Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 2:30 am  

Levrier wrote:

No one in the club seems to have anything but praise for Powell. Perhaps we should count up his Grand Final winners medals and compare them to some of those other players who are so much better.

I dont think anybody would doubt his commitment, work ethic and honesty, its his ability in attack that is more of concern. He doesnt have the speed to scoot so i would like him to study Martin Dermott and improve his pass accuracy/speed and also develop some craftiness. Dermott often did run arounds with the half backs which confused the hell out of defences and theres no reason Powell couldnt do this.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:08 am  

The_Enforcer wrote:

I dont think anybody would doubt his commitment, work ethic and honesty, its his ability in attack that is more of concern. He doesnt have the speed to scoot so i would like him to study Martin Dermott and improve his pass accuracy/speed and also develop some craftiness. Dermott often did run arounds with the half backs which confused the hell out of defences and theres no reason Powell couldnt do this.

I wonder (and I'm not saying I'm right about this, genuinely have no idea) if the lack of dummy half running has more to do with instructions from the coach rather than the players themselves. To my mind, we haven't really had a 'scooting' 9 since pre-Madge, so perhaps we might be pleasantly surprised in what Powell can do if Lam looks at changing things.

More generally, really happy that Sam & Smith have signed. Even if he'll never be a top scrum half, he's a brilliant squad player who contributes a lot. A bit of a shame that he's so similar to Tommy, but then again that probably won't be an issue in 12 months time.

Woods is the slightly stranger one at 21, but at least playing first team rugby for a year he'll have the chance to properly show what he can do.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:22 am  

Levrier wrote:

No one in the club seems to have anything but praise for Powell. Perhaps we should count up his Grand Final winners medals and compare them to some of those other players who are so much better.

Oh come on, by that definition Ricky Bibey was better than Eorl Crabtree and Andy Lynch. Let's not fall into the trap of assuming all of our players are better than our opponents just because we have won trophies. Out of interest, which (of any) of the following would you say he's better than? Roby, Clarke, Houghton, McIlorum, Parcell, Leuluai, McShane, Leeming, Lunt.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:42 am  

Can’t really understand the criticism of Powell. Very good player and a real leader on and off the field by the sounds of it.

Ok he is never going to be a superstar but he has proven he is more than good enough to be an important player in a side capable of winning trophies which is the key point in a salary capped sport.

I also think there is plenty more to come from him and working with a new coach will benefit him.

I don’t think having 2 similar hooker/halves like him and Tommy does him or us any favours but that will be resolved next year when Tommy is likely to hang up his boots.

I personally have always liked the pacey scooting hooker who works in partnership with a hooker like Powell.

Wood is a strange one for me, he just isn’t a half in my opinion due to his lack of pace and I’d like to see him get game time at 13 whilst at Leigh.

Harry Smith no doubt alerted some of the NRL clubs with his displays recently so very good news we moved to secure him. Will be really interesting to see how he develops, another hopefully heading out on loan to play first team rugby in the lower divisions.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 11:47 am  

Sam Powell will be the next Wigan captain.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:28 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Sam Powell will be the next Wigan captain.

Ahead of Farrell? Why?

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 1:10 pm  

Grimmy wrote:

Ahead of Farrell? Why?

There seems to be a real buzz about his leadership and influence off the pitch.

It was highlighted several times on reports coming back from PNG with England Knights.

All the players seem to really respect his work ethic and attitude too.

I’m not saying they don’t respect Faz but I’ve never seen it as publicly documented as it has been with Powell.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 1:31 pm  

jonh wrote:

There seems to be a real buzz about his leadership and influence off the pitch.

It was highlighted several times on reports coming back from PNG with England Knights.

All the players seem to really respect his work ethic and attitude too.

I’m not saying they don’t respect Faz but I’ve never seen it as publicly documented as it has been with Powell.

Fair enough, hard to comment as I'm not there at training, don't hear what he says on the pitch/changing rooms etc. We do need new leaders to step up in the next few years, and I'm glad if we're smart enough not to just automatically give it to the most talented player.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 3:13 pm  

Grimmy wrote:

Oh come on, by that definition Ricky Bibey was better than Eorl Crabtree and Andy Lynch. Let's not fall into the trap of assuming all of our players are better than our opponents just because we have won trophies. Out of interest, which (of any) of the following would you say he's better than? Roby, Clarke, Houghton, McIlorum, Parcell, Leuluai, McShane, Leeming, Lunt.

Tough to say he’s better then any named but I would say he’s vastly underrated as a specialist hooker. Let’s make no bones about it, he stank at half back and had very little impact when it came to helping get others across the line but that changed when he went in to dummy half, both during games or starting later in the year.

He finished the season with 14 assists and I’d guess many came from dummy half rather then in the halves. If you compare that to some of the guys you name, he beats many of them and ultimately it’s a lack of creativity that gets thrown at Powell in addition to criticism of his own running game (which I always wonder how stifled our hookers running games were by our tactics)

2018 assists
Roby 11
Clark 9
Houghton 7
McIlorum 12
Leeming 4
McShane 27
Lunt 3
Parcell 6

It doesn’t tell you the full story but it’s interesting non the less when we talk about him in an attacking sense.

Re: New deal for three Wigan Players : Tue Dec 18, 2018 5:32 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Sam Powell will be the next Wigan captain.

You know how to upset a certain section Rogues... Behave!!