Quote: The Chin's Back "Does anyone actually believe that Nobby was ever a good coach?
IMO he took over Matty Elliot at the Bulls and of a squad of players that didn't require any "super coach" in charge at that time as they were such a star studded bunch of players
Nobby has never ever left any lasting legacy junior wise at any club he has been at, and he is only a short term coach at best
His immediate improved performances of a poor Crusaders squad and there best ever finish surely indicate this do they not?
I actually think that Harris will be a great head coach, although he will be thoroughly tested at Salford by Dr Kockrash'"
At Wigan, Nobby was better than we'd had before in Millward and Betts. He re-energised the squad and re-organised the team. He was also good in publicity terms. But the oft-quoted cliche about him having no Plan B became evident after a while. Tactically, he was weak, and his limitations became apparent when the new-look Wigan team started challenging for trophies again but were never able to go the last few yards. There were also stories about him feeling challenged by Trent Barrett, and basically denying him involvement in match planning, which anyone with knowledge of the game would realise was ridiculous - Barrett was a treasure trove of strategy, which we could have made much better use of.
The other thing is - Maguire came along and in one season turned the team Nobby had failed to win trophies with into Champions.
I still think Nobby did his bit in resurrecting Wigan as serious contenders, but only the way Alex Murphy did in the early 80s - restoring their self-belief, before a much better coach came along and turned that into worthwhile silver.