This

That's like listening to a West Brom fan moaning that Manchester United bought all their trophies. If it makes you feel better, go for it.

so Leeds were full time spent a fortune yet werent able to compete? Saints competed and spend a fortune also look at their squads in the 90's plenty of money spent

Agreed. The top teams in SL should be thanking us.

Back in the early nineties Wigan were the only time a RL team has ever had a number of household names (Hanley, Edwards, Offiah, Tuigamala, Robinson) it was Wigan who dragged the game kicking and screaming out of the semi pro/train three times a week then go to the pub era.

The 82 Aussie invincibles (and subsequently 86 team) changed all that for us. Ultra, ultra professional. To play like them, you had to be like them.

Wigan are lucky, anyone can throw cash at a club and expect success.... Leeds laughably tried and failed on many occasions (John Gallagher and Slammin Sam Backo anyone, massive wages).

For Wigan, every big signing we had a young lad coming through (even better fir us these days).

For every Hanley and Offiah, we had an Edwards and Hampson. We had a Betts, Clarke, Dermott, Preston.....

All local lads and all special.

Leeds paid more for Hanley off us that we bought him for. Turned local lad Robinson down. Laughable.

There was nobody to compete with us but we won the league by 2 points, 1 point and on PD. We were out the cup 3 or 4 times during the run and pulled it out the bag. Hull away for example. We lost finals, semi finals, and never went unbeaten.

Either sides weren't as bad as everyone makes out, or we weren't actually that good.

What the hell has all this got to do with the fitness of players then and now?

Weeds were the first full-time team and spent more than anyone else .. they just had a terrible youth system and bought a load of duds!!

This

What happened 22 years ago was the darkest time in the clubs history, but it appears that some today cannot face up to the reality of the then situation which was created as a result of the club paying out massive players contracts which it could not afford. A situation which resulted in a salary cap being introduced so that clubs could only spend on players contracts in relation to the income of the club and a more even playing field for all clubs to win trophies.

As a result of Wigan being the only club who had the "bollox" (as you put it) to do it, it resulted in the club ending up with no new stadium of its own and near possibility of being made bankrupt.

The irony is that some of the players who were getting the massive contracts were the first to jump ship when Union became fully professional.

We may have been good, but it led to the crowds starting to go down as some supporters got fed up of watching one sided games!

really? thats not true crowds have been pretty consistent weather we win something or not filling the away ends at grounds we go to similar to crowds at CP

Quote ="Ruddy Duck"We may have been good, but it led to the crowds starting to go down as some supporters got fed up of watching one sided games!'" wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=489 Not true, we had a steady 14k throughout our successful period. Only when we went to SL did crowds dip 95-96 (Saints and Bradford started winning trophies) so you could argue that some fans left once our success dried up.

Quote ="Ruddy Duck"We may have been good, but it led to the crowds starting to go down as some supporters got fed up of watching one sided games!'" wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=489 Not true, we had a steady 14k throughout our successful period. Only when we went to SL did crowds dip 95-96 (Saints and Bradford started winning trophies) so you could argue that some fans left once our success dried up.

The fact remains that from the end of the 1994/95 season, our crowds went down not just because the success of the Bradford and St Helens club, but other factors including one sided games, turmoil at the club over the sale of Central Park and most of all, a reaction by many traditional supporters not prepare to accept the concept of Summer Rugby.

Thankfully that situation has been altered as newer supporters prefer to watch games during the summer months which has indeed increased our crowds in spite of less away supporters, especially from Yorkshire travelling to games.

As someone who went to games in the appalling conditions of the Winter both off and on the field, there no way that it should ever return to the Winter as in my opinion lead to less crowds, especially with now the dominance of football during the Winter.

I don't think one sided games was ever a factor TBH

It was in part for me, 1997 was a reset period and I enjoyed 98 & 99 because of the normality of 97. Do the premierships of 96 & 97 ever get tallied into the "major" trophy counts? Funny how the majority of losses in 98 & 99 had S.Cummings in the fixture: wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3305 wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3306 but to be fair there weren't that many refs.

It was in part for me, 1997 was a reset period and I enjoyed 98 & 99 because of the normality of 97. Do the premierships of 96 & 97 ever get tallied into the "major" trophy counts? Funny how the majority of losses in 98 & 99 had S.Cummings in the fixture: wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3305 wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3306 but to be fair there weren't that many refs.

Quote ="Mash Butty"It was in part for me, 1997 was a reset period and I enjoyed 98 & 99 because of the normality of 97. Do the premierships of 96 & 97 ever get tallied into the "major" trophy counts? Funny how the majority of losses in 98 & 99 had S.Cummings in the fixture: wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3305 wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3306 but to be fair there weren't that many refs.'" The majority of things I have read/heard from the time tend to point towards the move to summer and the s*it around the sale of CP from 97 onwards. I was only a kid at the time so don't have too many clear memories of the goings on myself.

Quote ="Mash Butty"It was in part for me, 1997 was a reset period and I enjoyed 98 & 99 because of the normality of 97. Do the premierships of 96 & 97 ever get tallied into the "major" trophy counts? Funny how the majority of losses in 98 & 99 had S.Cummings in the fixture: wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3305 wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=3306 but to be fair there weren't that many refs.'" The majority of things I have read/heard from the time tend to point towards the move to summer and the s*it around the sale of CP from 97 onwards. I was only a kid at the time so don't have too many clear memories of the goings on myself.

Most, if not all of what has been said is about right, changing to summer rugby, loss of money & having to sell the stadium and star players was too many changes, no one could handle all of that. The loss of the character of Central Park is something that I have never got over but it was inevitable.

still annoys me CP, would have loved to have taken my son

Imagine selling it to Dave Whelan, sharing with Latics and then being asked to move a game because they had a match the day after.

I wonder about that, too.

Do fans really say, "I'm fed up with watching us run in seven or eight tries like last week, I shan't bother going again"?

would have preferred that to what he have now

It was asked by the local newspaper at the time.

The move to summer rugby was indeed a factor at the time as many supporters, especially older ones who had been use to watching the game in winter were against the idea but as time as moved on, more and more have come to accept it.

The sale of Central Park was also a factor as many supporters, especially again the older ones would not accept the idea of watching games at the DW and ownership of the club by Whelan, but after a couple of seasons or so started to come back. A fact I was told at the time by a member of the club's administration staff at the time.

As new generations have come to accept that summer rugby played in better conditions both weather wise, together with better playing surfaces, any move back to winter rugby would in my opinion lead to lower crowds as many of the today's supporters have never been used to watching the game in the winter conditions and would stay at home and just watch the games on television.

Thank you, Maurice Lindsay, you were a visionary as far as I am concerned.


p.s. My only gripe is that I think the official season should commence on the first weekend of March and end on the last weekend of October with the Grand Final at Old Trafford as February is more often than not, the worse month of the year for bad weather.

Spot on. Going back to winter would be a disaster. And to counter the jibe that we play winter rugby now with a start in Jan/Feb, yes, fair enough, I agree, let's start the season at a more civilised time, in March. In fact, why not align it with the NRL season.

Spot on and incidentally the same happened with amateur rugby when BARLA were taken over by the RFL. I was against it at first (looking back I can only cringe at how silly I must have sounded) but it’s far better. Playing on a half defrosted pitch in 1degree cold with a wind chill and sideways hail was the worst, especially as a bloody prop.

I’ve always wondered why the SL and NRL seasons don’t follow each other, surely that would be easier for internationals etc. Same could be said for the French league albeit to a much lesser extent and importance to the international calendar