I'm sure this will get merged with the Leeds thread.



The simplistic answer is a combination of factors (influential players leaving, disruption due to the loss of the training ground and injuries) has led to a severe loss of confidence which is very difficult to get back. Without confidence and self belief you need a minor miracle to win a game.



We went through this in '06 when a change of coach and a couple of new players was needed to shift the focus and get some confidence back.

But our downfall had been on the cards for some time in 2006. We had an owner with no interest and a part-time chairman, who habitually got his salary cap calculations wrong. All through the early 2000s there was an atmosphere of malaise at Wigan. Murrayfield in 2002 was the last hurrah of the great 1990s side. After that it was all downhill until we very nearly ceased to exist (I refuse to believe that, given the pressure from Latics, Wigan would have survived relegation easily). And Millward was clearly the final nail: a very divisive figure, whom half the team wouldn't even talk to.



By comparison, everything seems to have gone wrong at Leeds overnight.



But I do agree the Sinfield and Peacock departures are key to this. Maybe their presence papered over a very deep crack. There were stories a couple of years ago that McDermott was not popular with the squad.

Three years ago, I visited Headingly whilst on a Change Management course and met McDermott & Hetherington. From the way GH spoke, it was clear that the club was run on very strict guidelines, and with BMcD being an ex-Royal Marine, he was seen as a key player in that regime. I suspect that McDermott relied very heavily on Sinfield & Peacock to ensure the message was received and understood by the rest of the squad, and now they have left, the link between management and players is not as strong.

You don't finish first by good fortune. We were top almost the entire season.



And in the playoffs we had been behind by an insurmountable 5 points for nearly 8 whole minutes when Sinfield kicked his 40-20. We took the lead with 12 minutes to go and never lost it again.



Enjoy our current problems by all means, but please don't rewrite last season when we were very comfortably the best team in the league and fully deserved everything that we won.

Not sure what is happening with Leeds but how can you move MOS from his usual position to wing!!



Could you imagine Wigan move Sam Tomkins to wing and playing Tierney or someone alike at full back??

I think some of us could be enjoying it a lot more than we are, to be honest.



Most Wiganers I know are bewildered rather than happy.

Glad somebody mentioned that, I thought it was crazy and was the sort of thing that happened here back in 2005/2006.



That wasn't half a smack in the face for Hardaker and seems like the sort of move which will totally demotivate the guy. His form hasn't been great but from what I've seen he's trying as hard as anybody. I wonde if his confidence took a knock against the Kiwis last year? He'd been bigged up going in to the series and he hardly made an indent in the Kiwi defence.

Can you imagine the Leeds traffic on here of the boot was on the other foot?! After some of the pathetic comments on here after the LLS and GF defeats last year by the Rhinos fans I've been tempted to revel in their misfortune on their board but I'm not taking a great deal of pleasure from it. My main concern is the game over here needs a team like Leeds to be strong. They pull in 15,000+ crowds on a regular basis and they're a big city club. It won't be long before their crowds drop off a cliff if things continue and the game doesn't need that.

2006 on here was like the Wild West - what a season!

Well I am happy , I was at Headingley when Lee Smith stood on the wall goading us after their win, also does it show how much Sinfield reffed the games

You do realise just how close you came to losing the LLS don't you? The best maybe, but "very comfortably"? Get real.

And it appears you are very comfortably the worst team in the league, even Salford with points deductions can't drop below... as for comfortably 26 points was all there was between Wigan and Leeds and two points in the Grand Final. Hardly what I would call very comfortably the best in the league.