Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 7:02 am  

Dan on other site
Shaun Wane to take over with Matty Peet his no2.

Briers & Lockers the additional coaches.

Its happening.

[Pemps]

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:02 am  

jaws1 wrote:

Dan on other site
Shaun Wane to take over with Matty Peet his no2.

Briers & Lockers the additional coaches.

Its happening.

Although I'm not overly keen on "going back". Wane could be exactly what we need at the moment. He seems very popular with players so he may carry a bit of sway when it comes to future recruitment.

I would have thought that it will be very much on his terms too.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:16 am  

I’d much prefer Wane to take over than Peet but I think both have a tough task of winning anything with this side, I think we need Field to be a revelation at half back and Smith to dramatically improve if we want to challenge for honours.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:36 am  

It will be interesting to see what the structure is and who will be the main man. I can’t lie and say I’d rather have Peet than Wane but I’ll back what they go with. I do think at this moment in time we need that experience Wane would bring as top man. We know he’ll have the shoulders to take any short term pressure and would start with masses of good will. We’ve been that poor this season that it may not be a quick fix. The squad doesn’t look good enough to go from the shambles of this seasons attacking play and meek exits from both comps, to winning things but I’m confident Wane will at least get us back to competing in every single game. We can then build from there hopefully.

[Pemps]

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:39 am  

Neither Smith nor Field are Wane type players though. Wane like a tough half. Someone who could cover hooker rather than a half who would be relatively weak in defence.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:59 am  

Smith will need to start taking the ball in to contact before passing more or I can’t see him playing. He’s too happy to move the ball on well in advance of the defensive line. I’m hoping that was him playing to instruction and not a lack of bottle. He is going to need to take a few whacks in the process of passing the ball if he wants to play under Wane.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:14 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

Smith will need to start taking the ball in to contact before passing more or I can’t see him playing. He’s too happy to move the ball on well in advance of the defensive line. I’m hoping that was him playing to instruction and not a lack of bottle. He is going to need to take a few whacks in the process of passing the ball if he wants to play under Wane.

I'm torn on Smith.

On the one hand, I think there's a good player in there. He's relatively young and will fill out a little as he gets older & that will help him with the physical aspects of the game.

On the other hand, there's been plenty of HB's on the market that aren't right because they don't partner well with Smith. We seem to have nailed out colours to the Smith mast and, as such, limited ourselves to who we can target. As an example, I'd have been made up to have Croft and Field as our HB's.

If we're unable to sign players because we've got Smith, then quite simply, he needs to perform.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:25 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

I'm torn on Smith.

On the one hand, I think there's a good player in there. He's relatively young and will fill out a little as he gets older & that will help him with the physical aspects of the game.

On the other hand, there's been plenty of HB's on the market that aren't right because they don't partner well with Smith. We seem to have nailed out colours to the Smith mast and, as such, limited ourselves to who we can target. As an example, I'd have been made up to have Croft and Field as our HB's.

If we're unable to sign players because we've got Smith, then quite simply, he needs to perform.

This.

Huge year for Smith.

Massive improvements needed.

Watershed season for his career.

Does he become an established SL quality half or is he the next Jordan Lilly. My feeling is he’s the latter but hope he proves me wrong.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:45 am  

jonh wrote:

This.

Huge year for Smith.

Massive improvements needed.

Watershed season for his career.

Does he become an established SL quality half or is he the next Jordan Lilly. My feeling is he’s the latter but hope he proves me wrong.

Huge amount of pressure on the lad and, in the wider context of the impact that will have on the team & club, it's an avoidable situation on the club's part imo.

Undoubtedly, as a HB at Wigan, there's going to be pressure on the lad. There was pressure on Sam and GW when they 1st came though. They needed to perform, but at the same time, neither had the fate of the season so squarely resting on their shoulders.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Tue Oct 05, 2021 10:27 am  

One thing is for certain in my mind and that’s Smith having a far better chance of succeeding under Wane than he did under Lam. One may have been a world class half and the other a decent prop but looking at the last few years, Waney has far more idea of how to get the best out of players and how to get his message across about what he wants.

I’m hoping we’ll be sat here in April/May next year, after watching Smith for a couple of months and saying ‘wow, what a difference’. There has to be talent there, you don’t dominate a young Aussie side including the likes of Stephen Crichton, Tesi Niu and Bradman Best unless you have something about you. Unfortunately there’s been many examples down the years of top academy players not transferring it to the first team. The good news for Smith is they were few and far between under Wane the last time around, so there’s still plenty of hope yet.