Just hanging around the Wigan site a bit before the cup game on Saturday so I have a question for you Wigan fans.

Out of the mid 80s to mid 90s glory days, what year did you reckon Wigan peaked, and had their strongest squad?

From my memory it would have been around the time Hanley left for Leeds, I thought he left just at a point Wigan were about to peak, the team just after that, that Offiah joined, with Gene Miles in it, was an awesome unit, I would put that as Wigan's peak (1991/92).

Although I think the standard of opposition dropped a bit at that time with the decline of Widnes as a force, perhaps in the late 80s there was more general competition for Wigan and that may have distorted my thinking.

So to the older Wigan fans on here (and I know you like talking about the glory days) what point in that period did you regard as the highest point, and could you list a sample of what the team would have been that year?

interested to hear your answers...

Great question (and one that's took some time to answer).

For me it has to be the 1994-95 season, coached by Graeme West.

Regal Trophy Winners (smashing Wire 40-10 at Hudds).
Challenge Cup Winners (murdered Leeds 30-10).
Champions finishing on 56 points only losing two league matches all season.
Finally culminating with a stomping 69-12 win against Leeds at Old Trafford in the Premiership Final (live on SKY, Wigan were sublime that day), which still stands as a record win in any Rugby League final. Put the following title into youtube "Wigan v Leeds (Rugby League) - 1995 Premiership Final "
In addition, we put up a tremendous 2nd half showing against Australia losing 20-30 with Inga scoring a blinder in the corner.

1. Paul
2. Robinson
3. Tuigamala
4. Connolly
5. Offiah
6. Botica
7. Edwards
8. Skerrett
9. Hall
10. Cowie
11. Betts
12. Cassidy
13. Clarke

14. Atcheson
15. Radlinski
16. O'Connor
17. Farrell

92

Lydon/Hampson
Botica
Bell
Miles
Offiah
Edwards
Gregory
Skerrett
Dermott
Platt
Betts
McGinty
Clarke

Subs
Cowie
Hampson/Lydon

Plus in the squad
Panapa/Lucas/Myers/Forshaw/Gildart

People will point to 94/95 but personally although a bit more flair in them they didn't have the "Toughness" that previous Wigan teams had.

Edit - As you say strangely enough for me the gretest ever Wigan team didn't have Hanley in it, Just imagine it it did!

I loved the team with Gene Miles in it. Miles and Offiah as a combination were the best wing/centre pairing I have ever seen, at any level. It's no wonder Offiah names the big Aussie as the best player he ever played with.

The team a couple of years later, when Jason Robinson had already emerged as a world class player and a young loose forward by the name of Andy Farrell was breaking into the first team was also a truly great side.

The side with Tuigamala in it in his first full season and the following year was pretty special too. Once that guy got fit he took some stopping. I have never seen a RL player who was a more powerful runner, the guy was unbelievable, at times he was like a human wrecking ball. Quinnell was an absolute monster and the young Henry Paul an astonishingly gifted player.

Each side had a number of matchwinners (Miles, Connolly, Paul, Bell, Tuigamala, Robinson, Offiah, Edwards, Gregory, Farrell etc) players who could turn a game with a couple of moments of genius or powerful forward play. With only odd exception here and there (Sam Tomkins springs to mind, Hodgson at Wire, Roby at St Helens) we don't seem to have players of that quality any more playing in this country.

That pack would do some serious damage at the HJ on Saturday. But even if Wire's forwards did somehow manage to get on top, those backs could win a game behind a beaten pack. Those backs are in a different class from anything in SL today, they could score tries from anywhere, even against the better defences of today. Miles and Offiah would be very difficult for even the best modern side to keep tryless.

The 94-95 backline was pretty special too, how about this for a line up:

Paul
Robinson
Tuigamala
Connolly
Offiah
Botica
Edwards

61/2 ?....ISH
early memories stick in your mind.......old things are usually best.

Griffiths
Boston
Ashton
Holden
Sullivan
Bolton
Parr
Barton
Sayer
Mctigue
Collier
Cherrington/Lyon
Evans

my boyhood heroes.......never be bettered as a team.
That teams full of "legends"

Interesting answers so far,

I agree that 94-95 team was special especially the youth it had in it with an emerging Farrell, Radlinski and Robinson, it was demoralising for the rest of us because it looked like you were going to dominate RL for the next 10 years as well as the last 10 years. I remember actually now at the time, hearing that Wigan had signed the 'best young player in the game', Lee Gilmour, and grumblings how why when Wigan had so much talent on their own doorstep did they need to go picking up the best from Yorkshire as well. Gilmour has been a fine player but maybe not quite what he was hyped to be.

An interesting thing about the 94-95 team is it came straight after what I perceived to be Wigan's weakest point in their glory days, 93-94 under Jon Dorahy. I thought Wigan were vulnerable there and both a resurgent Warrington and Bradford game very close to knocking Wigan off then. I remember Cas beating Wigan in the Regal Trophy final and watching that on TV with my uncle, we both agreed that Wigan were not what they were and their glory era was coming to an end. It turned out we were a bit premature on that one!

But still considering the young talent Wigan had in the mid 1990s it was quite surprising that Wigan's dominance did come to an end quite abruptly with the rise of Saints and Bradford in 1996. Good for the game of course but from a historical perspective a little sad to see a great team go not into freefall but decline. For those of us opposing fans who lived through Wigan's lengthy dominance, the aura went in the 1996 season, even when Monie came back and Wigan won in 98, they did not reclaim their aura of old, they were just recognised as the best team at that time, like now. The Wigan teams of the era before had an aura of something special about them.

The decline in 1996 onwards was lingering, although you could feel it was coming. We literally lost the inaugural Super League title by one point (a unlikely draw against London Broncos at home costing us), as we had a much better points difference than Saints. Then there was the historic loss to Salford in the Challenge Cup, I think that stunned everyone.

By our own standards 1997 was a poor season finishing fourth but I think the off-field issues affected the club badly (it was around this time we were rumoured to be leaving Central Park and moving over to the Reebok).

In 98, we won the SL Trophy (but lost embarrasingly to Sheffield in the Cup). We were on a slide and were being caught up (and eventually overtaken) by Bradford & Saints. I think around 97 onwards our conveyor belt of talent started to dry up a little and some of our overseas signings were less than standard....Doc Murray being one.

In addition, the loss of Sean Long (although unavoidable) was a big one for us.

The mission impossible side - 8 games in 18 days to do the double must go down in history as our greatest achievement.

Went to every one and I was that skint my dad had to pay me in for the last three games.

Can you imagine the fuss if we had to do that these days? They dont make 'um like they used to

[i"And you try and tell the young 'uns of today, and they won't believe you !"[/i

remind us........what was the team?

Yes I have to say some of the overseas players Wigan had in that era raised a few eyebrows compared to what had come before. Even in the 98 team there were players who did quite well like Robbie McCormack, Danny Moore, who would not have got in the Wigan team earlier. Then signing guys like Gavin Clinch (who I thought was a decent player, but you would never have seen him at Wigan 4 years earlier).

Having said this I thought in 2000 under Endacott, Wigan had a very strong team, the back line then (Radlinski, Dallas, Connolly, Renouf, Robinson) was as good as any Wigan had in their best days for me, but the telling thing was the bench with guys like Brady Malam and Wes Davies in it, the depth of quality just wasn't there any more.

After that Wigan had some high points but I felt for a while they were a declining team being carried by Farrell and once Farrell was removed the team imploded, it has been a hard road back for Wigan and to go from worst team in the league in about May 2006 to best team in the league by May 2010 was a pretty impressive achievement.

Maurice Lindsay pointed out on Super Men that youngsters coming through dried out at the start of the 00's and its worth noting that O Loughlin is our longest serving player (debut 02) and not many other quality youngsters emerged in that period. Radlinski also claims the attitude of the wigan youngsters (i assume he means brown, robinson, hodgson, aspinwall etc) was poor and they had little respect for the senior players.