That for me blew any chances of trusting mamagers in modern day rugby league. I STILL cannot understand the reason why Wane dropped 5 top players for the Widens game and 4 top players for the Bradford game and also alowing Gelling to play about 12 games and not realising that he was poop. Tony Smith at Warrington did the same thing for there games away to salford and london

they got more of a hiding than Wigan did.

And as to Lenagan expecting to reach at least 1 final a year he will have to cough up again.

For sure. We need a quality centre and a quality prop or we are settling for mediocrity next season. Time to spend some of that huge transfer money we have received in the last few years.

Have we not done that already?

Matty Smith

Blake Green

Scott Taylor????

What transfer money have we received? I can only remember us paying it out on people like Fielden, Gleeson, Smuth, Blake etc.

I think Farrell and Tomkins are the only ones. Got quite a bit in both cases though.

£240K for Joel Tomkins.

Wane should have done it more often. Tony Smith rested players throughout the year and at times Wire got caught on when resting too many players but how much did that bother Smith? He couldn't have cared less.



The mistake wasn't resting too many players or too many all at once, it was actually making it a target to win the league when no other coach even cared about it. I've little doubt that had Warrington set out to finish top they'd have done so easily but that also could have hurt their bid to win all three trophies.



The weekly rounds mean nothing. The defeat to Widnes meant nothing although it did highlight some weaknesses of certain players and it did show how some of the senior players who aren't start players coped with more pressure on their shoulders.

I also think that Wane should have rested players more often.

The problem was that we lost at Widnes and should have won even with a weakened team. Wane was rebuked for this and therefore didn't repeat it.

I hope next season that we rest players as often as is necessary with an aim to finish in 5th place or above.

We will then have a nice warm up game in the first round of the play-offs against the team that finishes eighth (mediocre), play the 4th team away and reach our peak against the 1st or 2nd away in the semi. We would also have a better chance of winning the challenge cup. Leeds, in finishing 5th, and getting to two finals is much better than winning the league.

I will still be getting my season ticket next year and won't complain if Wane rests players and we lose some matches as a result.

Did he? They only lost one more game than us and we pipped them by a single point to the league. He can't have made wholesale changes more often than Wane did and got caught out as a result otherwise they would have suffered more losses to weak sides. I think he had one game where he rested several players but that was [iafter[/i they had won the cup which is not how Wane managed it. Smith may have rotated his squad more but I don't think he rested 6 players after six games into the competition or made a habit of doing so throughout the season.







Tony Smith rotated players when it was sensible to do so. Wane didn't. No one needed resting after 6 games v Widnes. In 2011 Madge was criticised for not blooding any youngsters but he would not have been thanked for sticking in half a dozen at once.



As to the idea the weekly rounds mean little so Wane should have done rested 4 or 6 players more often that is not possible. Certainly not if as Wane said the league was a priority but also because if he had treated the league in that way then no one would watch it! Do you think IL wants to fans to treat the league with the same disdain as you are suggesting the coach should? It would cost the club a fortune in lost ticket sales.



That said Wane could still have had his cake and eaten it. If he hadn't rested so many players v Widnes and Bradford and taken the points off two weak sides by playing stronger teams he could have rested players at the business end of the season when they [iare[/i tired as the league would have been in the bag. Instead we had players busting a gut to give us the comeback of the season v HKR to win the league.



And not I am not saying a coach has to play his strongest side every week. Put in one or two players v weaker opposition, not six and you can still blood some players. You need to do that more often as well and I am sure this is what Tony Smith did. Murphy played once and didn't get another game until the semi-final for example. That was daft.



A lesson Wane needs to learn is not only can you not make 4 or 6 changes against weaker teams and still expect to win, he also needs to realise there is little value in doing so. Playing one or two younger players in the side alongside the seasoned pros and regular 1st team players will do them far more good than running around in a team where nearly half the team doesn't know the plays and what to do. You get young players getting game time and sensible more frequent squad rotation.

If he rests 6 players at once again and we lose I will complain. If he plays one or two younger players against the bottom sides and weaker teams we will probably win anyway and we will still get squad rotation. But if we don't win with a couple of kids in the side I won't complain.



If he had done this v Widnes and had we still lost he wouldn't have been criticised for doing so IMO.



If we win the cup and he then decides to rest half a dozen players to try and kick on and win the GF I won't complain about that either.



There is such a difference between what Wane did this season and what he ought to have done with regard to squad rotation.

To be quite honest I'm baffled at the "Wane Out" bandwaggonjumperoners that have suddenly decided to get all shouty. If we swap & change managers every five minutes we'll just go backwards very quickly.



The man's only been in charge one year and the only real mistake I can see he's made is not evolving our style quickly enough when it became obvious most of the other teams had figured us out.



The Widnes game was a lesson in arrogance that I think the whole squad (& I include both playing & coaching staff in that) learned and took note of. There were embarrassing blips where for one reason or another they played like they'd been on the pie & ale 'til 3 in the morning, but looking at the last 9 months as a whole I see no reason to either panic or jerk either knee.

I'm quite surprised at Wane getting stick for resting players against Bradford. If I'm not mistaken at that time it was potentially Bradfords last game. The Bradford team wanted to ensure that if it was their last match they were gonna win no matter what.



The Widnes game is/ was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. If Sam, Finchy, Tommy, Lockers or any body else came out of that match injured for any length of time, we would be saing why didn't he rest players more often.



I think he should have rotated the squad more and I also think he should have given more game time to Logan Tomkins for an example. Whilst giving more games to Murph, Powell and others.

At Widnes Shaun Wane got it wrong. Right at the end of his radio interview he's heard saying "I won't make that mistake again". He knows it more than anyone.



Against Bradford he didn't get it wrong.

The ref Tim Roby awarded the Bulls a try from the most blatent knock on any of us have seen which Gale converted. That gave them a half time lead.

Roby then sent off Micky Mac for a single punch. Same punch as Paul Wood at Wembley on Ablett, though Wood remained on the field.



Both McIlorum and Wood were charged with grade a offences which proves MM should not have been sent off. When MM departed we were in front and in control of the game. Those mistakes by Tim Roby cost Wigan the game. Shaun Wane did not.

I agree, Father.