Just thinking about the balance of power in rugby league, in the period before SL Wigan monopolised the trophies and the rest were just fighting for who would be the closest challengers. Then from the start of summer rugby till a year or so ago, there was always a balance of power, between Saints and one of Bradford or Leeds, where at any period there would be two clubs more or less dominating the trophies, from 96-03 it was Saints-Bradford; from 04-09 it was Saints-Leeds.

Now Wigan especially with having so many good young players, are obviously going to collect some trophies in the coming years, do you think you could go back to being on your own at the top? I am not saying this to try to bait Wigan fans into sounding arrogant, its a genuine question about how you see the competition squaring up.

At the moment Warrington are up there but as has been discussed a lot, Warrington are an ageing team and will need to replace a lot of players, against that we have a very good coach and so when our older players retire and have lots of salary cap space freed up, the scope will be there for signing.

Leeds are also an ageing team and appear to be on a downward trend, and they don't have the same quality of coach so I'm not sure how bright their prospects are. I also don't think their young players are at the standard of what they had a few years ago.

Saints are hard to assess, they have been going through a transition period with the mainstays of a great team leaving one by one, but they have brought through a lot of good young players albeit now losing Eastmond and Graham. They have managed to stay in teh shake up for trophies even though they are going through a rebuilding phase so they are not far off the top still, hard to assess.

Then Hudds have been strong under Nathan Brown but in recent weeks they don't look in the same calibre as Warrington, Wigan and Saints. I am not sure Hudds will really win trophies.

So how do you see Wigan in the next few years, against those sides....do you think its in Wigan's hands again to take control if you count the three trophies on offer a season (including the minor premiership), say in the next 6 years when there are 18 trophies to play for, do you think Wigan might be in place to pick up 10-12 of them at least...?

We have to replace Madge. That's the biggest issue for me.

He's the best coach in the competition by a country mile.

His successor, whether it's SW or anyone else, will have a massive job on their hands.

I don't think any one side will win everything like we used too, but I'd like to hope we'd win at least 1 every 2 years.

Dominance in sport tends to be cyclical, and I think Leeds are going to be out of the top 2 or 3 for a few years.

I expect Wigan, Saints and Warrington to be the main Grand Final teams of the next 5 years.

In answer to your question - no, not really.

Totally agree.

The first 3 or 4 months of next season will prove crucial for whoever is in charge. If they can get off to a good start then hopefully we'll continue on our merry way. If we have a dodgy start then pressure can build and things can quickly go wrong.

I'm pretty positive though that it'll be Wane that takes over and that he'll continue the good work started by Maguire. I think with the amount of good young players we have in place and with the age of alot of our key players we can certainly be there or there about for a good number of years. We won't have it all our own way because the salary cap ensures nobody will run away with it every year but I think a realistic aim is to make a final every season and take it from there.

As for the other challengers it'll be the ususal suspects of Wire, Saints, Huddersfield and Leeds with Catalans and Hull having the potential to shake things up (especially if Hull got a decent coach) for at least the next 2 or 3 seasons.

Definatley, had Maguire remained at Wigan for another few years then i think we would of dominated for many years to come - he is that good imo.

I'd have loved to have seen him do one more year to take us through the period of Deacon and Coley retiring(if they do) and then hand over the team to Shaun Wane to take charge of a team chocked full of his u20's sides of previous years.

It certanly leaves IL with a huge decision to make and im pretty sure he will of carried out plenty of consultation down under before making a decision on this one.

The massive plus for SW is that he has now worked with one of the very best for two years.

Thats true its cyclical but some teams seem to manage to always be there or thereabouts, even at a bad part of the cycle, and that is Saints in RL, so they do deserve credit for that. In football its Man United, they are always challenging for the title, whereas Chelsea and Arsenal wax and wane, United are always up there.

Not really, I think it's going to be like the Man Utd Chelsea saga, with Wire being the Chelsea.

Spot on.

That's one big reason I hope Wane gets the job; he'll be more able to continue Madge's methods than a new coach would.

Don't forget, though, that in our period of "dominance", many games, and seasons, were very close, so we really weren't as far ahead of the others as is often assumed. There were several occasions when our cup run very nearly crashed, and some very tight finishes in the League.

The SC prevents teams improving further than a couple of years of dominating.

We responded well to a set back then though as we do now. The draw against Saints in the cup for example was followed up by us spanking them in the replay. We tend to have 1 or 2 poor under-par performances where we scrape a win or even lose and respond with a performance similar to Saturday. (look at the playoffs last year also)

For the next few years I'm hoping that we can continue our dominance as I think,and only an opinion, that this season will be the closest that Warrington will come for some time. As you said it'll be a few years before Leeds will challenge again. I thought Huddersfield may have a chance up until the recent weeks.
So my only teams to look out for is to wait and see how Saints settle in to their new home and also how the new owner at Hull will go about his business.

I think clubs that have been foresighted enough to invest heavily in their youth policies will be the ones who will be at the top for the next few years. It is getting harder for clubs to recruit top overseas( esp Aus) talent and this trend in likely to continue. SO there will be a major reliance on developing players.

Wigan will be thereabouts for certain, Saint I suspect will but losing Graham could hurt them in the short term, Warrington are good at present but as has been said they do have a lot of players who will be finishing in the not too distant future and the big question is do they have enough younger players to make the step up, time will tell. Those three I suspect will be the dominant teams for the next few seasons. I cannot see one team being totally dominant though.

Leeds and Huddersfield are decent teams and will be in the mix but at the moment neither looks like serious long term contenders both have issues which need to be addressed.

I don't think there will be one dominant team - challenging and winning every couple of years will do me. Perhaps Hull FC could come through in the next few years and it would be nice to see Widnes as genuine challengers again. St Helens have given the best example of how to win and remain competitive.

No, the salary cap will sort that out as it does in the NRL. The cost to the Broncos of keeping Lockyear has been at the expense of a lot of younger players who moved on for the money (long time retired etc) and become SoO/Oz Rep players. How much in terms of squad payments are we prepared to make to secure Sam, not just to RL, but from union. Remember the Farrell, Radlinski, Connolly etc payments we made to stop them going down under, it bankrupt us. Like the Broncos, we are lucky that if players leave to follow the moey, we have a stronger enough youth system to find replacements. Never again wil we be able to field more than half a GB team.

What is a player worth? Every player and his agent will have an idea often an inflated one on the money they should receive. Clubs can't afford 13 superstars its a difficult balancing act. Wigan have the benefit of a strong squad bolstered by developing young players; its when these players look for the higher wages that the club need to make difficult decisions. How many players are happy to accpet that they are just part of the squad?

I think it's just nice to be challenging for honors once again. It was a long time between drinks, although not as long as some clubs have had to wait or still are waiting.

With the current owner in place and the good things currently happening at the club we've got a good few years ahead of us me thinks.

I love how everyone - including the OP here - says we were on our own at the top. We weren't.

In the early days, Mid 80s, Hull KR and Widnes were the powerhouses, followed by Widnes and Warrington. Leeds spent loads of money and became the nearly men.

There's such an aura surrounding the 85-94 era but to say that no-one competed with us during that period is simply not true. The difference between Wigan and our closest rivals at that time boiled down to fitness and stamina in a lot of cases.

Exactly - I think as much as anything it was sheer hard work and team ethic which got Wigan through in a lot of games in that period. Certainly for a while Widnes were a real force in the game and Leeds tried but failed (I suspect a case of too many big players and not enough of a team). Plus I think Wigan had developed a tough winning mentality (typified by the likes of Edwards, Bell et al) which made a difference.

Certainly at times Wigan only just won matches - hardly running up cricket scores in every game - unlike Wire have been recently.

Yeah but don't forget we were the ONLY full time professional team during that period.

and when we saw other clubs stars (Gregory, Lydon, Offiah etc) we signed them.

True, but if I remember correctly, once we got in front, no matter at what stage of the game, we would almost certainly win the game.