Someone explain please. All im getting is a s*** ton of pop ups when i click on the link :/
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies
Mmmm. Personally even at his best I’ve always considered Leuluia a better 9 than a 7. Sarginson is definitely an improvement on current Hardaker though.
Wigan are a big project to fix though. I called it 3 years ago. How can you plan for the future when you guarantee a second row forward (Bateman) the marquee spot if and when he ever returns. A crazy piece of business by Wigan. He’s returned on top money, left his heart in Australia and upset any team spirit the goons once had.
Leneghan and the ginger turnstile get all they deserve.
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies
I think it’s more around who they’ve lost, and there’s no excitement in their recruitment (unless they have a real rabbit in the hat).
Losing Hardaker, Gildart, Hastings and replacing them with Thornley, Sarginson and Kaide Ellis, and then claim to “only have 73k left on the cap” is a bit bizarre (especially comparing their recruitment to ours for example) - Mago should be an upgrade on Clubb (or at least should be, it would hard not to!) but you don’t look at their 1-17 for next year with any sort of concern. Their major problem this year was scoring tries and nothing about their recruitment looks to resolve that.
"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom." Danny Blanchflower.
Might have been written by a footballer about football - but never a truer word............
He might have played OK v Leeds, I can't remember him standing out personally.
However, overall I think he has been a bit of disappointment. Whenever I have seen him this season he has seemed clumsy and ill-disciplined. Mistakes, penalties and at times easily rattled and a bit petulant. He hasn't lived up to the hype at all (some of which his own doing on Twitter.) When we have played you I have been more concerned about Farrell and KPP than him. He's not someone at the moment that I see on the team sheet and am overly bothered by. He needs to be much better for you next season in my opinion.
NEVER WRITE OFF THE SAINTS
And I'll give you the same reply to your same post on RL Fans
In sixteen appearances Bateman has made almost 1800 metres, only given away five penalties, made 558 tackles only missing 35, with 37 offloads. I agree his eighteen errors are too many. But, Liam Farrell apart there are few backrow forwards that can match those stats, and certainly none at Saints.
Stats don't read the full picture and you know that.
The reason his work rate has been so high is because your middles are terrible and your back row have had to compensate for this both in carries and defensively.
As other posters have said, seeing Batemans name on the team sheet gives little to no threat currently.
Duplicate
His biggest problem is that he slows the game down for his team, he's gets far too involved in the arm wrestle by the time he has got his offload away the opposition defence have reset.
Thats one of the reasons you have one of the worse metres per carry and are just above Hull KR, Wakey and Leigh for that stat. Your front row doesn't help so you need your backrow forwards to get on with it, thats why you also have the worse record in Superleague for the number of times you produce ZERO points in one particular half in a game.
We had a similar problem with Bentley.
He's also done feck-all against us this year.
Not noticed him in games against other big contenders, either.
Is he just a flat-track bully?
Can't stop the spirits when they need you.
This life is more than just a read through.
We can’t match Wigan’s losses either. 4th flattered you and you couldn’t score in a brothel with a dick made of tenners.
All the Saints lads are polishing their medals and trophy’s.
Don’t be surprised to see it again next season whilst you slip further and further into the abyss, but you’ll be Ok reminiscing about days of old and tales of yore. When you bring back Wane and he can’t magic up any polish for the turds you have playing for you in your rented stadium and blue seats, and people think you e changed the club name from “Wigan Warriors” to “Wigan Nil” because they heard it so much this season.
You make Rubber Duckie seem (almost) sane!
Can't stop the spirits when they need you.
This life is more than just a read through.
That's all well and good. But because he's got zilch around him in terms of metre eating props, his graft doesn't count for much. As proven by your pack being ran over by Leeds last week. Unfortunately, it's better to sum up a forward pack by the collective. And yours is well, pretty average.
Now Bateman's graft at Canberra (and in his first spell at Wigan to be fair) was clear for all to see as he had good forwards around him.
As I have posted before, I'm a huge fan of Bateman. He's tough, niggly and aggressive. He's also incredibly brave and a worker. Top, top player. But it's got you nowhere.
Stick around but post less and read other posts more carefully, you might learn something