I did think that it might be the best strategy to attack one of the Leigh and Leeds games and just throw the other one and play the reserves. Wouldnt have been palatable to some but may have been the best move.

Far from over, as you say, the "fatigue management" could have been better and I'm sure Peet and team will learn from this. We seem to be stuck in playing an arm wrestle game when a couple of bits of magic could loosen their defence and give the hard workers a bit of breathing space.

Well, if we win 2 trophies a year for the next 7 years, I'll be more than happy.

As for Briers; do you mean like Warrington and Brisbane were/are unstoppable? Don't forget he's only achieved anything at Wigan so far.

We definitly seemed to get dragged into playing one way and not being able to break out of it. We do not seem able to throw the ball around and drag defenses out of position. A startlng lack of any creativity on show today - so much posession in the first half but we did absolutely nothing with it and never looked like scoring. Add in some one sided ref decisions (the Martin drama award when Keighran was sin binned was ludicrous) and yet again a riduculously slow ruck and we were going nowhere.

Why is it Yorkshire teams always seem to have their best game of the season against us (Hull now Leeds)?



We looked tired and disorganised and some players (Hampshire, Keighran, Miski) look so very far off the pace , but then many today looked poor.

Smith picks up a ban we are really struggling - maybe Farrimond at 7 with Leeming at 6 and Forber in at 9? Hampshire has probably played himself out of the team on that perfromance - if he gets another chance it is only because Smith is out.

Hahaha when you wake up in the morning after your come down you are going to be so embarassed

What a pathetic person you are

Brisbane were pretty good in Briers' early days there. But they've lost good players (Herbie, Tommy Deardon), have a weaker squad now, and a lot of injuries, and they're struggling.

Forget the shield, just get everybody (bar O'Neil) fit and rested come September

My issue is with the fatigue management.

Ellis is a great player, but he is clearly struggling.

We send Eseh on loan and play Hill in the reserves.

Mago and Byrne played limited minutes…yet we one again batter out middles and give them 2 hardly any minutes.

If that chase by Keighran is him in full flight it’s a concern, if he’s carrying a knock why the hell does he start when we have Eckersley on the bench.

Some whoppers can have a pop at the ref.

This situation though is fully of our own making in my option with very poor use of the squad we have available.

Will remember the quotes about our coaching staff at the end of Grand Final night.

I will agree though that I think some Wigan fans are now starting to understand how good King was for us and the way we play the game.

I’m starting to think he may be the strange little fella who started having a pop at me on Facebook on a Wigan page saying he knew me off here.

Odd little bloke without a game of rugby in him but very aggressive for no real reason.

One thing I do know. Games a lot better without people like him.

Sorry Jon I don’t get this obsession with King. He isn’t a centre in the classic mould of Wardle and i his suspect that his current salary far exceeds probably that of any other centre in SL
For me he’s a limited athlete who can trundle it in with a little or no finesse.
Personally I want a centre to be foremost an attacking threat.
King would have made jack difference today to the outcome.
For me we looked like a team looking for an excuse of tiredness. The coaching staff need to change the teams attitude and be more positive rather than feeling sorry for the game schedule. Peet’s latest interviews on Wigan tv have a bit low key and too downbeat.

Along with the loss of Briers King has been a huge loss to Wigan nd the way they play..Keighrqn simply isn’t in the same league as king

Totally agree.
I can only assume that Peet mustn’t think that Eseh isn’t ready and that Hill needs nurturing in the short term.
With Cooper presumably an occasional to non existent starter, Byrne and Mago not trusted for more than 10 minutes soirées our forwards strength in depth is a bit of a misnomer.

King is the most overrated and overpaid centre in SL. He would have made zero difference to today’s result.

Our game is 100% based on meter gains from our outside backs.

King isn’t World Class, but he carried hard won contact, got quick play the balls and got us on the front foot.

He is twice the player in the Wigan system that Keighran is.

No it’s not.
It’s based on which team can play better overall than their opponents.
So for quick play the balls and no finesse he gets a multi hundred thousand pound contract. Overrated and passed on by Huddersfield and Wire. That’s how much they appreciated him.
I assume when the nrl increase their teams in their competition that they will be knocking King’s door down to sign him up. Behave.
King can’t even be mentioned in the same sentence as Wardle.
He’s an average athlete that can’t be described as a centre.

No one is mentioning King in the same sentence as Wardle... Now Keighran is another matter.....King played far better for us than what's being served up now. He was alot more dangerous in attack and made plenty meters etc

We monitor our players scientifically so we know how fatigued they are. Sooner or later our schedule was bound to catch up with us, it did today. In my view, and I know it is easy to be clever after the event, we should have rested the likes of Thompson, Havard, Farrell and Ellis. We need those four firing on all cylinders when it matters. Dupree, Eseh, Chan and Hill should have been in our 17 along with Byrne and Mago who have both played limited minutes.

Wigan were pretty good in TL and Lockers early days here, but we've lost good players (French, O'Neil etc) and are struggling. Your point is?

So Phuzzy…about our attacks. It’s amazing what happens when a team defends properly against you



Sorry couldn’t resist- was an open goal after what we have been discussing. I was at Wembley yesterday so couldn’t believe it when I saw the result.

Smith should cop a ban now which makes next week more interesting. The MRP on Monday is going to be very interesting for both sides. If it goes as expected there’ll be 0/4 first choice halfbacks for both sides and only 2/8 spine players. Saw that on Twitter and it’s a mad stat.

Wardle is a centre and King isn’t.
Wardle has pace, good footwork, calmness under pressure and a great passing game. King can trundle it in. I mention Wardle because he is what I consider a centre, a top centre.
If we had signed King which player(s) would we have not signed(over and above Keighran) or been unable to improve their terms?

Some might say (with hindsight) that Chan and Hampshire have not exactly been money well spent this year but it's irrelevant anyway as King was under contract with Warrington.

Peet obviously doesn’t think that Eseh and Chan are ready and possibly may never be ready. Hill looks really slow this season and maybe it’s just a case of a second year performance after a very encouraging first season. Mago is just Mago. Seemingly incapable of playing for periods longer than 15 minutes and doesn’t appear to be any fitter nearly 3 years after joining us. His main attribute of off loading has almost disappeared and his deficiencies in defence are still there. Byrne is an enigma. Giant of a man but his main attribute is his defensive work with very little impact with ball in hand.
Depth of the squad was our mantra from the very outset this season with a few already saying that we don’t need any new blood in the squad for next season. The last few weeks would suggest that maybe the strength in depth from a qualitative perspective is just a fallacy. Of the new signings for 2024 only Thompson has looked like a really good acquisition. I still have high hopes for Walters, Eseh and Hill but maybe for the longer term rather than here and now.
I hope that Peet can steady the ship and get the season back on track. He gets the vast majority of calls correct so for me we have to accept that occasionally he will get it wrong but hopefully he and the team will learn from it.
Smith will probably gain from the rest that his suspension will bring and it will be interesting to see how young Farrimond will cope with the additional responsibilities.
Will be interesting to see how we react next weekend.

I will wade in here. I was gutted when King left and since watching Keighran i am even more gutted. Hope we can get him back somehow. Miski was 100 times better with King too.

We were awful Stu but I hardly think it was an "open goal", as you put it. You can't take 1 game and say it proves something about another. That's like saying the away defeat against Hull KR proved we couldn't win in the CC semi just a couple weeks later. Saints attack has been awful for a couple of seasons. Wigan's hasn't. It's all very admirable Matt Peet taking a "no excuses" approach but anyone thinking 3 games in 10 days at the back end of a long season didn't have a major impact on that performance needs to have their bumps felt. We were already in a dip of form prior to it so it doesn't take a genius to work out that it isn't exactly going to help matters!

Next week you start favourites for mine. I was already of that opinion anyway as we're all aware of the quality of performance we get the week after Easter (which is essentially what Wigan have just had) and yesterday's performance confirmed it. We have fallen off a cliff and the loss of Smith's kicking game will mean we can't even play behind that. Put it this way; if you don't even take your chance this weekend, I doubt we'll have much to fear come the playoffs!

Talking of which, I think we'll be back on song come October. Are you bold enough to disagree?