Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:51 pm  

Uncle Rico wrote:

Just like St Helens did this year?

That is utterly irrelevant. St Helens were not as competitive a team as we were this season.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:54 pm  

Captain Hook wrote:

But, we lost Dodds and Harrison and Westwood, all beefy blokes who would have been chosen before Cox Bailey and King so which ever way you cut it they are 5th 6th and 7th choice props. How much of the salary cap could you spend on that level of back up? Not very much is the answer to that rhetorical question.
This isn't football, there is an imposed budget and therein lies the skill/luck balance. That is why people like Cox, Wheeler and Blythe are with a punt.

We desperately missed Westwood in that Final. He is still the heart and soul of that team.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:31 pm  

Dont understand all the Gidley bashing, from a Wigan fan perspective (me) he was awesome, he ran his blood to water, and I firmly believe if Wire had won, he'd have clearly been MOM. Someone else posted somewhere that if Gidley had been playing for Wigan we'd have beaten you by a lot more. Gidley and Sandow (if he stays) will have you moving round the pitch with ease again next season and you'll be there abouts again at the business end again.

As for Ratchford......I'd have him at Wigan in a heartbeat, he is class!!! When he was at Salford he was unplayable at centre, selected for England etc, Wire buy him and play him everywhere but centre......doh!!!! I agree, if we had Gells and Ratch in the centres at Wigan we would take some stopping.

Thankyou for your contribution to what I thought was a great blood and thunder Grand Final, which was played at a 100 MPH. Your fans were a credit to the club and all the Wire fans we met after the game were extremely gracious in defeat. Keep the faith as you will be competing for the big trophies again next season.


Matt

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:39 pm  

mark_m wrote:

We desperately missed Westwood in that Final. He is still the heart and soul of that team.

Totally agree, the talisman.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:14 pm  

adiddy wrote:

Dont understand all the Gidley bashing, from a Wigan fan perspective (me) he was awesome, he ran his blood to water, and I firmly believe if Wire had won, he'd have clearly been MOM. Someone else posted somewhere that if Gidley had been playing for Wigan we'd have beaten you by a lot more. Gidley and Sandow (if he stays) will have you moving round the pitch with ease again next season and you'll be there abouts again at the business end again.

As for Ratchford......I'd have him at Wigan in a heartbeat, he is class!!! When he was at Salford he was unplayable at centre, selected for England etc, Wire buy him and play him everywhere but centre......doh!!!! I agree, if we had Gells and Ratch in the centres at Wigan we would take some stopping.

Thankyou for your contribution to what I thought was a great blood and thunder Grand Final, which was played at a 100 MPH. Your fans were a credit to the club and all the Wire fans we met after the game were extremely gracious in defeat. Keep the faith as you will be competing for the big trophies again next season.


Matt

Perhaps he did play centre at times but he played hb at Salford but Myler was hitting the headlines...very soon after we realised we should have got Ratchford, and so did.
Poor Doc Marwan was gutted.
The deal was done just before he bought the club.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Tue Oct 11, 2016 6:13 am  

rubber duckie wrote:

Perhaps he did play centre at times but he played hb at Salford but Myler was hitting the headlines...very soon after we realised we should have got Ratchford, and so did.
Poor Doc Marwan was gutted.
The deal was done just before he bought the club.

You announced Ratchford'a signing in July 2011, Koukash took over Salford in January 2013.

[Uncle Rico]

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:24 am  

mark_m wrote:

That is utterly irrelevant. St Helens were not as competitive a team as we were this season.

Sorry Mark but how can you say it's utterlyirrelevant?

Saints were out of the cup early doors, were comfortably in 4th aided and abetted by Catalans end of season implosion two of the top three playing in a hard fought CC Final in tremendous energy sapping heat, the top three playing each other over the final couple of weeks to decide the LLS and the play off order and they even managed to end up with their favourite fixture of the season as their semi final.....the perfect storm

The relevance is the injuries to our front line pack members probably cost us in the end. I did agree that planning your end of season does allow those carrying knocks or those with long minutes to arrive in better shape, but, planning to play Saints at Langtree Park in the semi final isn't a sure fire way of winning the Grand Final

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:44 am  

Superblue wrote:

We blew it in the unprofessional loss 28-35 to Wigan.
Had we won that we could have coasted at hull, played an under strength Wigan team in the semi and then most likely hull at old Trafford.
If you don't take your chances it comes back to bite you, and it did.

We played an under strength Wigan team in the final and got comfortably outplayed...what makes you think we would have beat them in the semi?

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:51 am  

ThePrinter wrote:

You announced Ratchford'a signing in July 2011, Koukash took over Salford in January 2013.

So I'm right thanks.

Re: Some home truths....this may hurt : Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:57 am  

rubber duckie wrote:

So I'm right thanks.

I'd hardly call 18 months "just before Marwan bought Salford". He probably hasn't even heard of Rugby League in July 2011