Cruncher wrote:But I think John Dorahy was an extreme example. His incompetence was threatening to destroy a superb team.
With Noble it's not so clear cut. His tactics are nonexistant, but the team is also poor. Only the odd individual has occasionally shone during Noble's tenure.
The idea of them all giving him stick the moment his back is turned is quite amusing - the same is done with most of the players by the fans, and for better reasons: i.e. the fans feel badly let down, whereas with the players you get the feeling it's because they're being bitchy.
There is, I think, a very childish element creeping in at Wigan at player level. When IL read the Riot Act to them after the Huddersfield game last season - the incident that is often credited with turning the season around - several of them went whingeing to the press, instead of taking it on the chin like men. Any time a player is dropped - particularly one of the younger guys (who in former decades wouldn't even share the same dressing room with the first team), they complain to anyone who'll listen, knowing full well that word will get out. It doesn't surprise me entirely. I think there are a lot of negative influences around the fringes of Wigan RL these days. The guy who leads the 'we hate IL' brigade on the other website does it because his mate was released by the club. Others - some of them in the coaching set-up - stick their oar in because they see something in it for themselves - either in the form of job protection or job opportunity.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Nobby is undeserving of criticism. Far from it. But when we hear new members of the coaching team at Wigan saying that the entire culture at Wigan needs to change, then I think it's pretty clear what they mean.
The players may not like their boss. But as other posters have said, the vast majority of us don't - and we don't get the consolation of enormous salaries for doing the thing we love. As a job-lot, they need to man up.
Speaking from personal experience if a coach allows the position of power to shift then they deserve to go. It has cost me on one occasion a mistake i never made again, but once that respect is gone there is no winning it back.
The coach when dealing with large groups of young men has to keep a tight hold over them by whatever means he has, Millward went due to player disharmony, Kear did at Hull, Smith did at Wakefield all pretty obvious examples but i would also point towards many other occasions of clubs underperforming, and once the coach walks enthusiasm and passion kick back into place. The trick is maintaining this for your tenure as a coach the good ones do in all sports, the poor ones are quickly exposed and that respect is lost.
From simple body language and public reactions to Noble from the players i have suggested for a long time now that he does not have the confidence of the players and i genuinely feel that is the case, which is the main reason for the substandard performances.
There is an old saying if it aint broke don't fix it, our tactics are clearly broken and yet there is no visable attempts to fix them in key areas, and as someone expected to follow the coach this is not going to help the relationship.
