Ultimately there will always be malcontents. People who just don't like for the sake of not liking. The IL period at Wigan RL, thus far at least, has been strongly notable for this - especially on online forums like ours. IL himself and SW have come under repeated stinging attack. Yet the malcontents must now be feeling a little isolated.

Not that the criticism has always had the ring of sanity anyway. Here are some examples:

Virtually on first arriving at Wigan, IL was accused of being a nasty, mean little man whom the OP didn't like on sight (even though he admitted to not knowing him). Said OP then disappeared and has never returned!!! Two phrases spring to mind on that front: 'Psycho', or more likely, 'idiot'.

A short time later, IL was accused of betraying Brian Noble by not renewing his contract. I mean, you really couldn't make that one up. But it actually happened. After that, he also spent time in the dock because he wouldn't announce the successor - even though he was, at that stage, still negotiating with him.

Issues were made concerning the departure of average to mediocre players - like Nickey Stanton and Shaun Ainscough, neither of who we hear anything about these days. The loss of Mickey Higham was a more regrettable affair, yet, good lad though he was, he wasn't worth the fuss that was made.

When we won the Grand Final in 2010, IL was accused of having got lucky in his appointment of Michael Maguire. Apparently he just dipped his hand into a hat and pulled out the name of an Aussie assistant. He didn't do any due diligence, he didn't consult Wayne Bennett or Craig Bellamy. It was all luck.

In the SW era, both men were criticised for their handling of the Gareth Hock affair. Another one that you couldn't make up. Hock is indeed a good player, but he was given every chance at Wigan, and he blew them all. Thanks to his poor discipline both off and on the field, he's now missed something like two Challenge Cup winner medals and two Grand Final medals. On the subject of Hock, we were subjected to all kinds of ominous whisperings, like: 'Iit'll all come out in the wash', 'the club is at an all-time low','the club is in the gutter'. When we asked what was going on, we were told cryptically 'read between the lines'. Well, I tried ... but failed to find anything of significance. So we waited patiently to see if something would happen. And nothing did.

This last season, of course, the moaners have had a field-day. The mid/late-season results were a sign that SW simply wasn't good enough - I guess the Challenge Cup win was just a blip. When it was finally announced that Sam was leaving, something everyone had known was going to happen for months, the moaners, who'd clearly been saving up an awful lot of energy for this one event, really blew a gasket, and yet - much to their own surprise, I think - they didn't win universal support from the Wigan faithful, the vast majority of whom were obviously closet happy-clappers. Back in the real world, it was more the case that quite a few fans, by now, were getting used to the idea that British RL is in a financial rut, and that the new emphasis had to be about making the best of a bad situation.

Yet ironically we were treated to more rubbish.

In response to reasoned arguments, we got 'Wigan RL is a sports club, not a business - it should not be necessary to run it on profitable lines'. Yeah? Try telling that to Bradford.

One of the most amazing accusations of all was that IL was trousering transfer fees - something I still think was libelous, though the Wigan club being who they are, it was never likely they would follow that through (and someone clearly had a word with the poster in question anyway).

And now, suddenly, we're where we are. We've done the double. In two years, SW has matched the achievement of the supposedly peerless St Helens side of the mid-2000s, except that we've done it when the CC and GF were virtually back to back, which no-one has done before. Since IL came on board - having financially reorganised the club, put massive emphasis on the junior programme, and having made several very astute appointments like Bitcon, Deacon, Johnson, Rads etc (all fortuitous decisions on his part, no doubt!!!) - we are indisputably back among the elite of the British game. Silverware glints in the cabinet. We're playing the Aussie champs again. We are the talk of the town.

Everyone is very happy. No one has got a bad word to say. But it was like that in 2010.

I wonder how long it will last this time.

I can''t wait for the dissection.......

-master stroke? as in wire were 16-2 up and running you ragged until a few mins before half time when mono got injured? the long break gave wigan a breather and wire not only lost momentum but also lost one of there star playes,surely that was the turning point of the game? that and ratchfords * dubious *tackle*injury*
and nothing to do with wanes tactics on the night! well done by the way enjoy your victory i look forward to our meeting nxt season.

Anyone got any straws for this whopper?

Conveniently forgot the "Swinging arm" in your assessment of the game i see.

What people are forgetting, is that in the first half we carved wire open 3 or 4 times only for goulding or josh to cock it up. There was always points in us.

So you think that Wane got it wrong tactically? Even before your injuries Wigan exposed your defence a number of times and had we executed better could of been significantly ahead early doors.

Unfortunately for Warrington a game of rugby league lasts for 80 minutes and not 40.

See you in 2014, year of the Wolf.

Wigan should have put Wire away early and ran the game for 70 minutes. The game turned when Josh Charnley got penalised for bungling Riley in touch and you had a ten minute spell where Wigans heads went.

Outside of that ten minutes Wigan looked more threatening, quicker and more determined throughout. I was really surprised by the lack of spark in Warringtons attack even before Monaghan and Ratchford went off. A kick and 2 close range tries were well worked but the offloading game and the scoots from dummy half weren't anywhere near the usual standard. It was stunning to see a scoreboard at 16-2 in a game that Wigan had dominated for the first twenty mins.

As for you injuries, they happen and you have to deal with that. Warrington have hardly had a cold let alone an injury in the squad for a while so it was probably worse for you guys to get them last night as you don't have much practice at dealing with them and having to shuffle the pack.

Get yourself down to Tesco as soon as you can, I believe they are doing an offer on sour grapes!

#itsalwaysyouryear

The Ratchford injury is being overstated massively. To start with, he shouldn't even have been playing.

Just because he took his leg support off to avoid it being seen in public during the days prior to the game, that didn't mean he was 100% fit. His selection was a bad call by Smith.

As for Wigan getting lucky with injuries ... Wire used all their luck in one go when Westwood stayed on the field.

There is no explanation for Warrington gaining almost no access to the attack zone in Wigan's half during the second period other than that Wigan were under orders to deny them the territory. Wire having to consistently work their way upfield with a bunch of 30 something forwards was too much to ask. They were totally knackered well before the end.

Wane got it right. Smithy didn't.

Well Shaun Wane has really gone up in my estimation...

Not that he was ever really down...

Not that my estimation is really worth anything - I don't suppose!

Yep awesome achievement from Shaun and the lads, a lot of people will have questioned things he may have done throughout the year and on a few occasions rightly so because we were maybe doing things out of the ordinary but by god he's got it right when it's really mattered hats off to him and every player that has been involved in the campaign. Ive got to mention a post from early on in the season when quite a few people were disagreeing with Shaun Wanes managerial prowess and saying that Tony Smith would make wigan world beaters if he was in charge, of course i disagreed with the nonsense you were all chirping and all ive got to say now is "were are you now????" (With a cheeky grin on my face) Tony smith got dominated tactically and his team got dominated skillfully and physically and that was all down to how Shaun and his backroom staff prepared our lads, bring on the roosters.