Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Aug 11, 2018 4:27 pm  

Bigredwarrior wrote:

Williams played his first game in 2 months last night and was the best player on the field in that first half. We look a completely different side when he’s in the 13. He needs to get match fit and sharpen his timing a bit but for 40 minutes he was very good.
2nd half was like Catalan all over again. Forwards were beaten, lost ball, penalties and Sam Tomkins won us that game,
I’m a fan of GW but I’m the first to say he needs to find some good form and consistency. If we keep hold of him (I hope we do) I’d be very confident that with the coaching of Lam & Edwards in a more flamboyant style of rugby, he’d be devastating.

You don't know that for sure, you're just hoping he will, For me he can go, He obviously doesn't want to be here, I don't know whether that's down to himself, his agent or his dad poop stirring behind the scenes, but you read the article yesterday and to me that's just as bad as the Chris Ashton in a Northampton shirt while he was still contracted to us.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:10 pm  

I don’t know for sure but my comment was that I’m confident he would.

I was gutted when I read the article but didn’t realise when he did the interview. It’s now come out that it was ‘some time ago’ which tells us nothing. It could have been 12 months, 12 weeks or 12 days for all we know?

What I’ve said to others is that I’m excited by the prospect of next season. We haven’t a clue how we’ll line up but we do know the coach wants a more flamboyant style of play where the players are not over coached. In that set up, with new players like Hardaker around him, I believe George would flourish.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:24 pm  

Bigredwarrior wrote:

I don’t know for sure but my comment was that I’m confident he would.

I was gutted when I read the article but didn’t realise when he did the interview. It’s now come out that it was ‘some time ago’ which tells us nothing. It could have been 12 months, 12 weeks or 12 days for all we know?

What I’ve said to others is that I’m excited by the prospect of next season. We haven’t a clue how we’ll line up but we do know the coach wants a more flamboyant style of play where the players are not over coached. In that set up, with new players like Hardaker around him, I believe George would flourish.

I was waiting for the defence to present its case and it duly arrived last night,I don’t buy it frankly he gave the interview the case me Lord is simple he wants away,guilty comes to the cry and rightly so,it’s given IL admitting there is interest from down under then you start to put things together and it adds up,this interview may well have been done sometime ago but it seems awfully coincidental it drops as Lenegan confirms interest.

For me he can go,the arguement that Lam will make him a world beater may be true I doubt it,I just don’t think he has that intuition for me,no amount of teaching will change it.

He’s beginning to polarise opinion he fans will say he just needs time his detractors would say how much longer can you give him a player that even his fan boys at Sky now admit he’s been off the boil for a couple of seasons,to find this illusive form?

I’m always happy to be proven wrong but this lad for me won’t get much better if he stays or goes no matter who coaches him.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:10 pm  

The problem is not his ability. The problem is attitude and if he doesn’t want to play for the club, he shouldn’t have signed a 4 year contract. He signed it and he’s definitely got improvement in him if he wants it enough.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:45 pm  

I’m really frustrated with GW at the minute. He has the talent to be a leading HB and gain a starting position for England and GB&I but he’s just not performing whatsoever.

I don’t know whether that’s because of the way SW has set up or that’s genuinely the player he is, as in is his talent limited to a few decent passes and kicks per game? My other thought is have teams figured him out and what he does and he can’t adapt? I think the latter is more likely to be totally honest.

He looks lost to me on the field and plays like he can’t make a decision. A few times on Friday he tried his woeful hop skip jump and dummy and actually ran straight into Adam Milner. He tried it again a few more times as the game progressed and it was just awful.

Personally I’m absolutely astounded any NRL club are sniffing around him, his form doesn’t warrant it. I fear for him in that I think he’ll end up playing reserve grade before coming back to SL with his tail between his legs turning out for Huddersfield or Salford.

There’s no doubt he’s talented but I wonder how much. I wonder if he has the right playing attitude or attitude in general given the recent remarks and him signing a 4yr marquee deal. To me it stinks and it’s very disrespectful to a club who are paying through the nose for his salary for him to turn round and give us 2 years of bang average form and come out with an intent to leave.

Personally I’m leaning towards waving him off and bringing in two new HB’s. It’s clear he wants to go to the NRL, so let him go. I would have liked to have seen him playing under Lam and Edwards but he clearly doesn’t want to be at Wigan.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Aug 12, 2018 7:04 pm  

If Williams decides to leave I hope 1) we get a large payoff. 2) we don’t present him with the safety net (Wigan contract if and when he comes home).

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Aug 12, 2018 7:10 pm  

Some of these on here are latics fans up to no good talk some crap

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:26 pm  

This criticism of Williams is going way OTT.

Firstly the recent article, Wane has said it wasn’t a recent interview just published recently. He was asked would he like to play in the NRL and answered yes. I don’t blame him for that or find it disrespectful, we don’t even know if what was quoted was the full response or knowing journalists more likely part of his response quoted to create a better story.

Secondly his recent performance, it was his first game back after 2 months out injured, he looked lively and out most threatening player in the first half when the forwards were on top, a lot quieter in the second when our forwards were second best and when he was likely running out of steam. I found it most interesting that he was popping up left and right and combining with TL rather than sticking to one side as some posters claim our halves do.

It’s common for a youngster to break through and look the bees knees, tail off for a few seasons and then come good as they learn to deal with the pressure of expectation, Williams will come good and infor one hope that is with us for at least a few more years. If he wants to give the NRL a go then good luck to him, I’ll be disappointed but we’ll move on.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:37 pm  

His line of ‘maybe it’s not what they want but it’s my dream so I’d like to go given the chance’ is what got my back up. We clearly don’t want it and that’s why the kid was given a fortune to stay. It’s a fortune he’s not really earned (although I agree the criticism goes OTT) and now he wants to walk away. If he was prepared to take a fat pay rise on a four year deal then stay for four years and do things properly.

He only needs to look at his mates Bateman and Sutton to see how things should be done. They’ve gone about their moves differently with one point blank refusing to talk about a new deal and the other entering in to talks and then signing to come back but ultimately they’ve kept their heads down, played well and will have fulfilled their contractual obligations (Bateman leaving due to his clause being activated).

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Mon Aug 13, 2018 11:15 am  

Trainman wrote:

This criticism of Williams is going way OTT.

Firstly the recent article, Wane has said it wasn’t a recent interview just published recently. He was asked would he like to play in the NRL and answered yes. I don’t blame him for that or find it disrespectful, we don’t even know if what was quoted was the full response or knowing journalists more likely part of his response quoted to create a better story.

Secondly his recent performance, it was his first game back after 2 months out injured, he looked lively and out most threatening player in the first half when the forwards were on top, a lot quieter in the second when our forwards were second best and when he was likely running out of steam. I found it most interesting that he was popping up left and right and combining with TL rather than sticking to one side as some posters claim our halves do.

It’s common for a youngster to break through and look the bees knees, tail off for a few seasons and then come good as they learn to deal with the pressure of expectation, Williams will come good and infor one hope that is with us for at least a few more years. If he wants to give the NRL a go then good luck to him, I’ll be disappointed but we’ll move on.

It's more than just a claim, it is what our halves do. There have been a few games where the halves have switched sides over the last few years but rarely for more than just a handful of plays. In his interview about Williams I noticed Lam said “I don’t want to lock him into the Wigan left side, if you allow him to move around, the team becomes more balanced.” It's clear that if Williams remains at the club that Lam wants to see him used down the right as well as the left. It's something I think should have been tried long ago, especially during Matty Smith's last season with us when he could barely deliver a decent left to right pass. I hope Shaun Wane tries to get Williams more involved on both edges for the rest of the year.

If the interview with Williams is indeed an old one then maybe the arrival of Lam might just make George bide his time and see what working with Lam can achieve. If his game can improve then his stock will rise even more and he could go to the NRL a more complete player.

The bit about youngsters tailing off after making an initial impact is something that seems to happen to a lot of young halves in Super League. He may not have become a top halfback but Richie Myler was similar in that he was highly rated as a youngster before completely losing his way. Halves who play more direct tend to be late bloomers over here, possibly because they can rely on their running game for the first half of their careers and only start to really focus on their playmaking ability once they slow down and become less effective. Danny McGuire was a far better player in his late 20's and early 30's than in 2003/04 when he was scoring tries for fun. If Williams can develop his playmaking ability while he's still a dangerous runner he'll go far towards reaching his potential.