On reflection, what on earth happened in 2006?

Did he take the job too soon after getting sacked at St.Helens?

Watching back on old games from that period was more horrifying than I could remember.

He took the job in 2005 after Betts 'departed'.

I think the truth is that we lost a lot of quality and experienced players due to Whelan and Lindsay losing interest. At the same time Latics were on the charge into the Premiership so maybe that was the distraction.

We also had the unfortunate passing of Mike Gregory in 2004 and Denis Betts having to fill his shoes.

I don't think anyone at the club had a plan, or any idea how and when to replace our ageing squad. At the end of 2004 we lost Lam (into coaching), O'Connor, C.Smith, Cassidy, Connolly and Farrell. Midway through 2005 we lost Radlinski and Lockers did his ACL. Davico played 5 minutes of a pre-season friendly.

We replaced some incredible quality with bang average or youth players:
Lam - Moran
O'Connor - Seu Seu
Smith - Guisset/Hargreaves
Cassidy - Hansen/Allen/Wild
Connolly - Wild/Brown
Farrell - Beswick/Wild/Hansen

For me the wheels already started to come off towards the end of 2004. Farrell had moved to prop after a lot of injuries and was still carrying us around the pitch. We were lucky in 2 play-off games and then deservedly got hammered by Leeds.

Millward was obviously a good coach and got the best out of Saints but the style of play he wanted - that Saints played so well - we just didn't have the quality or pace at all, especially in the halves.

There was a lot of rumours around the time of him losing the dressing room, a lot of unprofessional attitudes and some other shady things going on but I think that just points back to the lack of experience we had and a 'changing of the guard' culture where the kids sort of took over.

It's hard to say whether Noble actually had that much of an effect on us in 2006. Most fans agree/think it was the signing of Dobson and then Fielden that got us out of a hole. After Noble came, we beat Huddersfield and then lost the next 6 games. I dread to think where we would be now without Dobson and Fielden (and Bryan Fletcher who was massively underrated and I think scored 9 tries in the last 12 games). Thankfully Cas and Wakefield were just as as us but I think our fans take most of the credit. The momentum those atmospheres gave us to get out of relegation was incredible. Watching the games back sends shivers down my spine.

We threw a forward pass straight from the kick off in our opening game and it pretty much summed things up

Farrell was replaced by Fletcher and the largest was paying money and newton for higham, I think that broke the dressing room

I watched the 2004 Good Friday game earlier and all the talk was about how Millward had been accusing us of being head hunters in the build up and he was then up to his usual theatrical antics during the game, putting his shocked face on and throwing his arms up. I sat there and it suddenly flooded back we’d then actually hired that moron to be our coach not long after and what’s worse, I wanted us to do it.

Everyone makes mistakes and my gosh he was one.

Mike Gregory stood down from being head coach in 2004 and died in 2007

.

Moran was signed up because he was Londons top try scorer the year before

Liam Botham was signed up because he was Ian Botham.s son

Michael Withers was signed up and went from a great player to a bad one over night

Uncle Mo and Whelan at this time bought Orrell RU they got relegated the next season.

Soon as Wigan FC got into the Premier League he would not let the Rugby team play on the Friday before a football game on the Saturday as it would "ruin the pitch

Despite all of this crowds went from 10,000-15,000 average!

Noble signed Withers. He wasn't actually that bad for us. Was backup and only played 7 games.

Noble DID however sign Richie Mathers to replace Chris Ashton

Good summary. I think maybe a flip-side of the atmosphere playing a part towards the back end was that when the players aren't good enough/inexperienced, the JJB wasn't an easy place to play in the early months of the season. Definitely turned it into a positive come late-summer though.

On Millward, a mixture of poor recruitment, bad luck and him being a horses for courses coach. Able to get a special group of players firing, but probably didn't have the tools to stop the nose-dive when things go wrong.

A signing I think we all agreed with at the time.

You are probably right, I was definitely guilty of assuming that just because you had done a bit of time in the NRL then you must be decent player, to some extent I still am guilty of this.

On a side note I always thought Mcavoy was solid enough for us yet he also attracted criticism at the time although few players didn’t during that season.

we signed some garbage, Millard, Mcavoy, Withers, Botham. Jonkers, Higham, Godwin, Hill, Wilkes and Karl Pryce....all past their best or journeymen

Withers by a country mile is the worst ever player at the club.
His performance at one of the magic weekends was almost criminal.
I dont like calling any pro player "soft" because you have to have some bottle to play the game professionally but his performance that day suggested he was terrified of tackling.

Watching some of the old games on Wigan tv Ashton did score some decent tries

I think it was the last game of the season at Huddersfield and Ashton was outstanding. It was carneys last game and he kicked a goal from the touchline I left thinking I had seen a star in the making and a youngster to replace the NRL bound Carney.

Harsh to class Higham as garbage he was a good hooker and maybe Godwin and McAvoy did decent enough jobs when needed

very dark days. I remember listening to them announce the team, and if either Farrell or Newton were missing, pretty much meant we were going to lose...

Some of those did 'ok' (millard, godwin) and higham did nothing wrong although, to be fair, he was no Terry Newton (RIP)

he was garbage considering we paid money and gave Newton for him

Do you not mean Mathers in 08, especially seeing as though Withers didn't play for us at Magic?

I did indeed.
Thanks for correcting me. Withers when he played at Bradford was a pretty decent player

I don't think he did much wrong for us TBH. We had far worse out there than him.

Higham would’ve been a class player for the club in another time. He was pretty good as it was but put him in that 2010/11 team for example, playing as a bench hooker behind Micky Mac and we’d have lauded him as the quality impact hooker he was. Sadly around that 4 or 5 year period we were putting square pegs in round holes on a consistent basis. As bad as Moran was for us, he was another player asked to do a job that was totally alien to the role he’d thrived in at a London. Give him a controlling half to play alongside, a good creative 9 and a more experienced Lockers at 13 and he could’ve played his off the cuff and support runner role to a really high standard. As it was we asked him to try and control the team and he sank like a stone.

I agree with your assessment of Higham. I think it’s particularly harsh to say he was poor for us.

I have to completely disagree with your view on Moran. He was average at London and utterly appalling at Wigan. I likened Sammut’s signing to Moran’s and I wasn’t far wrong either. Those teams from that time still send shivers down my spine.

I would argue that in attack Sammut brought more to the side than Tommy. He can't defend like Tommy though so Tommy was picked.

Lammy basically said that he wasn't using Sammut because of his defence, which is a worry IMO

I'd love to find that topic, I definitely didn't agree with it.

He was terrible for us but I thought he was a good player at London, playing in a manner that suited him. He’d hurt us on a few occasions before we signed him. Looking at his record at London he scored 75 try’s in 104 appearances. That’s exceptional for a halfback but he was a support runner of a half and we didn’t need that.