Nightmare night; just not clicking.

Gifted them 2 tries a with intercept from french and missed bomb take from field. Our two best players who need to be better.

Havard injury is a killer.

Worried about the semi final

I think a top 2 spot will be out of reach now with Catalans going nicely and Saints creaking slowly into gear. And to be fair I would rather us go away in the play offs anyway in a straight knock out.

On the game, just predictable really; we always struggle over there for whatever reason. Peet on Wigan TV is furious with the officials with regards to calls in the last minute and GP. The priority is the semi 2 weeks tomorrow, we win that and all is forgotten. Just crossing my fingers Havard will be ok for it...

If the penalty against shorrocks is what we're going with for the rest of the season then there'll be many more to come. You see that pretty much every 5th tackle except their player threw himself to the floor.

If Peet said that he's got more front than Blackpool!
You got every other 50/50 call from that clown Griffiths.

Not a particularly surprising result. Wakefield wanted it more and we just haven’t got enough firepower in the forwards to give a good platform to counter attack effectively and with regularity plus our attacking options in the opposition 20 are almost non existent. With just 3 regular players missing, Wakefield playing a totally inexperienced HB and perfect playing conditions it should have been solid grounds to beat the bottom of the table team.
I’ve said a few times that the squad is unbalanced and with too little experience throughout the squad. We need good proven experienced players to come in at prop (x2), backrow and 6. So far we’ve signed another hooker and 2 young forwards with potential. For me if we don’t sign experienced in those 4 positions we will be in the same position in 2024. Our shortfalls are glaring. I’m assuming Cust and Mago are off and that we are signing the Aussie centre from Catalan which means that we have one quota spot to cover for me 4 critical shortfalls in the squad. I just don’t see what’s available in SL to cover these positions.
Our attack has been poor for the majority of the season and this was repeated again last night. At the moment French is totally and utterly wasted at HB. Our fluidity, crispness of passing, and cohesiveness in the backline is way below my expectations and very much lower than 2022. Add to this a flaky pack we are very beatable. I think that the last time we posted +30 points was against Leyth.
Our options are very limited. There is no silver bullet. How does Peet resolve the conundrum of who plays FB and who in the short term can we accommodate at 6? Miski seems to be the flavour of the day so I can’t see French going back on the wing so I suspect we will see Field and French swop positions once Isa is back to shore up the right hand side in defence. Other than that I don’t see what else Peet can/will do.
Personally with all squad players available I would go
Field
Marshall
King
Wardle
French
Cust/Hampshire
Smith
Singleton
Powell
Byrne
Farrell
Isa
Smithies

Havard
Ellis
Nsemba
O’Neil

For me still not good enough.
I haven’t totally written us for the CC but I don’t think we have a chance in the playoffs if we actually qualify for them.

Back to last night I thought Nsemba was good as soon as he got on pitch. For the first time I thought that we may just have a top class backrow forward in the lad. A very pleasing performance from Nsemba. If we had managed to hang on for a victory I think that all we would have been talking about would have been his performance last night.

Could only listen in, but sounded like a really frustrating one where we managed to shoot ourselves in the foot, again.

Is it surprising though? Last week, yet again, a shonky win was met by the sentiments of "we won, move on"...... No, at some point lets not move on. Bar the odd (big) game where we raise it, since day one of this season every facet has been down on last season and you can't consistently win games with questionable performances. It will catch you out eventually.

I don't think we should be calling for anyone's head or demanding [ix[/i amount of changes, but likewise the attitude to how we've been so far this year shouldn't be so blasé. It's not been good enough and needs to get better ASAP if we're to do anything this season.

If we raise it in the big games then guess what........we might well win the GF.

Perhaps Peet has taken a lesson from Wane, who after 2012 never ever flogged us and we lost some utterly stupid games and yet made pretty much every GF.

Usual Wigan fan reaction to a defeat with absent posters all popping back up and I don't just mean WW69. I think the post calling for Peet's head is the most idiotic post I've ever seen on here.

If you look at the boards of most of the other bigger names, Leeds, Saints and Warrington have fans calling for the coaches head. Higher expectations and all that. Not many were in favour of Lam but you can't decry his success so far at Leigh. Who saw that coming?

Peet I still feel is the man to take this club forward. Still early in his career. Some of the spark has gone from last year and I think it was when briers left. See how we do next season. I hope they take this forward in the off season and really look at our attack

Expecting a consistent and high standard in every game is “flogging” the players?????????
The format is totally and utterly wrong that it allows a team to lose “stupid” games with no major repercussions.
The GF is meaningless in that it is purely a financial necessity.

I wasn’t surprised at the result last night. It just confirmed my opinion that we are not a good team with a very average squad propped up with 2 individualistic players albeit that they are great to watch when they deliver. So far we have lost nearly 40% of our league games which screams out average. Admittedly there are several other average teams in the competition but I expect that the best 2 teams in Saints and Catalan will contest the final.

My concern is more about how we improve the squad and style of play for the 2024 season.
We won’t win the GF this season. Happy to have a charity bet with you up to say £50 and I will give you an extra 2 points over and above whatever Powder Power is giving today. DM me if want to take this up and we can agree odds and charities.

Regards Wane I gave my season tickets away half way through the season in 2017 and 2016 because of the “acceptance” of losing “stupid” games and the turgid “rugby” that was churned out. If I thought that we were getting back on that train I’d never buy a season ticket again.
Regards the Peet posting I agree with you 100%.

You won't get a high standard in every game because you don't need one.

The system is flawed, but that's the system and after seeing sides finish 4th and 5th then go on to win it as well as sides finish top and not even make the final, I'm only concerned with where we are after the last round and how well we're playing then.

Each to there own EC.
It is a flawed system but you will be concerned before the last round unless Peet can resolve the HB conundrum.

Cheers. Used to have a soft spot for a Wigan when I was a young kid when you had the likes of Connolly and Wiganw ere my second team even had a Wigan shirt! I think that fled the year you got the points deduction mind

Best of luck for the end of season.

That relegated Cas. You should love us

I’ll judge the season as a whole at the end. It’s been up and down and I could be way off but I do feel we’ve made a conscious decision this season to try and peak for the must win games and that is leading to some iffy form for the rest of the games. I’ve seen enough in the cup games and in games like Good Friday and Wire away to have some confidence that we’ve got plenty in the tank when the big ones come round but it has been a frustrating watch in between.

The real weakness in us continues to be around the middle, with us unable to get Ellis and Havard in the team at the same time. Guys like Singleton and Mago should hang their heads in all honesty, when you watch a couple of younger forwards like Nsemba and Hill busting a gut and then last night Smithies, O’Neill and Shorrocks ran themselves in to the ground and are just having to try and lead the way in the effort areas but they’re being let down by not having the right experienced quality in support.

A weird year, I feel we can beat everyone but also can lose to anyone.

Wouldn’t absolute shock me if we won the cup and got the GF but equally wouldn’t shock me if we lost the semi and crashed out the playoffs.

I think the penny may have dropped, the Club will let Singo and Mago leave at the end of the season. What is really annoying is that they are both getting a fair wedge and we could have recruited players who offered more on a smaller salary.

Definitely but sadly we’re stuck for this season. Singleton in particular looks like he’s given up now he’s not an automatic pick. Mago is Mago, makes some yards, not many carries, the odd error and a defensive liability. I’d love to see us pull out all the stops to get somebody in this season but given Wire have cap space to spare, 2 quota spots already open and they’re still struggling to find anyone, I don’t fancy our chances.

I think that the real weakness is too few really experienced players in the squad and an unbalanced squad. Last year we brought in 3 Aussies with little or no 1st team experience which compounded a very average squad and a very underpowered pack. So far the signings for 2024 are another hooker and 2 “potential “ forwards. We are screaming out for proven forwards and a proven 6. Obviously I hope other signings are afoot but unless there are some shock exits I don’t see how we are going to add really quality to the squad.
As for this year if for one second I thought the team were “picking” matches I would stop going immediately. Not sure how they could “pick” games because every game now is against a team looking to get into the playoffs or avoid relegation.
Our starting 17 is ok but no HB partnership worth it’s salt and an underpowered pack. Once we have an injury or two we are very stretched. To win the GF I suspect we would have to beat Leyth away, Saints or Catalan away and then Saints or Catalan in 3 consecutive weeks. I just don’t see us being capable of that.
I don’t think I’m being negative just honest that we were not good enough last year and we have definitely regressed.
The only way I don’t see Saints or Catalan winning the GF is if they have a catastrophic run of injuries.
Regarding Mago I’m not sure why we signed him and why the fitness staff haven’t improved his fitness in nearly 2 seasons. Singleton was and just is ok. He’s obviously on the way out and I agree his current levels of performance are still unprofessional and unacceptable unless he is carrying a knock.

Why are we stuck? People will say "they are under contract", but how many players did Wire manage to move on last year? Why do others manage it and we never seem to?

If I have one criticism of IL tenure at the club, it's his willingness to watch many a season slip away without doing what's needed to be done.

It's obvious we need a prop & the 6 position isn't working. Why don't they just sort it?

We’re stuck unless we do as you say and start paying people up but realistically you need to replace them and that doesn’t look easy. As I say, Wire (who you point out just spend to try and fix things) want forwards desperately and don’t need to create cap or quota space but they’re struggling to get anyone. It just isn’t that straightforward by the looks of things.

I guess it all depends on who we're looking at. Knowing Wire, they'll be looking for something stupid etc.

The reserve leagues in Auz are literally packed full of talent. Anyone would be better than Mago and Singo.

I don’t know if ‘picking games’ is quite the right way to describe it but the intensity we’ve played at and the concentration levels we’ve displayed, in games at Leigh and Warrington, on Good Friday and in the two cup games are night and day compared to the vast majority of other games we’ve played this season. We certainly aren’t managing to string together a run of performances where we look fully focused and motivated.

Problem is it feels like we need experience as much as anything and a dip in to the Q cup or NSW Cup is no sure thing.