Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:26 pm  

In a lot of ways Sarginson is the kind of player that every team should have. He is capable of covering all across the back line. Later in the season we could well be grateful for that. I would like to see an improvement in core skills, especially his positioning, when at centre, but he has the ability to improve. We are not going to pick up a specialist international centre, in the near future.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:40 pm  

Sarginson has pace, tenacity and stamina which will do for me. If he had handling skulls as well, he probably wouldn’t be playing for Wigan.
I’m delighted with the start to the season and particularly with the pace of the Wigan team. I’m so happy that we got rid of the slowest hooker and scrum half combination in the league.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:28 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

It’s sad that a lad that gives nothing but his best was made a scapegoat even before he’d played a minute of his second spell for us. This is a lad who in his last game for the club played a huge part in us winning a Grand Final.

I don’t think he’s perfect and I personally would rather see him as a squad player who covers the starting backline but some of the drivel I read about his ability on here is laughable frankly.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer, he was a panic buy as a direct replacement for Gelling. If I took the field I’d try my best as well but that doesn’t mean that I’m good enough to play there.
He was brought in as a centre and to be brutally honest isn’t good enough,no fault of Sarginson just a bad move by the club.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:07 pm  

DaveO wrote:

You said give him time and he will come to (which means come good/improve I presume). My point was I don't know why you would think that given how he played for us at centre before.

The posters since my post have pretty much summed up my point.

Lad is only young yet already gained a wealth of experience, only played a handful of games after a bad injury and a lot of issues would would effect anyone’s frame of mind. He’s going to improve wheb fully match fit with his spell in the NRL fully behind him.

I like Sarg for a salary capped sport. Young, big game experience at club and country, can play a number of positions.

Is he Gene Miles? No. But let’s be honest Wigan play in a salary capped league playing second if not 3rd fiddle to the NRL or union.

All things considered; be realistic, cut the lad some slack. We’re only 2 games in.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:21 pm  

hatty wrote:

One swallow doesn’t make a summer, he was a panic buy as a direct replacement for Gelling. If I took the field I’d try my best as well but that doesn’t mean that I’m good enough to play there.
He was brought in as a centre and to be brutally honest isn’t good enough,no fault of Sarginson just a bad move by the club.

It’s probably a sad indictment of superleague but even as a centre I think he will be good enough once he’s back in the swing of things. He won’t be the best in the league but there’s no reason he can’t get back up towards being one of the leagues better English centres. That’s exactly what he was in 2014 when he was selected there for England and had a very good four nations down under.

I’d rather he were back up but that’s not to be currently. He needs to improve and I’ve already said I’d consider putting Bateman at centre if he doesn’t but I just can’t agree with comments stating he’s ‘useless’ or ‘rubbish’. You don’t play for England (and play well) or be many people’s mom in a Grand Final (on the back of a very strong end to the season) if you’re rubbish/useless etc.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:25 pm  

Wigan6/Leeds1 Andy wrote:

The Gelling rumours started in November with the League Express saying he wanted to go, I'd hope the club were looking then.

That’s still pretty late though isn’t it? By then most players are sorted. I was quite impressed with Goodwin at Wire in the first week but by the time Gelling was confirmed as going he’d already signed for two clubs. I can’t think of too many other centres that have gone to new clubs this off season let alone any who’s moves were announced after November.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:32 pm  

I’ve seen nothing in him as a centre to suggest he will be a success there. The fact he got picked at international level was more down to the dearth of centres available. Now when he went to fullback the other year, he offered something that we hadn’t had all season, direct running and a willingness to gain yards and put us on the front foot. We were so poor at that point inbringing the ball forward from full back it turned out he actually made us a better side for what he did. I just don’t see him being effective, even less so on the right side where even in defence his body positioning was all tangled and off balance.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:09 pm  

DannyT wrote:

I’ve seen nothing in him as a centre to suggest he will be a success there. The fact he got picked at international level was more down to the dearth of centres available. Now when he went to fullback the other year, he offered something that we hadn’t had all season, direct running and a willingness to gain yards and put us on the front foot. We were so poor at that point inbringing the ball forward from full back it turned out he actually made us a better side for what he did. I just don’t see him being effective, even less so on the right side where even in defence his body positioning was all tangled and off balance.

I think your right in a lot of what you say, infact at international level its the reason we have never won the big games and won a game that really mattered. We always seem to be putting in a stop gap or playing someone whos not up to it or is but is out of position. We have had players over here who are/were as good as any in the Aus teams its the average players who are at an higher level in the NRL. That pushes up the level that you need to consistently play at. The Aussie team this year if you take away Slater, Cronk and Smith who are all coming to the end was the most uninspiring Aus team since I first watched in 82. Though you could still have picked quite a few NRL players who didnt play in the world cup who would have strengthened our side( example anyone instead of Kevin Brown) Sarge was probabley the best option for us, I still think hes got improvement in him and I dont think an NRL team would spend good money on him without seeing somthing. Like you say he was my MOM in the last GF win and to get anywhere near that means a decent player is inside him, he also regularly tops the fitness test. Im hoping he just keeps improving for us.

[Wigan6/Leeds1 Andy]

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:57 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

That’s still pretty late though isn’t it? By then most players are sorted. I was quite impressed with Goodwin at Wire in the first week but by the time Gelling was confirmed as going he’d already signed for two clubs. I can’t think of too many other centres that have gone to new clubs this off season let alone any who’s moves were announced after November.

Not really, plenty of time to look at right centre options (which the club may have done). In the end the club signed YET ANOTHER ex-player to play right centre - who isn't a right centre.

Re: Hull game : Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:54 pm  

We should have put the game to bed before half-time.

Gildart could have put Marshall away a couple of time and didn’t. One was a certain try if he passes. The other was 50-50, but he should still have passed and not kicked. Williams threw a cut-out pass when a step inside would have put himself into a huge game 5 metres from the line. Clubb knocked on 10 metres or so out on the first tackle. None of these involved Sarge getting anything wrong. The lad did ok as did most of the team. We looked fast and athletic compared to Hull. Across the park, things look better than last year.

Most of my frustrations were with us giving away soft penalties and handling errors. These are the main areas to work on. If we do that we’ll blow teams away rather than invite them back in the game. In the first half, we dropped off when Lockers went off (again). The good news is at the start of the second half we were blowing them away with him still on the bench.

Not sure if it was because he had a knock, but at some points, Davies was at centre and Sarge on the wing. Not sure if that came across on TV. I have watched the game yet. Was driving back from Sydney to Melbourne, yesterday, so I’ll watch the game again today to see if they mention it and why.

I’d give the team 7/10 for their overall performance. Gildart gets the lowest because of his bad choices.

Right now the sum of the parts looks better than any individual. If we can stay fit things look positive and we should be in the mix this season if we keep this up. Let’s not scapegoat one player when every one of them has something to work on.