1988/89

Blake Woods Boys Tamati Jackson Roach Davidson Gregory Drummond

An impressive set of players duckie and you could also add Mark Roberts and David Lyon to the list.

However, it finished 11th out of a 14 team league, below the likes of Featherstone, Wakefield and Salford. The modern generation of Wire fan would have regarded that as a failure.

If the internet had been around back then there would have been some grumpy posts on this forum. The verdict would probably have been that Roach was the Asotasi of his time, Boyd was not the force of old in his second spell and Paul Bishop, Tony Thorniley, Rocky Turner and John Thursfield would no doubt have divided opinion. There would have been some good gossip though about whether Billy McGinty and John Woods were off to Oldham.

John Thursfield or Daryl Clark?

Really? 2003 was one of our better seasons in that period of time.


Especially if you were an appo nuthugger, as many ppl were at the time.

2011, matt king at his best, Mozzer, monas etc. I remember watching us win LLS on hol in Cyprus

interesting Sally that the years listed as most peoples favorites 86 94 and 2011 we won didn't win one of the major trophies.

in fact 86 "usually" my personal favourite it could be argued was the only year from those we won a trophy held in any esteem as everyone knows the league leaders shield isn't worth a tap (especially when Warrington win it).

94 was great because Jiffy was a true sporting superstar but we also had to watch the likes of John Thursfield and Craig Teitezel in the same side...and whenever we do a worst ever team thread these two always find their way into it... but that game against sheffield on the Friday night was something else.....

2011 was awesome the overseas imports were all on form and we played sparkling rugby. I remember the 112 - nil Swinton game which was a great atmosphere, especially as those games can usually be a waste of everyones time but we all knew that side was good and everyone there wanted to see a record broken..... and also 2011 was one of the last years where we had a real crowd pleaser in David Solomona....

so I'll always flit between choosing 2011 and 1986 because in 86 I was younger the game felt more important to me, we played at a very atmospheric ground, I went every game home and away Bar Hull fc and the team contained more of my all time favourite players.
sometimes I'll choose 2011 because we were genuine top quality the side all other teams looked at and thought "we're probably going to get a good spanking off these men"... and for a time that front row of Morley Monas and Carvell was better than Boyd Tamati Jackson.

in fact today my favourite season is 2011 how i wish we could put down 50plus to nil scorelines three times on the bounce or whatever it was..... we are a million miles away from that..... yeah 2011 for me....

but not 09 10 or 12 when we won the challenge cup bizarrely eh....

2002/03. Wasn't that Anderson and Plange? Well it wasn't far off. Dark days that I don't want to visit again. Perhaps it was earier for unfortunately having think about it. Benidorm 2001 springs to mind, happier thoughts.

2003 was cullen and us making the play offs for the first time, last season at wilderspool and appo on fire every other game after briers did his wrist.

Generally a pretty entertaining season.

I remember turning to my brother, during one awesome game in 2011, and saying to him "remember this moment, because you won't see another team like this for a long time". 6 years on, and the comment still stands.

....leeds 2015 and perhaps Castleford in 2017!

2009 was a roller coaster. London away was one of the lows of being a Warrington fan, but Hicks' try in the corner in the Semi final, the drop goal in the quarter and the whole Wembley weekend made that year one I'll never forget!

I enjoyed flying biscuit's post above. 85/86 was such a special season for many fans as the team was basically what every Wire fan wants: a powerhouse pack that could dominate and intimidate, a world class halfback and then some superb runners in the backs who could break defences. It was similar to 2011.

Another point about 85/86 is it was an interesting season just before the Wigan dominance started and there were four or five teams tightly contesting the title. We lost it in a run of losses a couple of months out from the end of the season that saw Reggie Bowden quit but then at the end of the year under Tony Barrow had the momentum as the best team and the comprehensive despatching of the champions Halifax in the Premiership Final made it feel like really we were as good as anyone if not the best at that point and if only we could swap those final weeks in the Premiership for the run of losses at the end of Bowden's time the title would have been ours.

I think how enjoyable a season is, depends on what your expectations are of the team's performance and whether the club exceeds them, is about on par or fails to live up to them.

93/94, 2009 were my favourite seasons. 93/94 because it held up the dream of overtaking the great Wigan team and we were so close, and it was such a joy to watch Davies. 2009 because after such a dismal start it gave the single biggest highlight of my Wire supporting career, and I have always been more chilled out as a fan after that first Challenge Cup win, because no matter what happened after that I had at least seen us win a major trophy.

Other less glamorous seasons that I enjoyed were 1999 and 2003.

After we had been so bad in 1998 I expected us to be fighting to avoid bottom spot but most of that season felt like a pleasant surprise. We weren't a great team but didn't pretend to be - and we played some exciting rugby with a lot of good tries from Toa and Hunte. It was the best season of Toa's career and he was unplayable for parts of that season. Briers was still very raw back then but he also played some really good stuff. We were competing for the top 5 most of that year and then we heard the incredible news that Langer, Gee and Nikau were joining for 2000 and the possibilities ahead seemed amazing. The final month of the season we just switched off but I still felt optimistic and couldn't wait for 2000 to come around.

2003 was the final year at Wilderspool and after the relegation battle of the year above it was just nice not to have to worry about fighting the drop and as the season went on, to have the top 6 to play for. When we made the top 6 it felt like a real achievement even though we lost to Wigan in the first playoff. The team had no superstars but it felt like a hard working and together team with guys like Grose, Burns, Domic, Fozzard, Hilton and Clarke. Also we had the unlikely success that when Briers broke his wrist and was out for the season, and most of us thought, thats the top 6 done then, we had Graham Appo playing out of his skin. That year we fronted up well against the top teams even though they beat us, but we really pummelled the smaller teams, with Appo at the forefront. Given that the Wire sides of that kind of era were always prone to losing to Salford, Wakey etc, that was a welcome change. It was a good way to send off Wilderspool and it felt like a happy atmosphere.

I started going the games in the 87/88 season and would go with 94 followed by a close second 2011. I'll come along to my reasons in a second but I see Tony Barrow mentioned and (i could be wrong here) he was unbeaten at Central Park during his tenure at Wire against a money pumped Wigan, it also included us winning the British Coal 7s staged there and featuring all the clubs sides and international sides well.

I think the success of 94 beats 2011 (for me), just because it was so unexpected. Also I was a huge fan of our Welsh imports in Bateman, Ellis and Philips and obviously Davis who was amazing, (for me, the centre partnership of Davies and Bateman was the best ever). I've never seen a prop forward totally dismantle a side like Philips did v a strong St Helens pack which included GB prop Kevin Ward. It was one of his first games, might even have been his debut, and he was bouncing everyone off and no-one could bring him down. Gary Chambers was excellent as well as a strong running/fast prop forward, not to mention Kelly Shelford and other players.

The 2011 team was the dream team. We could afford, thanks to SJM, the best players in their positions and what a dynamic side it was to watch. Many of those trys scored were works of art in themselves on the back of a tremendous pack of fire and guile worth the admission fee alone. That front row of Morley, Monas and Carell was just beastly with super Ben and Solomona (class) in there. We really should have won the big one that season but for a dubious Sinfield penalty last minute in the semi-final play off we're still waiting.

Regardless of the fact we didn't win silverware in 2011 it will be talked about as a benchmark season from Wire fans for years to come.

Honestly I would prefer the Wire season in 2011 to the Wigan season of 2016, even though Wigan won the GF.

Look at how in football, the Brazil team of '82 and the Cryuff Netherlands team of the 1970s are regarded as iconic teams in football history but they came home empty handed. Much more than Brazil 94 or Italy 06 who won World Cups.