when did it start

[stevo38]

we av not suddenly gone bad we av to look bak to c wen the cracks started to appear av we got rid of to many players at once i mean last yr we scraped throughso maybe this began 2 maybe 3 seasons bak ?

[The Pearl]

Turning points that have brought us to where we are now (in no particular order).

1) The start of Super League and all clubs going full-time.

2) Maurice Lindsay's return and interference with signings

3) Faz leaving

4) Selling Furner to Leeds

5) The introduction of the 'any aussie is better than homegrown talent' signing policy.

6) Moving to the JJB (not against it but, would love to have the central park atmosphere behind us for the next 14 games).

7) Lack of long term planning

8) Having a coach as a figure head rather than letting him be 'The Boss' (this has been addressed now with Noble being given total control).

9) Latics becoming succesful (good luck to them but it has divided certain peoples focus).

10) Losing the 1st game at the JJB to Castleford.

[DaveO]

The Pearl posted:
Turning points that have brought us to where we are now (in no particular order).

1) The start of Super League and all clubs going full-time.

2) Maurice Lindsay's return and interference with signings

3) Faz leaving

4) Selling Furner to Leeds

5) The introduction of the 'any aussie is better than homegrown talent' signing policy.

6) Moving to the JJB (not against it but, would love to have the central park atmosphere behind us for the next 14 games).

7) Lack of long term planning

8) Having a coach as a figure head rather than letting him be 'The Boss' (this has been addressed now with Noble being given total control).

9) Latics becoming succesful (good luck to them but it has divided certain peoples focus).

10) Losing the 1st game at the JJB to Castleford.

I'd give you 1/10 for that lot Which one? Number three.

I think the problems have occured in the last two seasons. We got to grand finals and won the cup in 2002 and generally were up there with the other big clubs for the majority of the last decade. We didn't win as much as we may think we ought but look at Leeds. Their trophy cabinet is hardly overflowing.

It is only the last two seasons where things have gone badly wrong.

THE big mistake was letting Farrell leave. It left us with a very inexpereinced squad and when the injuries last season kicked in, it exposed the younger players the club had promoted as not up to it. I think the club believed its own hype about how good certain players were and they came up short e.g. Brown, Aspinwall and Wilde. Some were then let go and in theory we recuited better players but look where the new bods have got us.

We went from a well led side with an experienced captain to one without a leader with lots of kids. Last season we had Rads and Newton as captain and neither could do it. This season we have Lockers and he is evenworse at it.

There are many smaller factors that in my opinion all add up to conspire against us. Injuries like no other side experienced. The fact we play more away games at the start of the season due to being in the JJB does not help. Millward chosing Lockers as captain was a mistake. These things all need to be factored in.

I also think the Mike Greg thing was a bit of a turning point. His illness has meant we have ended up with in effect three coaches following him in less than two years.

Millward could not get this seasons squad despite helping recruit a good part of it and I think he did a lot of damage to players confidence with his style of coaching.

Dave

[The Pearl]

My list was merely one of turning points and not the definative list as to why we are where we are. I agree with what you say but a lot of peoples comparisons are based on the golden era. Oh yeah! Think i forgot 'the' major factor.

- When we stopped having our kit made by adidas and went with the budget gear from Patrick!! (although I do like the new kit!!)

[PiltonHark]

I think you'll find the decline coincided when Pooles shut all their shops. The fact that the only place to buy Poole's pies is now the JJB changes the balance in the time-pie continuoum thus causing the ref/super league/world to have it in for Wigan.

[thegimble]

PiltonHark posted:
I think you'll find the decline coincided when Pooles shut all their shops. The fact that the only place to buy Poole's pies is now the JJB changes the balance in the time-pie continuoum thus causing the ref/super league/world to have it in for Wigan.

[Fraggle]

stevo38 posted:
we av not suddenly gone bad we av to look bak to c wen the cracks started to appear av we got rid of to many players at once i mean last yr we scraped throughso maybe this began 2 maybe 3 seasons bak ?

Just a reminder to everyone - please do not use txt spk and lots of abbreviations on here. I'm sure I'm not the only person who struggled to read the message above (but from the subsequent responses I'm sure it was an interesting question!)

[Mike]

Letting Lam and Robinson go with no replacement, then making a statment that we wouldn't need a scrum half the next year, then panic-signing the only available scrum half in Moran.

Also, releasing amost all our experienced players (Cassidy, Smith, O'Connor, Connolly, Lam, Faz) in one go in 2004 - hindsight shows how daft that turned out to be.

We've now got a team that started from scratch 2 years ago, with no history at the club behind them, rather than a squad of 50-50 new blood and experienced Wiganers.

[ChrisA]

Mike posted:
Letting Lam and Robinson go with no replacement, then making a statment that we wouldn't need a scrum half the next year, then panic-signing the only available scrum half in Moran.

Also, releasing amost all our experienced players (Cassidy, Smith, O'Connor, Connolly, Lam, Faz) in one go in 2004 - hindsight shows how daft that turned out to be.

We've now got a team that started from scratch 2 years ago, with no history at the club behind them, rather than a squad of 50-50 new blood and experienced Wiganers.

Spot on, Can't really add to that