Wigan...an analysis

[Chris22]

Very open from Wigan. I doubt that they are alone in many of the challenges they face.

Interesting that the signing of Thornley announced this way.

Big period coming up for Wigan with Hastings' departure and Hardaker's future up in the air.

Here's the fan Q and A.

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2021/09/03/fans-forum-qa-session/

[whatmichaelsays]

4 hours ago, Damien said:

Some really informative answers from the fans forum here. Very open and honest and Lenegan and Radlinksi need to be commended for that. As a Wigan fan some of it certainly isn't what I hoped for and is definitely what I had feared:

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2021/09/03/fans-forum-the-first-hour/

Quote

And I’ve always said, we’ll never break the salary cap. That’s not the integrity of a club like Wigan.

Please tell me IL said that with a straight face 

[EastLondonMike]

Well that was a bloody depressing read.

I certainly don’t warm to either IL or KR. Maybe it’s just me but they seem quite deflective.

I don’t hold out much hope for a decent coach coming on board to excite us fans.

[ghost crayfish]

It is an interesting read that highlights the legitimate challenges, but there's also a few "we could have handled that better" type situations too. The fact they didn't legally push George Williams to come back isn't a great look, particularly given they go on to explain all the salary cap benefits they'd get with him! Time and again, they're showing people can walk all over them as they don't enforce contracts. Similar theme came through in how he talked about situations with the soccer club. Just a bit of resignation, weakness, and 'it's all a bit hard'.

[M j M]

There's quite a bit of buck-passing and responsibility dodging dressed up as honesty in that.

Looks like something is definitely afoot with Zak Hardaker.

Most remarkable is that they asked people to keep what was said off social media before publishing a word for word transcript on the club's website?!

[Damien]

1 hour ago, M j M said:

Most remarkable is that they asked people to keep what was said off social media before publishing a word for word transcript on the club's website?!

And advertising what was said and the q & a with links to it on Facebook and Twitter! 

[Davo5]

The fact that Leneghan comes out with he prefers winning the Challenge Cup to bring Champions coupled with saying Miski is a great winger & Iain Thornley will be a good signing is my biggest worry.

[Mark S]

£100k salary should be the average for a SL player! 

[Scubby]

30 minutes ago, Mark S said:

£100k salary should be the average for a SL player! 

A$130,000 is the minimum wage for just junior squad players in the NRL. That's £70k - better than quite a few established SL players. No wonder players like Dom Young, Bailey Hodgson and Harry Rushton think it is better to go to Aus as a fringe player than be on £15-20k here. Pryce will probably be the next. 

[Exiled Wiganer]

That’s a cracking read. Good on them. I hadn’t quite appreciated how awful Latics have been, but that’s not surprising. Hopefully they’ll go bust again, Danson can spend some of his loose change on a new stadium and they can crash and burn. 
 

The key new bit of info for me was the succession planning - ie all will be well even if we have a few more years of taking a bath. 

[Mark S]

19 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

That’s a cracking read. Good on them. I hadn’t quite appreciated how awful Latics have been, but that’s not surprising. Hopefully they’ll go bust again, Danson can spend some of his loose change on a new stadium and they can crash and burn. 
 

The key new bit of info for me was the succession planning - ie all will be well even if we have a few more years of taking a bath. 

Saints ground cost £25M, if Wigan wanted a similar size stadium the costs would be much higher. Thanks to Brexit the costs of materials have shot up.

[M j M]

1 hour ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

That’s a cracking read. Good on them. I hadn’t quite appreciated how awful Latics have been, but that’s not surprising. Hopefully they’ll go bust again, Danson can spend some of his loose change on a new stadium and they can crash and burn. 
 

The key new bit of info for me was the succession planning - ie all will be well even if we have a few more years of taking a bath. 

I'm amazed if you're reassured by that. There didn't seem anything concrete about the future, plenty of pretending to take responsibility whilst not really doing so and a lot of wishful thinking.

[Exiled Wiganer]

2 hours ago, M j M said:

I'm amazed if you're reassured by that. There didn't seem anything concrete about the future, plenty of pretending to take responsibility whilst not really doing so and a lot of wishful thinking.

There is two things that matters in a business like ours - can you pay the bills, and can you invest in the team and its coach to the maximum allowed? On both counts we are fine - the Lenaghans will write cheques until the billionaire takes over. 
 

It is an absurdly simple business - get the best possible coach and get entertaining players and the rest looks after itself. 

[Scubby]

21 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

There is two things that matters in a business like ours - can you pay the bills, and can you invest in the team and its coach to the maximum allowed? On both counts we are fine - the Lenaghans will write cheques until the billionaire takes over. 
 

It is an absurdly simple business - get the best possible coach and get entertaining players and the rest looks after itself. 

Where does Iain Thornley fit into this if you are losing the likes of Jackson Hastings, Oliver Gildart and Zak Hardaker? 

[Exiled Wiganer]

2 hours ago, Scubby said:

Where does Iain Thornley fit into this if you are losing the likes of Jackson Hastings, Oliver Gildart and Zak Hardaker? 

Thornley for Gildart is not an exciting swap, but against that we needed to spend money on some big lads, so the money was better spent on 2 NRL props. We are replacing Hastings with someone, as yet unknown and if we lose Hardaker we will be able to replace him. If Field is any good (and wasn’t he playing in the NRL last year?) and French comes back fit and well, then we will still have some players who can entertain. Tbh, if we lose Hardaker and sign an attacking hooker, that would really lift morale. 

If we had Maguire or Holgate coaching us, or someone else of that calibre, people would come out in bigger numbers again. Those coaches vastly improved the players available, and many of us believe there is a lot of talent in the existing squad, 

[The Frying Scotsman]

On 04/09/2021 at 17:55, Exiled Wiganer said:

 

If we had Maguire or Holgate coaching us, or someone else of that calibre, people would come out in bigger numbers again. Those coaches vastly improved the players available, and many of us believe there is a lot of talent in the existing squad, 

@M j M here is someone who ACTUALLY knows what he is talking about. A Wigan fan who is aware that top quality coaches are not actually the people responsible for the level of the English game being down the toilet. 

Perhaps you should pay attention to him. 

[Agbrigg]

Seems like Jacob Miller is on the possible list of replacements for Hastings. As  Wakey fan who sees a lot of Miller, I am quite surprised by this. However from what I have seen of Jai Field ,I would take Miller over him every time.

[M j M]

Why is there this apparent desperation in Wigan's half back recruitment for next year? They've known Hastings was leaving for ages and Leuluai surely at the end of the road it should have surely been a priority for months.

[Father Ted]

Maguire won't be at Wigan next year.

A lot of talk about Miller and I feel he may have signed but doesn't want it announced until his club's season is finished. Hardaker won't be at Wigan next year either. He's presently commuting between Pontefract and Wigan, will see the season out but there's no long term future in that.

As far as coaching goes Matty Peet seems the favourite for the head coach job. He's enough assistants with O'Loughlin, Leuluai, Winder, Goulding and more. Whether Winder stays or goes no one seems to know.

Wigan's major asset next season will be not having Lam as head coach. He's absolutely crippled the club with his crackpot squad selections and not having a game plan or tactics other than kick long chase hard!   

 

 

[M j M]

Unless Hardaker has something lined up and it's been kept quiet it's hard to see where he'll land if he leaves Wigan. I know Cas has been rumoured but surely that can't happen can it? 

After that you've got Wakey which is unlikely, Leeds who are a no, the Hull clubs who may be too far anyway but FC probably can't afford him and I doubt KR would want him after bringing in Coote, even if Hardaker can play centre.

That leaves Huddersfield ...?

[Agbrigg]

5 minutes ago, M j M said:

Unless Hardaker has something lined up

That leaves Huddersfield ...?

With Ashton Golding , cover with McIntosh and Bott. Huddersfield have plenty of good options at fullback.

Maybe he is off to Fev

[dboy]

9 minutes ago, Agbrigg said:

With Ashton Golding , cover with McIntosh and Bott. Huddersfield have plenty of good options at fullback.

Maybe he is off to Fev

If Fev get promoted, that wouldn't be a bad call!

[Davo5]

44 minutes ago, M j M said:

Why is there this apparent desperation in Wigan's half back recruitment for next year? They've known Hastings was leaving for ages and Leuluai surely at the end of the road it should have surely been a priority for months.

Just typical Radlinski we’ve run all season with 1 injury prone centre who is following Hastings to the NRL & the only replacement mentioned is a Leigh player we thought wasn’t good enough years ago.

[GUBRATS]

Maybe Hardaker to Leigh , we did try once before