It was Penny on the wing, Briers played fullback for the first couple of games so we could have the Langer-Walters partnership in the halves, DVDV said Briers could play the same role for us that Lockyer did for Brisbane (he hadn't yet converted to a stand-off). Harris used to do that for Leeds as well. When Walters went home Briers went back to stand-off so it was a brief experiment.

Steve Anderson resurrected the idea at the start of the next season, with the business about Briers playing as a stand-off when we had the ball but dropping back out of the line when we didn't, so the opposition couldn't run at him and tire him out tackling. I think that was the one where Penny played centre, on the BBC Challenge Cup game against Saints. Again it lasted about two games and he was back in the halves.

Penny was on the wing most of 2001 though, Hunte played fullback. Langer used to put the inside ball on to Hunte bursting through the middle of the field at pace.

Typical 2001 team:

Hunte; Smyth, Kohe-Love, Sibbit, Penny; Briers, Langer; Guisset, Clarke, Nutley; Mercer, McCurrie, Nikau (Masella, Wood, Kidwell, Busby)

Trivia, was that the ony time a Warrington player has been called up for State Of Origin?

Top marks to Sally for these threads.

I love all the seasons watching the Wire and the memories are great. Even the 84-12 defeat and the one the previous year losing to Hudds. But that's what's so fantastic about sport. You don't know what's going to happen and the emotion is what it's all about. Made some good friends through going to see the Wire, people I wouldn't have met otherwise. I love it.

Got to agree. The posters on these topics make interesting reading too, it could almost be 10 years ago on a different board.........

The fact that the Wire fans where outnumbered 3-1 by Bradford fans who sat in silence for 65 minutes whilst the Wire fans had a massive party made that day one of my most memorable as a wire fan. At times you could feel the stand trembling and the whole end never shut up for 80 minutes. Fantastic Day!

i went to the game, while i was in brisbane on the lions tour. i wore my wire top from that year to the game, but because it was blue and white, it was assumed that i was supporting nsw. most of the people around me thought that langer had come out of retirement for the game, or was still at the broncos in some capacity. i had to explain in great detail that the reason that he had come back was becasue he was having such a great season in the super league, and queensland didn't have any good up and coming scrum halves to replace him that we had let them borrow him for the game!

Great post Sally, your memory is really impressive.
For me the DVDV years were probably my least favourite since I started watching Wire. I know we had little or no money to spend but I didn't like the bloke as a coach. We were slow and predictable in imo and too reliant on Briers and later Alf to create everything. 2001 was the year when it all fell apart, as you rightly point out in-fighting between some players was a huge problem. I was told at the time that the large contracts given to all our Aussies (not just Alf) was the main cause of it. Then came Steve Anderson - you just had to wonder how the bloke got appointed in the first place, completely clueless. Playing blokes totally out of position and then blamed them for not performing. Alienated Briers to the point where he nearly left the club and then slagged off the club publically for their lack of support and undermining him. Best thing he did at the club? - Clear his desk and take his abc book of rugby with him.

one big memory from 01, being disapointed that guisset went back to france, only to change his mind and come back and play for us.


*yay*


i can't wait for the 04 thread.

I remember a lady walking through with a Saints shirt on in the concourse, getting massive abuse. Foot an mouth, foot an mouth, foot an mouth.

I've already mentioned the home Wigan match in the previous thread, but for me it was one of the great Wire performances. Sally has already said that we were Langer inspired that night (does anyone remember him going down as if shot by a sniper as he scored and then crawling nearer to the posts?), but the real hero was Gary Mercer who never stopped running and tackling. Everything that night was perfect, little were we to know what was to come in 2002. If anyone wants to borrow the Wigan game Video, I've still got a copy.
Sally, this idea of a review of the whole 10 years is superb. Is it your memory, or do you have Videos/DVD's of every game over the entire period?

My memories are of those big wins at home against Leeds, Saints and Wigan.....think the first game was on the Thursday before Easter and then the next two were Friday night games on sky......me and my mate snook some vodka in and then went out on the town to celebrate after each win!! Good times!! I think Brannagans opened on that Thursday as well if memory serves me correctly.......

and to finish it off after beating Saints as i was walking to queue for Smiths i spotted a drunken celebrating Gary Mercer arm in arm with two other Wire players, (cant remember who though)

On the night of that 56 - 22 win against Saints I quit my part time job at ASDA that I'd been at for 16 months. I had the night off booked for a month beforehand they then said on the Thursday that I couldn't have it off afterall. Got to watch a great game and just concentrated on college instead.

47 - 38 against Wigan what a game that was, we had been beaten by London, Wakefield, and Hull in recent weeks and thought another big loss was coming but the inconsistant team put in a performance that week, we did go to Salford the week after and lose though, which sums up what the team was like.

The Bradford home game 18 - 14 there were only 4,011 fans there me being one of them, that attendance was a really low point but the result wasn't "The Warrington fans are going bananas" Stevo said as Rob Smyth went in at the corner.

After that win we beat Cas, put up a decent performance in a loss to Wigan, drew with Saints, narrowly got beat by Leeds, got killed by Bradford but then just beat Cas again in the last game.

I actually can't believe we managed to finish 7th that season.

Only SL player ever IIRC.

I made every home game that season bar the Bradford debacle (also managed to miss the home thumping by them in first year at HJ...). Fave memory was singing "Are you watching Sky TV" during the Wigan game as they had cancelled plans to show it live due to it being too easy a game for the pies...

Its my memory, sad lad that I am, mixed with checking the fixture list from the season and seeing the scores which jogs things.

As Mark points out this was the year of "Foot and Mouth" and that chant was used against various teams, I remember Bradford getting it.

This was the year we signed Steve Georgallis. He was the type of signing the fans never liked - a 30 odd year old Aussie over here off quota on an EU passport and his first couple of games he looked slow and got everybody shouting at him. After the Challenge Cup semi he won the fans over as a hard worker who seemed to be getting into the whole thing of playing for the Wire, then just as people had warmed to him he got a season ending injury and never played again!

Another part of this season was the arrival on the scene of Paul Wood who came onto the bench at the start of the season and stayed there for pretty much every game. Where other youngsters can come in and get big hype then fade away, Wood just quietly held his own and started getting better slowly, he was skinny for a prop back then but never looked overawed physically.

2001 was the swansong of Allan Hunte who was a source of frustration for us all during his three years with us but on the other hand was quite popular, he scored a lot of tries and he did have pace, when he was on the break you could usually rely on him to finish. I used to love the the "Allan 'Unt, Allan 'Unt, Allan 'Unt" chant.

Remember Martin Masella too? Just had the one year with us, seemed a decent bloke, worked hard and did his best. No quarrels with his effort.

The most important thing by far that season for us was getting the stadium approved, we got the news after the season was over, shortly before the end of the year if I remember rightly, that the stadium would go ahead.

'We want Daryl out' chants at home to London Broncos sticks in my mind, too.