It's 10 years now since DVDV left Warrington, the first game in August 2001 was the one where Paul Darbyshire took charge for a week as caretaker coach and we beat Bradford 18-14 with Smyth scoring a late try at the corner, Mark Gleeson winning man of the match on his full debut, Jon Clarke playing scrum half and Nikau stand off.

I wonder what we would have thought back then when we were celebrating a last minute win over Bradford, that a decade on we would be smashing 60 odd past Bradford and not regarding it as anything significant.

It got me thinking though, the DVDV era was probably more significant than it gets credit for in our recent history. When DVDV took over in 1997 just after Iestyn Harris had been sold, was probably the most precarious point in our history. I know 2002 was the lowest ebb on the field but back then with the stadium being built, our future was probably more secure than it was in the first 12 months of DVDVs reign, when we had no money, couldn't afford to run a youth team, a dilapidated old ground and little cause for optimism for the future. It was the end of that season that we sold Scully and the consortium came in to stop us folding, I think that marked the point as well when Simon Moran first took part ownership of the club?

It was in the DVDV era that a lot of significant decisions were made. One was that around 1999 was the time the first acorns were sown of improving the youth set up, the scholarship was set up with William Beamont, I remember DVDV was talking a lot about this back then saying he wanted to set something up along the lines of what he was familiar with in Queensland and that it would take 7 years or so before we could start seeing the effects. That was right because towards the end of the last decade we saw a lot more good lads emerging.

Also the DVDV era was when the stadium decision was won, with Peter Deakin on board as well. I thought both DVDV and Deakin had their flaws but they were good to have at that time, I remember feeling that year after Scully had just been sold, a real feeling of depression and lack of ambition on the terraces at Wilderspool, we all thought we were just going to be rubbish forever. Deakin came in with boundless optimism and with hindsight he was maybe a bit unrealistic for where we were at the time, so we had a false dawn when we signed big names and disappointed again - but Deakin did change the mindset of the club to one of thinking a bit bigger and this was important to get momentum for the stadium decision especially when we had a fight. DVDV was the reason we got Langer when the Pies wanted to sign him along with Renouf, and the Langer signing I still think is the most significant of our recent history other than Morley, because from the moment Langer joined, we got a boost to the crowds that never dropped off, I noticed a new set of faces that 2000 season that you have seen at games ever since.

There was another important decision that was made in the DVDV era, in fact the first decision he made as a coach was what to do to replace Iestyn Harris, he signed Bobbie Goulding's back up Lee Briers from Saints.

So what are everyone else's thoughts about the DVDV era, ten years on.

Can't say I was a fan of DVD, especially after the way he treate Mark Forster, by he did put some excellent steps in place with regards the academy.

Worth noting it was Murphy and Anderson who signed Briers not DVD, who's biggest mistake was putting him full back.

Can't say I was a fan of DVD, especially after the way he treate Mark Forster, by he did put some excellent steps in place with regards the academy.

Worth noting it was Murphy and Anderson who signed Briers not DVD, who's biggest mistake was putting him full back.

Briers signed in 97, Anderson (I assume you mean Steve Anderson) was coach in 2001.

good post some points that people would never have realised i remember langer coming in and boosting the crowds and like yourself got people that were on the fringes of watching rugby league just come to see him play and have stayed ever since and yes he was right in the youth system that he put in place in that it wouldnt bear fruit straight away and will need to wait a number of years personally think it is still just starting to produce now after it has grown and been developed from an extremely raw vision but i enjoyed watching some of the rugby of this period and put us in good stead for the current

DVDV had already been coach for 2 or 3 games before we signed Briers, he needed to sign a halfback because we had none, Willie Swann had been sacked, Jon Duffy had been promoted from the academy (he was about 16 at the time) and then he broke his leg anyway. When DVDV arrived it was Nigel Vagana and Kelly Shelford in the halves for the first few games.

As for his biggest mistake being playing Briers at fullback...? That was about 2 games. I can think of bigger mistakes DVDV made, signing Adam Doyle, letting Michael Eagar go after one season....

DVDV made some good signings though, Danny Farrar was a good player when he was here, and Danny Nutley was another good find. DVDV was often criticised for signing older Aussie players, people said he didn't care about young players, but he was not afraid to make bold decisions about giving young players a chance - he had a 17 year old Warren Stevens as starting prop in the first team, he picked a 19 year old Paul Wood out of the Academy, put him in the team and never dropped him, he gave Jamie Stenhouse a chance to be starting winger for a full season, he gave Dave Highton a chance to replace Farrar as first choice but Highton then failed a drugs test, he gave quite a few other young lads first team exposure - Alstead, Campbell, Cowell, Noone, some of them weren't up to it but DVDV was not afraid to give a young lad a crack.

As I was only 6 in 2001, I don't remember him.
I only remember the chant 'van der Velde's barmy army'
But from what I have read in Sallys post, he's set us up for the future with the youth set up.
Briers joined in 98 so it was DVDV who brought him here. Thank-you DVDV

you, go away, scour wikipedia, and get the centenary book the club released in year thingy, and the book warrington rlfc 1970-2000 and do your homework.

1998 indeed.

As sally says, we went with john duffy for a couple of games who then cracked his ankle, against, oldham down here i think adn we signed briers the week of the saints game at kr that year.

I'm too young to remember any of this....
I've scoured wiki and from what i've read DVDV joined in March '97 and Briers joined in '98

yeah, there was a 'frantic rush' to get him signed in time to register him to play Saints, and Saints panned us anyway by 60

Was Murphy still involved with the club when DVD was coach?

"B0LLOCKS"

Stood at a bus stop in Grappenhall with three mates waitng for a bus to Wilderspool. DVDV drives past and sees two young lads in Wire shirts (the rest of us weren't in wire shirts) and offers them a lift. Gets a big surprise when a few more people than expected pile into his BMW convertible. It was a bit a snug in the back.

Van de Velde was both very good and very bad for the club. He got the junior set-up going again after John Smith's cost-cutting exercise, which, when you think the core of our side was brought through from the reserves. On the flip side, he had a definite favouritism towards the Australian imports, which appeared to create a fractious squad, which showed in our highly consistent, inconsistent results.

Some very dark days a mere ten plus years ago, which makes you appreciate the strides we have made, both on, and off the field.

What's your evidence for this?
Sounds to me like another of those myths that fans make up with no basis.

I don't think a fractious squad was the problem in those days it was that we had a very unbalanced team, a lot of attacking threat but no real solidity especially in the backline (which is why losing Eagar was a bad move). We were lacking in defensive nous and structure and that wasn't available on the coaching staff at the time.

I reckon a lot of myths about coaches start on these forums and you wonder what basis people have for them, like people say Cullen ruined Kevin Penny.

My evidence was one of the players at the time. No myth, no rumour.

I perversely enjoyed the DVDV era, loved the rollercoaster you genuinely didn't know what we would do from one game to the next

Like the Dorahy era then, or the Cullen era.

errr yeah

Not forgetting the wasp

I'm sure he was under financial constraints, but to me he just never understood how to construct a squad. It was always first 17 and a few kids, you say he gave youth a chance, I don't think what was choice or that was his philosophy it was just the unbalanced nature of the squad. It never appeared to have been a thought out approach to me, like you get now. I get the impression TS knows what he expects from every member of the squad and how/when they'll figure during the season, what they'll bring relative to earnings etc.

Our first 17 under DVDV was always competitve, hence we used to give the big teams a run for their money, but we could never rotate and there was no fear of losing your place etc which couldn't have been healthy. We always looked demotivated for the 'smaller games'.

He clearly had good contacts in Australia, bringing over the Gee's, Langer, Nutley etc of this world. Problem with this was that they must have took a chunk of his spend, and it was never a balanced squad. I know folk tell us on here what all of our current players earn, but in reality, I reckon the squad would be pretty fairly balanced salary wise, groups of players earning similar money based on relative standing within the team etc.

I liked him, he liked rugby to be played the right way. He perhaps should have achieved a little more at Warrington, when we had that Langer, Briers, Nikau triangle, off field events didn't help him but I think we should have been top 4 then.

I think that's spot on JWP, the stuff about our squad being unbalanced especially applies after 1999, but I can understand where DVDV was coming from. I remember hearing an interview with him where he said he had a limited budget and wanted to focus on quality rather than quantity and would make up the numbers by promoting lads from the Academy, it was under Darryl that we reset up the U21s and to be fair very quickly we got some decent players coming through in that first Academy team which Paul Darbyshire coached - it got to the Academy grand final, we had Noone, Sibbit, Wood, Highton, Gleeson and Hulse coming through plus Maden who was seen as a big prospect but never made it, Alstead was another for whom there were high hopes but he didn't make it.

When Darryl said that I remember thinking this is just more of the same, Alex Murphy had said when he took over as Director of Rugby "no money will be wasted on second raters, we will only sign real top talent", and then promptly filled the squad with a load of second raters from the south sea islands. So I was sceptical of Darryl but he signed Hunte and Simon Gillies and then Langer, Gee and Nikau...yes the rest of the squad was heavily reliant on young players and that meant we couldn't be as consistent as the top sides and we were a 6th/7th type team, but what was the alternative? In those days we had a limited budget so we could have assembled a bigger squad of "OK" players and been like Cas or Gateshead/Hull, finished around the same place in the table but not excited the fans so much.

It's been easier in the Cullen and Tony Smith era because they have had more choice, they can be selective about which young players to bring through so they don't need to try so many and have weak links. They can also sign some top players and pad the squad out with decent squad players, which Darryl couldn't do.

As an attacking side we were always good to watch in DVDV's later years, Toa and Hunte had their critics but those two were both fast and dangerous and scored a lot of tries.

I loved Toa at right centre in those early years. I remember him once stepping a player after the pass had been made but before he had caught the ball. I would have put him at right centre when we re-signed him ahead of Gleeson. I would have been wrong to do so but I would have still done it.

I remember Toa ripping Renoufs head off twice at wigan, he was always a shocking tackler.

That added to his charm.
In a sadistic sort of way, I miss us being an inconsistant side. We were capable of some brilliant moments back then, but usually we were uninterested and very average.
Made you appreciate them flashes of brilliance even more. That is why Toa is elevated in my eyes. Now we are consistently performing to a high standard, all the brilliant moments kind of just blend together a bit. I wouldn't change it and go back to how we were but it was one hell of a rollercoaster back then.