NSW wrote:Lam has always been an excuse man, 2019 he kept blaming the departures of Tomkins, Bateman and Sutton even though we’d signed a few players. Always blaming injuries and the ref.
He even mentioned this week, how they “controversially” lost to us in the last game of last season (because of an disallowed try 30 minutes before the end of the game)
I agree with all of the above but have more of a mixed view on Lam's time as Wigan coach.
Pros
- Was hired to a tricky position as a temporary coach and dealt with that very professionally
- Generally maintained the defensive grit we had under Shaun Wane
- Recruited French and Field (and had very bad luck in 2021 when they both got injured)
- Won a League Leaders and can feel very unlucky not to win that Grand Final
Cons
- The 2nd half of 2020 aside - we never developed a cohesive attack under Lam
- Looked a little lost and confused at times - I remember several times when he publicly stated he couldn't understand what had gone wrong as we'd trained well etc.
- I think we saw a fragile ego emerge in 2021 when he started making bizarre, defensive statements - the biggest one being when he insisted we had the best attacking shape in the competition despite us being nilled three times in the space of a few weeks. I think the ego still rears its head now and again at Leigh.
- Generally team morale and togetherness had eroded in 2021 - e.g. player fallouts and a general lack of standards/accountability as Kris Rads and Shaun Wane alluded to in a post season interview
Great player and I'm pleased he's doing so well at Leigh but he left Wigan at the right time (particularly given who replaced him!)