Absolutely.

With hindsight I think the timing was right. A new coach does tend to get the players on their toes and perhaps things were getting a bit stale. Lets not kid ourselves though that Saints and Leeds are the same teams of the last three years. Yes we've improved but that has coincided with the opposition getting weaker.

I still maintain the standard of super league as a whole is poorer to watch than it was 8-10 years ago. I note the "super duper league" threads have disappeared since we've become good at it.

bring on the scousers

Noble was OK nothing more IMO. We are light years ahead already, regardless of last nights result. I have been to games this season and said during the game "If this were Noble's team we'd panic here and lose this" but we ended up convincing winners.

We are, with the same side, playing a far superior brand of rugby to Noble's team but winning more as well. I think with the new additions next season, combined with all the kids having another years experience, you just sit back and watch us go.

Spot on, Dave. One of the best things about MM, for me, is the way he's been prepared to play the youngsters ahead of the established "stars", even when they were fit; something Noble would never do unless forced.

Madge has taken what Noble put in place (which was considerable) to a new level.

Nobody can question IL in his decision making or coach selection.

Couldn't agree more.

The methods and fitness that the new regime has added to the squad has been sensational.

Maguire is the best thing to happen for Wigan since the Tomkins brothers parents moved to Chorley.

Oh to clarify it was mentioned on here that they're from Milton Keynes or something so yeah in reference to that.

What did Noble put in place? It certainly wasn't the right type of culture, training regime or attitude. In fact I'd go as far as saying Noble was detrimental to the development of young players.

Dave

Agreed. It's well documented that he would only play the youngsters when his established "stars" were out.

Noble put a lot of work into improving the youth system at the club i.e. the Accelerate train-on squad.

His coaching and the players he brought in kept us up in 2006. That's more than enough for me and I'll always be grateful to him for that.

Here we go again.

Overhauling every level of the club, getting Orrell put in place, improving the depth and experience of a squad to aid the development of the likes of Sam Tomkins. All our young players look up to the likes of Phil Bailey. Yeah, Madge has improved the fitness side of things and changed the culture, but to pretend that Noble didnt build some very solid foundations, is frankly idiotic.

I reckon Noble would have liked to play against similarly weakened Leeds teams at that stage in recent years . . .

No question MM is an improvement on Noble though.

We couldn't even beat Catalans in semis under Noble.

like many coach's noble tried to do his best whilst at wigan, it didn't work out how the fans wanted it to and i doubt it worked out the way noble wanted it to.
what i now find strange is that as the season progressed and the team was playing far better than previous years, noble has never been asked " How come you couldn't get them to play like this, Brian? "