I used to rate Davies as a commentator but went off him after the 2011 Challenge Cup Final when he was so petulantly anti-Wigan that it was straight out of the Eddie and Stevo playbook. I can only assume it was all about where he'd put his money, but nevertheless, I saw him in a different light after that.
Was working yesterday afternoon so only managed to watch the first half (2nd half on GMR). From what I saw we were very impressive and blew Hull KR away (almost as we did in the playoff semi).
If we can keep this squad injury free (although we do have amazing squad depth) then we can hopefully expect more and more success over the next few years. What an exciting time to be a Wigan supporter.
Ryan Hall has been a champion player and is a honest and down to earth guy. I don't want my comment to sound like a criticism of him, I just hate to see good players go on too long. They tend to get remembered for how they performed at the end of their career and not at their best which is very unfortunate.
The big issue here is the commentary team, they have a very important role to play as they can massively influence opinion. Fans and lazy journalists follow that agenda (the only logical conclusion is it was an agenda) resulting in this faux outrage which takes away from the fantastic performance from Wigan.
I’m sure after a long career playing Wilkin must know the rules of the game. Yes, it was a forward pass but it doesn’t take too many brain cells to work out they were offside first, he even acknowledged they were clearly offside yet still continued to whinge about it.
We see the ‘shepherds’ every week. Every team does it, they are rarely given unless it is outrageously obvious. This is consistent with what we see see week in week out and will only change with a shift in the interpretation of the rules.
The worst one from the commentary was the decision to completely ignore the clear red card offence by Hiku. Davies got very excited about the possibility of Thompson walking after the most innocuous late tackle that shouldn’t of even been a penalty and the chances of a Wigan player walking after Opacic had a cheap shot on Keighran, incidentally Keighran’s yellow was a joke.
Really poor from the BBC
Further to this, why was the following not a talking point? If that was Byrne he'd have been straight off and that would have then been the narrative for the rest of the commentary and post game.
The big issue here is the commentary team, they have a very important role to play as they can massively influence opinion. Fans and lazy journalists follow that agenda (the only logical conclusion is it was an agenda) resulting in this faux outrage which takes away from the fantastic performance from Wigan.
I’m sure after a long career playing Wilkin must know the rules of the game. Yes, it was a forward pass but it doesn’t take too many brain cells to work out they were offside first, he even acknowledged they were clearly offside yet still continued to whinge about it.
We see the ‘shepherds’ every week. Every team does it, they are rarely given unless it is outrageously obvious. This is consistent with what we see see week in week out and will only change with a shift in the interpretation of the rules.
The worst one from the commentary was the decision to completely ignore the clear red card offence by Hiku. Davies got very excited about the possibility of Thompson walking after the most innocuous late tackle that shouldn’t of even been a penalty and the chances of a Wigan player walking after Opacic had a cheap shot on Keighran, incidentally Keighran’s yellow was a joke.
Really poor from the BBC
Further to this, why was the following not a talking point? If that was Byrne he'd have been straight off and that would have then been the narrative for the rest of the commentary and post game.
To get back to the actual game, thought we performed brilliantly, we were so clinical in what we did both in attack and defense. Tactically we were spot on.
Everyone played well but apart from Smith getting MOM I thought Thompson showed exactly why we signed him and N'Semba was a real handful but no one had a bad game at all, we looked like a really well drilled and coached team.
I didn't get HKRs gam eplan which mostly seemed to be pass it to Lewis and hope he could make something happen, they didn't play anything like they did in the league game tactcally, although the way Wigan tore into them from the start was a huge part of that.
It's not allowing quotes now for some reason mate...
I thought it was a bad one at the time but, seeing it again, it's even worse. How he doesn't see a card for that I'll never know. Still, Wilkin would rather spend the match whinging about the "injustice" of a correct decision so let's not worry about the blatant attack to the head of a prone player! As you say, the narrative stinks and totally belittles what was an outstanding performance.
I must mention Luke Thompson here too. I didn't know 80 minute props still existed, let alone in that heat! The man's a machine.
Our friends on RedVee are having a mini meltdown too. One reeaaaalllly long post about how we get preferential refereeing. You'd think the grubby attack on Field whilst on the floor, the head high on Ellis, Minchella's wonderful play acting as though hed been shot when he'd barely been touched etc never happened! Let's all get up in arms about a forward pass not being given instead, eventhough the offside was the correct decision and supercedes it anyway!
The most toxic poster on Redvee is a thing called Brian Nazerath.
Great performance yesterday. That first 40 was a real statement to the other teams; when we're on like that, we're very, very difficult to beat.
Nsemba turned the tables on Lewis, compared to a few weeks ago. That boy is a superstar and unfortunately, the NRL awaits in a few years.
I'm optimistic we'll finish the job at Wembley, it all starts with our intent in defence. You could tell from minute 1 yesterday, that we were fully dialled in.