moto748 wrote:
I didn't check the times, but at the game, he seemed to come on a fair few times, and I thought he did fine. I don't see the problem.
TBH I thought he'd come back on for a 2nd spell etc.
However
My comment is based around the critique of player playing only his 3rd game, and implying that he's lazy/not worth his wages and all the negative associations with Fekas time here which a lot was based around bad defence and lack of minutes.
Hes had 3 games well above average for me, 2 in particular were very good.
Last year after we signed him there were a few who were relaying stories about their mates watching him in a game saying he was blowing out his backside after 10mins etc in a particular game leading to IMO a stereotypical assessment of him as a player of that heritage. My mate watched the same game, and said he did 60mins (in fact he'd played the whole of the 1st half I believe) and that He will go "Just fine" for Wigan.
Here we are after his 3rd game and we have someone already associating certain traits to a player with no context being applied. Maybe his shorter game.time this week (if it actually was?) Was down to other issues, game plan etc?
And so the ball starts to roll, and I can see it now after a defeat at some point the, the same, old same old, Will start.
Without wishing to rake up old coals, we had a "Prop Forward" here who for the last 4 years couldn't do 15mins a game, or 15 games a season and contributed sod all but seemed to be invisible to that criticism (certainly until the last 12/15months of his time here).
I mentioned on our WhatsApp rugby group and may have impleod it on here, I'm not concerned about 1 player becoming a "Walmesley" or Chris Hill etc doing 80 mins, 200mtrs and a billion tackles each week.
I want a "Pack" that performs well, works well together, compliments each other etc.
TBH the other site had me shaking my head more than this the other day (I dont post, just read, and I need to stop doing that!).
Singletons now not good enough, Partington not good enough (and he's getting stick on here) etc. And don't even get me started I thebother sites appraisal of Sam Powell, they're like a dog with a bone.
After week 1 at HKR I knew we'd played well, and after week 2 I again knew we had, you know why?
Lack of posts/traffic on here and the other site.
I bet there weren't 50 posts on either site after the first 2 wins about the game/players.
1 defeat and all that will change
The Team have improved 5 x fold over the off season
Is it the finished article, No, and that's good as I think we will improve further in time.
Are we the best team in the comp, No, not yet, and it will take time, but we've made massive strides in the off season and imo are 80% of what we need to be after regressing alarmingly over the last 3 years.
But some people want to look at every tiny fragment and when it's perceived as a negative (without any context or background info or evidence) rip it open and disect it and blow it of all proportion into some kind of massive issue.
As I said in the WhatsApp group after the Friendlies and the HKR game
The new set up have achieved many things for me in such a short space of time but 2 stand out
1/ we don't look Soft anymore = Tick
2 we don't look amateurish = Tick
I'm going to add another, Fans of, and other clubs aren't laughing at us anymore and starting to concern themselves about us again.
That in itself is a remarkable achievement in such a short space of time.
The players also need a bit time to settle I to all this as well.
And currently every one of them seems to be doing so just fine IMO
