getter question

Normally when for my getters I use the short hand.  For example

public Opportunity opp {get; set; }

And this works fine

public class Top10OppAt90All_Class {
    public List<Opportunity> oppListStart {get; set;}
    OppWrapper newOpp;
    public List<OppWrapper> oppList {get; set;}   // = new List<oppWrapper>();
    public aggregateResult oppTotalClosed {get; set;}
    public decimal variance {get; set;}
    public Goals__c goal { get; set;}
    public Decimal oppTotal {get; set;}
    public Top10OppAt90All_Class() {
       // try {
            if (oppTotal == NULL) {oppTotal = 0;}
            if (oppListStart == NULL) { 
                oppListStart = [SELECT Name, StageName, Id, Amount, account.id, account.name, type, closedate FROM Opportunity 
                                                  WHERE StageName = 'A. Pending Sale' AND Amount != 0 AND Amount != NULL
                                                  ORDER BY Amount DESC LIMIT 10]; 
                oppTotalClosed = [SELECT Sum(Amount) TotalAmount FROM Opportunity WHERE StageName = 'W. Win' AND CloseDate = THIS_QUARTER];
            }
            for (Opportunity opp:oppListStart) {
				newopp = new OppWrapper(opp.name, opp.CloseDate, opp.Amount,  opp.id);
                system.debug('opp = ' + opp );
                system.debug('newopp = ' + newOpp);
                oppList.add(new OppWrapper(opp.name, opp.CloseDate, opp.Amount,  opp.id) );
                oppTotal = oppTotal + opp.amount;
            }
        oppList.add(new OppWrapper('Total', NULL, OppTotal, NULL));
      //  } catch (exception e) { system.debug(e); }    
        system.debug('oppList = ' + oppList);
    }
    /*
    public List<OppWrapper> getOppList() {
        return oppList;
    }  */
    public class OppWrapper {
        public String name {get; set; }
        public Date closeDate {get; set; }
        public Decimal amount {get; set; }
        public String Id {get; set; }
        public  OppWrapper(String name, Date closedate, Decimal amount, String id) {
            this.name = name;
            this.closeDate = closeDate;
            this.amount = amount;
            this.id = id;
        }
    }
}

The only way I've found to fix that is to do 

public List<OppWrapper> oppList  = new List<oppWrapper>();

combined with

/*
    public List<OppWrapper> getOppList() {
        return oppList;
    }  */