Before the season started, looking at outmr squad and the losses and gains i thought this season was pretty much a transistion.

I remember thinking that reaching the quarter/semi finals of the Cup, getting to the top four and the quarters/semi of the SL would be good.

Maybe not ambitious as some would like but when you consider it seemed fair.

Add on to that the injuries we have had, Prescott retiring, a hard extra game in the form of Leeds at Magic and I think where we are isnt too bad.

We have won some great games, and even when we have lost they have been close affairs. The amount of game time that the younger players are getting is staggering when you stop and think.

Add to that this slump we appear to be in. We are still where i would hope to be. In the top four and still in runnings for everything. So is it really that bad?

Are we losing some close games because no matter what we try it wont work, or because some players and plays are being held back a little for when we hit the must win games?

Considering the level that Hudds, Wire and Leeds are playing at, is it that awful we are 1 point off the leaders, given that before the season some experts doubted us even reaching playoffs?

Think some people need to give their heads a shake, apart from a few blips Wigan are performing well, and the young lads especially have done far more than could be expected of them.

I agree entirely with the sentiment mate. My expectations we perhaps a little higher than yours before the season started but not much. I suppose the worry is a repeat of last season when we simply fizzled out when it mattered. We lost 2 semi finals by very close margins and I expect us to go to Wembley given the semi final opposition. Will we win it? Not sure but this will the acid test. Have we learnt to handle the big pressure games? We are getting to the business end of the season and our form has dipped since losing to Warington. Many of our senior players have played less this year so should be fresher going into the last part of the season. My hopes are higher now than they were in February!!

You are far too positive for this board, please go and stand in the corner and think negative thoughts.

You’re right if we get to Wembley, and I can’t see why not, and if we finish in the top three, then that would be a lot more than I and most here would have predicted at the start of the season. So let’s engender the Churchill spirit, stick a big fat Havana cigar in our gob, and pour huge double malt and give two fingers to the enemy!

we are going to win the cup and the grand final full stop.wembley train booked,club wembley booked,london hotel booked.i read this board after a loss to sh 4 days before a semi final with our strike players rested and its doom and gloom.some people need to get a life,onward and upwards to the double.

I'll have some of what you're having. Taking off my cherry and white specs I'd say Wire for the cup and the league is too early too call, but we've a good chance of upsetting the applecart in either comp.

Its refreshing to see a positive thread.

However I can understand some peoples concerns about our performances in big games this season particularly when you consider what happened last season although some of the criticism of certain players is way off the mark.

I said before the season started that Wigan had to be smart this season - this is usually the difference between good teams and teams that go on and win silverware and in the big games last season and in some of the big games this year we have just been so dumb.

Last night was another example of Wigan being dumb and St.Helens exploited this perfectly in a way that Leeds have done to us in the past which has cost us in the key games - mentally we were just very poor.

The question is will we learn from our mistakes or continue to gift points to the opposition by switching off and allowing the opposition to force a reaction out of us?

We need to learn quickly otherwise it will be another season without landing a major trophy.

That's the problem. Most fans would accept a season of transition for the greater good, but our policy of letting our better players go to the NRL / Union without a fight means that we will be in a transitional ongoing cycle.

Dont really see what the club can do about players going to the NRL. If they dont want to be at Wigan anymore forcing them to stay will just result in uninterested players.

Maybe its good sense to get what you can while you can at the moment.

Its a shame that they cant sit down with players and get proper time frames though. Right now its if an NRL club comes calling they go, whereas uid prefer they just say "not gonna go for at least two seasons then im going to get my agent on it" rather than limbo a la Sam Tomkins.

I think doubt between players and the coach causes more harm than anything. If players and coaches have one eye on squeezing the best deal from Aus they arent going to be fully committed to the season, which if I was one of the players fully committed would annoy the hell outta me.

Opinion... Unless you were in on the discussions you can only guess at what has been said, or how hard the management have fought to keep players. Please don't try to state your belief as some sort of fact.

If you have been watching sport for any length of time have you will know that every season is a transition season in any sport, as nothing stays the same. "Transition season" is just another way of saying "we won't be very good". This season we have far exceeded the expectations many of us had, me included.

How it all finishes, well thats the beauty of sport, we don't know

I agree with the last post. Nobody on here (as far as I'm aware) knows what goes on in the board room and what sort of fight has been put up. It seems to me that by tying players down to long term deals then it at least ensures we get some financial reward if NRL or union come poaching!

This thread started about the club exceeding expectations and getting back to that, I'm happy with where we're at. We're certain of top 4, CC semi final and a hell of a match for anybody when we're on song. I'd have taken that in February!

If you compare the stability of our squad over the last 3 years with that of our main rivals over the same period, Leeds and Warrington, it's my OPINION that this has put us at a disadvantage. Hetherington has come out and said that he will fight the NRL over his players, maybe that won't be successful but I would prefer that to our stated approach of letting them go for a fee, maybe for a few seasons, when in my and many others' OPINION they won't be back.

I'd have to agree with this. On current form, Wire have to be favourites as we're not exactly firing on all cylinders. I'm honestly trying to convince myself that us not being in top gear at the minute may be because we're trying to peak our form for this weekend and the play offs. Hoping Wane has noticed what Wire and Leeds have done last year and trying to do the same.

We're more than capable of winning one, if not both trophies this year. No need to worry, not yet anyway!

Well you can't plan if you don't know who your players are going to be from one season to the next so I don't think it is sustainable in the long term to wave the white flag and meekly accept its inevitable any class players will probably be targeted and we have no chance of retaining them.

No contracted players have left Leeds yet. A couple of good young out of contract players have gone but that is what you would expect when contracts expire. Faz has signed a five year deal and if at the end of it he leaves then fair do's. In fact despite the high profile cases of players who haven't seen their deals out most of them do. Players like Tommy L and Pat did not or have not walked out on contracts.

We recently took the option of an extra year on Hansen's contract and its no secret his has attracted interest from the NZW and the likes of Salford. If we can hold him to his extra year the club must offer some attraction to players of his quality.

My personal opinion is the "we are powerless to prevent players leaving" stance is just not the case given what has gone on here and at other clubs and is an easy excuse to trot out. Unfortunately I think under IL every player has a price and we will never see a "hands off" statement from the club. The best we will get is players signed to long term contracts with a view to cashing in if suitable interest is shown.

As to expectations for this season IL was pretty clear on his at the start and while he acknowledged a lot would depend on how the younger players went there was no talk of a transitional season. There never has been under IL and he always says he expects improvement year on year which is IMO how it should be. A club such as Wigan ought to manage the normal turnover of players without becoming a lesser force. Transitional seasons are IMO an excuse for bad squad management.

In terms of how we have gone this season there is two ways to look at it. The statistics are as they are and we are in a semi-final of the CC and no one doesn't expect us to get to Wembley given the draw. We are high in the league (though relinquished top spot with a very poor performance) so on the face if it everything is rosey.

However I don't think there is a single fan who posts on these boards who given our form against the better sides doesn't have at least some doubts over the sides prospects of silverware.

We can of course still win all three trophies and two of them are knockout competitions anyway so anything can happen in those. Leeds were poor all season when they won it from 5th (and no it wasn't a master plan) so if they can do it so can we.

There is a difference though between how we are playing now than under Madge in 2010 in term of what that means going in to big games IMO. I was very confident playing Saints in the GF and it wasn't long into that game I was confident we would win and I watched the likes of Graham get frustrated as he was basically powerless to stop us - and he knew it IMO . I have nothing like that confidence given the way we are playing currently. We were feared in 2010 and 2011 and I don't think we are now.

This gets mentioned time and again but who cares! What use is a transfer fee compared to having Sam Tomkins play for you?

As to the stance we don't know how much of a fight went on that is a bit of a straw man type argument. No we don't know but those saying this don't know either! So it's bit rich to trot this out as a defense. All we can go off is what happens here compared to elsewhere.