There are lots of ups and downs watching Wire but 2001 was the biggest rollercoaster of all. We started the year in a bad way because John Prescott had called in the stadium to a public inquiry which delayed our plans and gave us a cash flow problem, we had to get loans from Tesco to tide us over. Most of the year was played out against the backdrop of fighting the inquiry. Then we had Kevin Campion change his mind about signing for us and we signed Kevin Walters. Pre-season in Lanzarote was a disaster with players falling out, Andrew Gee getting mugged and having to smash down a door to escape, Walters had a bust up with Langer and DVDV and went home soon after.

On the field, it was all on in the first game at Wigan, we started well then Toa got sent off , Nikau ended up sent off as well and Dave Highton warned by the RFL for fighting with David Furner. We lost the first 4 games of the season although a kind draw got us to the Challenge Cup semi. Off the field we received some tragic news with the death of Briers brother to cancer, and the suicide of Nikau’s wife in the same week. Against the backdrop of that Briers returned to play a superb game in the semi against Bradford where we put up a great fight and only lost it late on when we tired and Paul Anderson came on and smashed us up. That day at Huddersfield was one of the best ever for atmosphere in the Wire end, everybody really appreciated the adversity we were under and Briers in particular.

Things then picked up starting with a win over Leeds (a game which had an 18 year old Rob Burrow on debut) and our only ever SL win over Saints, when Briers rained bombs on Sullivan and Langer ripped them up. Gary Mercer had joined on a short term deal and played well, he brought a bit of fighting spirit and was popular with the Fletcher St. Dave Highton (who had been impressive early season) failed a drug test and was banned, so we brought Jon Clarke in from London.

The summer months were a crazy mix of ups and downs, the biggest up (other than the Saints win) was a mad try fest where we beat Wigan with Langer again awesome, the biggest down was getting smashed by 70 at Knowsley Road, and the week after getting 50 put on us by Huddersfield who were bottom of the table again.

The other ongoing saga was the coaching position. DVDV had announced he was leaving at the end of the year and would stay to work as a joint coach with the new guy coming in. However the new man lined up - Neil Kelly - wasn’t happy with that arrangement, he wanted to be in sole charge, so DVDV agreed to go. Unfortunately Widnes then won the Grand Final, Kelly signed a new deal with them, and we were left in the farcical situation of DVDV going home and us having no coach. Langer had enough at that point as well, and followed him back to Aus. He later revealed that Saints had offered him a cheeky deal till the end of the season which would have been his only chance of winning Super League, but he turned it down out of respect to how well Warrington had looked after him.

With virtually the whole squad off contract and no coach in place, we were in a royal mess and our better players were signing elsewhere (Toa, Nutley, Sibbit). Paul Darbyshire took temporary charge and got us to an unlikely win over eventual champions Bradford, with Clarke filling in for the injured Briers at halfback, Smyth scoring in the corner at the end.

The unknown Aussie Steve Anderson came in as coach and started talking a good game, promised to put in youth development structures, introduce a highly technical flat passing game. Most of the fans were quite positive about the change, at least he promised something different. However there were some strange signs. He brought over an assortment of players on trial, Anthony Swann, David Bates, Jon Whittle, Kevin Crouthers, Steve Thomas, and in the last home game of the season we got our worst ever defeat, 84-12 to Bradford, which Anderson explained as there being too much emotion in the dressing room with Nikau, Nutley, Toa and co leaving. Beating Cas away the next week papered over some of the warnings of serious problems ahead...

So what was everybody’s memories of the mad year that was 2001.....?

DV2 flying back to australia cos his mum was ill during the cup rounds. As you say, having a favourable draw including woolston and villenueve and still looking poor.

Hating alan hunte with a passion, i was soooooo disapointed when he came back from second division welsh RU.

ROb smyth tucking his collar into his shirt.

kidwell being a big bloody disapointment.

I remember this season especially, as it was the year I was a ball boy running all over Wilderspool for balls that had been kicked into touch. The worst were when they went over the top of the Fletcher End, Railway End and over the top of Snooker Stand. Even a few made their way over the Brian Bevan Stand occasionally.

That Bradford game in particular sticks out as a highlight, but at the time I had mixed emotions when Smyth crossed over as I was stuck in front of the Railway End in front of all the Bradford fans and didn't want to celebrate too much for fear of getting attacked or bottles thrown at me. I ended up dancing a jig after I got out of the stadium to be picked up, it was certainty a highlight under the control of Paul Derbyshire.

There was also the Challenge Cup semi final at Huddersfield against Bradford (again). As mentioned, Sally, it was a fantastic atmosphere I remember well. My Dad was annoyed as we were right at the back of the double tiered stand behind the sticks and had to stand the entire time. I loved it and the entire half of our stadium was rocking. Shame we couldn't have won it at the end of the day after playing so well.

Quality these ace, really bring some cracking memories flooding back.

I tell you what I did love in 2001, Briers & Nikau doing that runaround that they'd perfected, it felt like Briers scored about 15 tries from that move, amazing.

I think of all my seasons watching Warrington, that was perhaps the most emotionally charged, perhaps this year aside. Walking into the Fletcher St and seeing Nikau warming up, pointing at the tackle bag, then thud, and realising what he'd been through, it was just surreal. I wasn't the biggest fan of his during his time with us, his work ethic anyhow, but you couldn't help have but the utmost respect & admiration for him when you saw him there.

That 84-12, jesus. They'd all been at his BBQ, crikey. I remember Briers being on the bench for that game [I think], Ian Knott was taking the restarts, and he kicked out on the full, once maybe twice early on, we were like 24-0 down, and the boo's rang out, "We want Briers, we want Briers.", just madness.

2001 really was a soap opera.

knotty kicked out 3 times on the full champ. the groan got louder every time.

Nikau was disappointing in his first season compared to what we were expecting because we were basically getting the best loose forward in the world of the last 2-3 years, I was expecting him to be for us what Marc Glanville had been for Leeds, a dominant tough tackling offloading back rower who brought some leadership. In his book he said he was frustrated by the standards at Warrington and it made him angry on the field, one reason he retired was because he was too prone to losing his temper and he was worried he was going to do something stupid and injure someone.

He got a lot of credit from our fans when he came back after the death of his wife and played the rest of the season and his form was pretty good the second hand of that season, I thought after Langer left, and we were playing Nikau at 6 and Briers 7, he was superb and more like the Nikau of Cronulla and Melbourne. Chris Anderson took over Cronulla for 2002 (he signed Nutley) and he tried to sign Nikau, because he still had another year or two at the top in him, but he wanted to quit full stop and spend time with his family. Top guy Nikau - his book is a really powerful read.

Catsmith mentions Kidwell...he was one overseas import where the line that "he will do better when the pitches harden" came true, he looked soft and ineffective in pre season and for the first few months then for a few weeks in the midsummer he was dynamite, his best game was the Wigan win when he tore up a good defender in Connolly. At the start of the next season he was back to the slow lumbering Kidwell of old. Strange one Kidwell.....definitely had some ability because he went down to the NRL and was quality.

Briers a fullback, Penny at centre. Or was that a horrific nightmare?

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.