Gee, I'm impressed.

Off season, by its very nature, is all about promise and anticipation.

And I reckon Maguire has had the best start.

the army camp, the refusal to go to a warm camp, the rejection of the squad numbers until the players prove themselves, all player discussion about attitude and respect,hiring rads, hiring the professional and experienced strength and conditioning guy (i've forgotten his name), keeping and nurturing Shaun Wane, making the academy and the senior squads much closer, giving the academy kids real jobs to learn respect for the jersey and their opportunity, adding a coach/player in Paul, keeping Bailey but not giving him a high squad number until he earns it, putting the pressure on Riddell by calling out his 'attitude to professional conduct' early on.

and I'm sure you can all think of a few more things.

Winning footy games is all that matters, but I think Madge has done everything you could ask of a new coach to tackle REAL problems rather than just having 'a good off season'.

I know this was a little sycophantic, but I'm yet to be disappointed when Madge's name appears in a news article.

long may it continue.

Cheers,
Norweb

How's it going down there?

All is very positive in the freezing weather here, but the proof will be in how we start, and where we finish.

But the signs are very good so far.

I think just the general good feel vibe, coming from the club is promising. Although like the last post said, lets see how we start & finish!

So far so good,all true Norweb, and club shop etc, good start on the field and the crowds will really lift off.
Roll on Feb.

Can't wait. Well said.

i heard he read the riot act to a couple of senior players who were not quite putting the right amount of effort in during a training session. i know a couple of academy lads turned up ten minutes late for training and he gave them a right going over and gave them extra training as punishment. All sounds good to me

That shouldnt be seen as a good sign of a new setup, it should be standard anyway, it just shows the indiscipline that was allowed during Nobles running of the club. How it was both Maguire AND Wane giving them a rollockin just to make it twice as harsh

I would say that the stall has been set, i.e. It now is standard practice what is expected of them. From the first team down to the scholarship lads.
Exactly what was in place when Rads came into Wigan.

Should there be a repeat of poor standards then all we would need would be a sacrificial lamb, i.e. A sacking. That really would set the cat amongst the pigeons.

was told Mossop got fined £100 and made to wear a batman suit for a training session for being a little late into training.

Yes all seems to be going well training wise but... only when the players play games is when yo can tell if they are good enough/not good enough

A big test will be the dropping of a big name after a poor performance. Something that's not happened too often over the past few seasons.

All seems to be going in the right direction. Not sure about Maguire's nickname though.

well mathers got dropped a few times does this not count

Give it a few months and it'll be "Magic" Maguire

That's the real test

There's always bloody something to whinge about

Where's Madge come from?

Australia.

The players must be calling him that because I seen Prescott call him Madge in an interview.

It's not the best is it

I'm not sure which I hate more - Madge or Lulu. Somehow, I suspect these nicknames don't have the same connotations down under that they do here.

All this tough guy stuff (fines, riot acts, etc) is strangely reminiscent of the way IM tried to whip the club into shape, isn't it? Look what happened then.

I'm sure MM and SW have more respect than IM ever did from the players.

Hopefully he'll be respected enough to be able to discipline the players though unlike Millward. When you read Radlinski's opinions on Millward and the way he was treated by him it's no suprise the players didn't play for him.