I think clubs that have been foresighted enough to invest heavily in their youth policies will be the ones who will be at the top for the next few years. It is getting harder for clubs to recruit top overseas( esp Aus) talent and this trend in likely to continue. SO there will be a major reliance on developing players.

Wigan will be thereabouts for certain, Saint I suspect will but losing Graham could hurt them in the short term, Warrington are good at present but as has been said they do have a lot of players who will be finishing in the not too distant future and the big question is do they have enough younger players to make the step up, time will tell. Those three I suspect will be the dominant teams for the next few seasons. I cannot see one team being totally dominant though.

Leeds and Huddersfield are decent teams and will be in the mix but at the moment neither looks like serious long term contenders both have issues which need to be addressed.

I don't think there will be one dominant team - challenging and winning every couple of years will do me. Perhaps Hull FC could come through in the next few years and it would be nice to see Widnes as genuine challengers again. St Helens have given the best example of how to win and remain competitive.

No, the salary cap will sort that out as it does in the NRL. The cost to the Broncos of keeping Lockyear has been at the expense of a lot of younger players who moved on for the money (long time retired etc) and become SoO/Oz Rep players. How much in terms of squad payments are we prepared to make to secure Sam, not just to RL, but from union. Remember the Farrell, Radlinski, Connolly etc payments we made to stop them going down under, it bankrupt us. Like the Broncos, we are lucky that if players leave to follow the moey, we have a stronger enough youth system to find replacements. Never again wil we be able to field more than half a GB team.

What is a player worth? Every player and his agent will have an idea often an inflated one on the money they should receive. Clubs can't afford 13 superstars its a difficult balancing act. Wigan have the benefit of a strong squad bolstered by developing young players; its when these players look for the higher wages that the club need to make difficult decisions. How many players are happy to accpet that they are just part of the squad?

I think it's just nice to be challenging for honors once again. It was a long time between drinks, although not as long as some clubs have had to wait or still are waiting.

With the current owner in place and the good things currently happening at the club we've got a good few years ahead of us me thinks.

I love how everyone - including the OP here - says we were on our own at the top. We weren't.

In the early days, Mid 80s, Hull KR and Widnes were the powerhouses, followed by Widnes and Warrington. Leeds spent loads of money and became the nearly men.

There's such an aura surrounding the 85-94 era but to say that no-one competed with us during that period is simply not true. The difference between Wigan and our closest rivals at that time boiled down to fitness and stamina in a lot of cases.

Exactly - I think as much as anything it was sheer hard work and team ethic which got Wigan through in a lot of games in that period. Certainly for a while Widnes were a real force in the game and Leeds tried but failed (I suspect a case of too many big players and not enough of a team). Plus I think Wigan had developed a tough winning mentality (typified by the likes of Edwards, Bell et al) which made a difference.

Certainly at times Wigan only just won matches - hardly running up cricket scores in every game - unlike Wire have been recently.

Yeah but don't forget we were the ONLY full time professional team during that period.

and when we saw other clubs stars (Gregory, Lydon, Offiah etc) we signed them.

True, but if I remember correctly, once we got in front, no matter at what stage of the game, we would almost certainly win the game.

I would agree with this up to a point. Wane would definitely be the man to continue Madges methods but would he be able to keep us moving upwards? Madge brought new ideas and systems to the club and he seems to be the type of coach to keep on improving things with even more ideas. I am sure Wane can continue with Madges systems but I worry about his ability to be as forward thinking for future years.
He deserves his chance and only time will tell.

Thats what I mean about 'dominance'. Winning the Challenge Cup 8 years in a row and winning the league title most years is dominance, even if you have close games along the way. Crapping on smaller clubs like we have done this season isn't dominance.