special talent.

I personall thoughy Tautai put in a good shift last night.

Hopefully he can build from here

The quality is horrendous in the entire league.
All coaches are like clockwork and do the same thing.
The last international series was a disaster. England were clueless and NZ looked and played like a bunch of amateurs.
Im big believer in good players don't need a coach to tell them what to do nowadays players can't even decide if they should take 2 points or a tap when they get a penalty close to an opponents line for gods sake.
Coaches have taken away any semblance of individuality from players to the point that they are totally clueless when things don't go to plan or what they have practiced.
As we have done the last 40 years we follow the Aussie way even when a blind man can see that the current style is horrible to watch.

The game I have loved since I was a kid is virtually extinct and the clubs seem oblivious to the fact that as a spectacle the game is dying on its Harris.

fwiw, i thought you were very poor last night and as the game went on, was confident we could get a result!
i thought you were more intent on trying to bully our inexperienced guys rather than playing quality RL,
i just didn't think you were a threat at all, and despite us playing a left edge which had never seen each other until tuesday, i was surprised you didn't attack more down that side.

but you got the win despite not playing at all well, so i don't suppose it will bother many wigan fans, well done on the win.

I'm not a stats man NK but at a guess I bet that Bateman took the ball in and made more yards than Isa, Sutton, MM, Burke and Clubb combined.
Without him last night we would have lost without a shadow of a doubt.
If I were him I would be looking for a serious increase in my pay even though I believe he has just signed up for a new deal.

If he were a stone heavier he would be sensational and be playing in the NRL

Funny how people look from different perspectives... Though the overall quality was poor, second game of season, i was never in any doubt we would win.. Hudds looked like they were playing as well as they could, we didn't.

He was one of the few that tried something different. The rest would rather just cart it up every time. How many offloads did we do in total? Probably about 5, in dry conditions.

Quote ="Wigg'n"He was one of the few that tried something different. The rest would rather just cart it up every time. =#FF0000How many offloads did we do in total? Probably about 5, in dry conditions.'" 7. Match stats here. Individual stats are at the bottom of the page. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12206

Quote ="Wigg'n"He was one of the few that tried something different. The rest would rather just cart it up every time. =#FF0000How many offloads did we do in total? Probably about 5, in dry conditions.'" 7. Match stats here. Individual stats are at the bottom of the page. www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12206

Cheers. 3 by Bateman and 3 by Gelling. The other one coming from O'Loughlin. Not a surprise at all.

That's the trouble though. He does this match after match and costs us points with either that or some other idiotic mistake (like twice last week coming charging out to take the kick off and then pulling out). It's no use blaming the ref for a poor decision subsequent to the silly off load. Gelling gave him a decision to make.

I don't know why Gelling gets such lenient treatment from fans. Maybe it's because he gives 110% every game and makes a lot of yards when others might look less enthused but that is not going to make us a GF winning team. It's a bit like never mind the quality, feel the width.

As to the game two points is two points just like last week and I agree with those who say if that had been Leeds it would have been a champion performance by sticking in there and winning when not playing well but because it's Wigan we didn't deserve it or pinched it. But we aren't playing well and look as clueless close to the opposition try line as last season. Lots of improvement required.

In his 5th season now still makes stupid basic errors, you said he was class! I'm not bothered about his off loads, everyone is brainwashed about stats!

I must agree. Gelling does some good things, but he does an equal amount of bad things too. I just don't think either he or Sarginson are the answer to what is now looking like a long-term problem for Wigan in the centres.

We've waited an age for Gelling to rid that from his game but it isn't going to happen. I've accepted that and taking Friday in isolation I have to look at his positives against his negatives. He set up the Manfredi try and got us in position for another try to win the game. He also did the usual and eat up the metres. Did he do more good then bad? Quite easily IMO. It's high risk rugby league but that's in a side that currently is playing too safe IMO so we can accept that. Had Gelling not been in the side on Friday I don't think we win the game, it's as simple as that. On another day he might cost us one but he's the sort who'll win you more games then he'll lose you. He's a bit like a rugby league version of Kevin Pietersen. He got pillared for trying things but ultimately he's a match winner.

As for the team, we'll be a totally different side with Williams and Sam Tomkins back in. They're our flair players and our two biggest attacking weapons.

Move Sarge to FB and Gildart to the centres. Williams to come in for Powell. Glidart has been a much more impressive centre than LT has at FB. I've seen nothing from LT, more surprisingly in attack.

Plus I think Sarge could be a very impressive FB with his skills set.

It's the ability to bring others in to play that I think we'd benefit from most if we put Sarginson at fullback. He's played stand off in the past and looks to have a good passing game.

I do feel a little for Tierney in attack though. Our forwards didn't go forward for the first 40 mins against Huddersfield and when they started to do that in the second half we made errors. It's been difficult for the backs to thrive because to gain space out wide we need to be prepared to win the middle ground.

Agree completley but I think Wane wants keep Sarge at centre because the amount of work he does early in the sets to get a quick play the ball so our forwards can get the easy yards on tackle 2 / 3.

If he is full back he will yeah take the kick return but that will be it for the set and the quick play the ball won't be as useful because our forwards or "the usual suspects" will still be walking back.

Lewis T as had too many opportunities and as failed to impress on every occasion. Why does he get so many chances compared to others past n present.

Friday was his 5th competitive game for the first team (and his 10th including friendlies) according to the stats I've seen online.

Exceptionally tough to say he's had too many opportunities going off that!

Agreed, I remember him looking really good in his debut against Widnes on debut, Hull when he scored a full lengther and Salford last season on the wing, so three good games and a couple of average ones isn't a bad start. Having said that, I do think the team would be stronger in the short term with Gildart at centre and Sarginson at full back. In the long term I'm not sure whether we're just developing a player for another team to benefit from given that we have Sam Tomkins who will presumably take up the 1 shirt for the next 5 years+

All spot on.

He's done pretty well in his very limited opportunities to date but I would also go Sarginson at full back and Gildart at Centre because I believe both are better players.

To write him off as a lad who's wasted all these opportunities is just wrong.

That's the thing for me - 2 games in, how many times have we picked the wrong option already with a dreadful short kicking game? We did it early on against Catalans and blew a couple of excellent opportunities with stupid kicks early in the tackle count. The halves have a great deal to improve upon for Saturday, I thought in close quarters ion particular they were very poor on Friday.

I've been pulling my hair out every time we've kicked early in the tackle count. We must have done it over 10 times in the first two games and it's yet to come up with anything for us.

We were so inpatient on Friday it was untrue. A man I had to throw some blame at was Lockers. He was playing prop but rarely took the ball in to contact and was throwing balls 30 yards to his left and right. He's got so much skill but you have to earn the right to play and make space outwide by playing direct in the middle. He came up with a great pass to win the match but we need to see him get back to how he played against Catalans if he's to stay at prop.

The number of times we let the Catalans out of their 20 with poor kicks was shocking, I can understand building pressure especially in the poor conditions, but the kicks put in were "nothing kicks" they did not go ingoal or put pressure on with repeat sets. Too many kicks too early in the tackle count

This is another reason why this current short-kicking game is such a shocker.

The kicks are very poorly executed. There is very little craft or guile on show. The players just seem to hack it through and hope for the best. Why persist with a tactic when you patently lack the skill to make it count? Though the present Wigan team doesn't persist with it as much as overuse it to a ridiculous degree. Instead of building pressure and running a tired defensive line ragged with fast play-the-balls, wide passing, angled running etc, all we do is let them off the hook time and time again. Every time they're struggling, some unimginative prat in the Wigan line happily gives them another breather.

As a tactic, I feel the Hail Mary ball leaves a lot to be desired anyway. At best it has a 50/50 chance of paying off, but considerably less than that if you're not doing it properly. It also indicates to me - so I presume it indicates the same to the oppostion - especially if you're doing it a lot, that you're running out of ideas on how to break the defence down. It means they are doing something right and you are doing something wrong - so they are encouraged and you are increasingly demoralised.

It's such a p1ss-easy tactic to keep resorting to - and there's the rub. Try it now and then, yeah, but if it never pays off and you keep on doing it, that's inexcusable.