So was Hugh Waddell

I agree. Wigan got more value for their $ with the Kiwis, such as Westy, Bell, Iro Brothers, Botica...etc.

Wigan were also very good at scouring the lower leagues for talent - Sam Panapa (possibly my most favourite import ever) plying his trade for...wait for it....Sheffield Eagles!!! WTF!!! The guy was a genius with ball in hand, and a side-step to die for (check out his WCC try vs Penrith at Anfield).

Why did it take someone like Wigan to grab him from bloody Sheffield? Cause we had blokes travelling the country scouring for talent on wet Wednesday night in the lower leagues....it wasn't ALL top class NRL signings!

Didn't we get Dean Bell from Carlisle as well?????? The mind boggles!

"Didn't we get Dean Bell from Carlisle as well?????? The mind boggles!"


No, Dean was signed from Easts (now Sydney Roosters).....although Carlisle was his first club in England. Other signings of the type mentioned would include McGinty, Cowie, and Hall.

Yeah its clear that wigans cash was not the only reason that they were so dominant but undoubtedly played a part, You would have had to employ some1 to scour the lower leagues. Other teams were spending money too Widz offered offiah 85k but increased it to secure his signature which in them days was a phenominal amount of money. All teams had great players but for me wigan widnes had great teams which ultimately was the difference i used to dread playing the widnes pack harvey howard and kurt sorenson were for me the best front row props of that era

I dont think any team will eclipse the 8 in a row as thats a truely great achievement especially when winning league titles. However in todays game what we have achieved is also fantastic and shouldnt be compared to the 8 in a row. We do now need to push on for the elusive GF victory which we crave so much.

Just as money is playing a big part in your current success.

For everyone else's sake i hope they don't abolish the salary cap, as the Harry Sinfield sketch used to go, "We are considerably richer than Yow"

As an aside when the hell are we going to get the people's final in either of the finals?

Wigan V Saints ?

Undoubtedly it is playing a significant part in our success however that money was there when cullen was there and it didnt help us any then, as previously mentioned what goes on off the field also just as important as the money.

We have taken massive steps in improving the professionalism throughout the club and now have a solid 'brand' which is vital to the longjevity of our success (fingers crossed)

The lady doth protest too much, methinks

You can't buy trophies, the teams that win trophies are the teams that bring through young players. Look at Leeds, Saints, Wigan.

Warrington have brought through a young squad with guys like Riley, Harrison, McCarthy and Cooper through their Academy and this is why they are winning trophies, that's the way to do it and other clubs should learn from Warrington's good example.

Deffo no more than 3/10

40 stone of ar$e blubber each

In reality I should have only underlined 1 of those names as the other was at times and could be a very dangerous player.

The other 1 nearly made me die of laughter (I'm guessing most people will know which one made me do that!).

Exactly, one of those played for the biggest club in Australia and the biggest club in England (and the world?), you don't get to do that without being world class.

4/10 - Getting better

He had the biggest shorts at the biggest club in England.

I think we need a thread entiteld "the biggest rump in RL"

Harvey Howard would be in their without a doubt.

Artie Beetson and Feka would be contenders i would have thought

Solomona
Cunningham
Piggy Riddell
Barry Ward

While he went on to become one of the most powerful strike centres RL has ever seen, when he arrived from RU it's fair to say Inga would have been in with a shout for this one.

As for Sorensen, he may have been large but he was a great prop forward and a prime example of the top players that were in that great Widnes side. I'm old enough to remember him playing against Wigan and he always gave our forwards a hard time. I remember standing on the Dougy side and watching him being substituted towards the end of a game after a typically uncompromising performance, and despite the fact that we were going to win the game he received a torrent of abuse from the Wigan fans as he took his seat on the bench. When the noise had finally died down a bloke standing behind me said to his mate, "That Sorensen, what a dirty b£"$%!"*". His mate thought about it for a moment and then said "Yeah, he's filthy but I wish he played for us" and the first guy replied "Yeah, so do I!".

Brendan Hill.

Did you know that Kurt actually played for us for a part season in the mid 70s? He was just a kid but had amazing potential, unfortunately at that time Wigan were equally inept both on and off the patch and didn't seem to push hard to sign him permanently.

Yes I did, though I'm a bit too young to remember him at that stage in his career.

Glad I'm not the only one to rate him.

More of the same inconsistency of treatment tonight.