I am sure you will agree Rogues that stats are fairly worthless unless they are interpreted correctly. Otherwise, we are in danger of becoming Eddie and Stevo.

Nevertheless, I will attempt to flesh out your list and placate Wigan's newest cheerleader, Andrew



The Madge way of playing RL was about control and minimising mistakes to dominate field position. They may have been his own ideas OR ones he learned during his stint at Melbourne who adopt the same philosophy.



Exemplifies that under Madge, Wigan controlled and dominated games for much longer periods which meant they had to do less work in defence and had more energy to attack. Conversely, the opposition had to do more work and had less energy when they had the ball. Where you do the work defensively and offensively matters greatly but we never have those stats. Perhaps we can all agree to agree that the Madge way was about making opposition teams work harder defensively and offensively in their own half, ideally their own 20. The Wane Way incolves taking more risks, using the ball more particularly in your own half, which arguably produces an entertaining if less effective brand of RL akin to Wire or 3 / 4 seasons ago.



I daresay Wire made more metres too. If you control a game of RL you do not need to make as many metres. If you play the game more in your own half then you need to try to bust / break tackles / offload. The game becomes more risky and error prone.

Metres will always be a misleading somewhat weak stat to use. I daresay nearly EVERY winger in SL makes far more metres than any forward in SL. Speed of POTB (the slower you can make it when defending and the faster when attacking) is probably far more important than a pure metres stat. The Madge way was to control field position to make life as hard as possible for the opposition to get any field position AND then to be in such a good position that scoring rather than yards/metres was not the issue. My bug bear is the view that Wane took from day 1 he became coach that we could and should be destroying teams by running up cricket scores to produce more impressive wins. Wire showed that philosophy produced some fantastic cricket score wins and harlem globe trotter RL BUT it broke down under pressure because it was more risky and the probability of errors far great. So when it matters you lose control / field position. When the biggest advocate of the NEW (To those who think it did not change THINK) game plan was one Gary Schofield. Do you want Gary Schofield or his clone cooaching Wigan RLFC. Wane definetly from day 1 changed the way Wigan played from under Madge because he felt he knew better and could do it better. So you have a coach adopting a Dorahay I know better stance (very lucky he did not have to coach the likes of Edwards and Bell) endorsed by Gary Schofield. You can IMO take 2 views; Either Shaun Wane never truly understood the Madge Way or his ego / pride whatever meant he felt he knew better and could improve an already successful team/club.



Tackles missed is a vital factor in any game but particularly the big game. Remember the Madge Way was control, minimise errors, dominate field position. I would argue that 2010 was the better SEASON under Madge whereas I would sugest having achieved he CC Win the team tailed off thereafter in 2011 which may or may not skew those stats. It would be interesting to see pre CC / post CC to compare. Even under Madge, if you lose control you make errors. My presumption / assumption is that Wigan under Wane have far less control and have to work harder to achieve wins. Fatigue has probably seen injuries increase too (no facts on that BTW) Points conceded is a telling factor. If you know teams rarely score more than say 12 points against you your requirements in attack are far far less. Widnes 2013 are a classic example. Very nice attack freely score points but cannot defend even if their lives depended upon it. Having to score 30+ because you will always concede 20+ / 30+ is not sustainable for any team if they want to win trophies.

N.B Everybody seems to agree that SL is getting progressively weaker season after season. So it should be easier for Wane unless you believe / argue that Wigan are now a significantly poorer team too.



Hence why I repeatedly state that Wane; whatever quotes people want to drag up (N.B Anything you read in the media do so with a huge dose of salt); changed the way the team played / plays from the methodical control Madge Way where speed of the POTB and minimising mistakes was everything to the point players did not attempt to make busts or breaks until they attained field position. If you do not control a game / field position then you start to take risks and try to bust / break through tackles rather than finding the floor / good body position and make the next play easier for your team mate.

FINALLY, the most important stat

Madge
2010 SL GF
2011 CC Win

Wane
2012
Fresh Air

N.B We can cry all we want about hubcap wins but the GF winners are always seen as the champions. I think it is wrong BUT tough titty on me and others who think the same; Read it in the paper / record books as they say.

I am sure you will agree Rogues that stats are fairly worthless unless they are interpreted correctly. Otherwise, we are in danger of becoming Eddie and Stevo.

Nevertheless, I will attempt to flesh out your list and placate Wigan's newest cheerleader, Andrew



The Madge way of playing RL was about control and minimising mistakes to dominate field position. They may have been his own ideas OR ones he learned during his stint at Melbourne who adopt the same philosophy.



Exemplifies that under Madge, Wigan controlled and dominated games for much longer periods which meant they had to do less work in defence and had more energy to attack. Conversely, the opposition had to do more work and had less energy when they had the ball. Where you do the work defensively and offensively matters greatly but we never have those stats. Perhaps we can all agree to agree that the Madge way was about making opposition teams work harder defensively and offensively in their own half, ideally their own 20. The Wane Way incolves taking more risks, using the ball more particularly in your own half, which arguably produces an entertaining if less effective brand of RL akin to Wire or 3 / 4 seasons ago.



I daresay Wire made more metres too. If you control a game of RL you do not need to make as many metres. If you play the game more in your own half then you need to try to bust / break tackles / offload. The game becomes more risky and error prone.

Metres will always be a misleading somewhat weak stat to use. I daresay nearly EVERY winger in SL makes far more metres than any forward in SL. Speed of POTB (the slower you can make it when defending and the faster when attacking) is probably far more important than a pure metres stat. The Madge way was to control field position to make life as hard as possible for the opposition to get any field position AND then to be in such a good position that scoring rather than yards/metres was not the issue. My bug bear is the view that Wane took from day 1 he became coach that we could and should be destroying teams by running up cricket scores to produce more impressive wins. Wire showed that philosophy produced some fantastic cricket score wins and harlem globe trotter RL BUT it broke down under pressure because it was more risky and the probability of errors far great. So when it matters you lose control / field position. When the biggest advocate of the NEW (To those who think it did not change THINK) game plan was one Gary Schofield. Do you want Gary Schofield or his clone cooaching Wigan RLFC. Wane definetly from day 1 changed the way Wigan played from under Madge because he felt he knew better and could do it better. So you have a coach adopting a Dorahay I know better stance (very lucky he did not have to coach the likes of Edwards and Bell) endorsed by Gary Schofield. You can IMO take 2 views; Either Shaun Wane never truly understood the Madge Way or his ego / pride whatever meant he felt he knew better and could improve an already successful team/club.



Tackles missed is a vital factor in any game but particularly the big game. Remember the Madge Way was control, minimise errors, dominate field position. I would argue that 2010 was the better SEASON under Madge whereas I would sugest having achieved he CC Win the team tailed off thereafter in 2011 which may or may not skew those stats. It would be interesting to see pre CC / post CC to compare. Even under Madge, if you lose control you make errors. My presumption / assumption is that Wigan under Wane have far less control and have to work harder to achieve wins. Fatigue has probably seen injuries increase too (no facts on that BTW) Points conceded is a telling factor. If you know teams rarely score more than say 12 points against you your requirements in attack are far far less. Widnes 2013 are a classic example. Very nice attack freely score points but cannot defend even if their lives depended upon it. Having to score 30+ because you will always concede 20+ / 30+ is not sustainable for any team if they want to win trophies.

N.B Everybody seems to agree that SL is getting progressively weaker season after season. So it should be easier for Wane unless you believe / argue that Wigan are now a significantly poorer team too.



Hence why I repeatedly state that Wane; whatever quotes people want to drag up (N.B Anything you read in the media do so with a huge dose of salt); changed the way the team played / plays from the methodical control Madge Way where speed of the POTB and minimising mistakes was everything to the point players did not attempt to make busts or breaks until they attained field position. If you do not control a game / field position then you start to take risks and try to bust / break through tackles rather than finding the floor / good body position and make the next play easier for your team mate.

FINALLY, the most important stat

Madge
2010 SL GF
2011 CC Win

Wane
2012
Fresh Air

N.B We can cry all we want about hubcap wins but the GF winners are always seen as the champions. I think it is wrong BUT tough titty on me and others who think the same; Read it in the paper / record books as they say.