Which is why I said ''Madge's victory''.

I'm taking nothing away from Maguire, he's done absolutely brilliantly to bring the trophy home, but the ''lot of good'' Nobby did that you alluded to will have played a small part.

A very small part.

I don't wish to sound harsh, but I think the underlined bit is the key phrase.

I've no doubt that Nobby is a top bloke, but I feel he's very limited as a coach. This is his team that Maguire has just won the Grand Final with, but in reality it was never anywhere near winning a title while Nobby himself was in control.

He definitely stabilised us after the Millward disaster - and that took some doing, but I don't think he got us anywhere close to winning a Grand Final. We reached several semi-finals under his tutelage, but apart from right near the end, we nearly always looked to be out of our depth.

I think - if you consider the astonishing transformation we've seen at Wigan since 2006, Nobby only really gets plaudits for about 25% of it. The vast bulk of the glory must go to Madge.

That said, it was good to see him there, chatting with the Wigan lads like they were old friends. In that respect, all's well that ends well.

Almost as bad.

Another good thing about last night - somebody called Potter didn't have a magical night.

I'd agree with pretty much all of that, perhaps I was too praising of Noble in my original reply.

The victory, success and results for 2010 are Maguires, and you're right, with that exact team under Noble this year we wouldn't have done anywhere near as well as we have done.

He saved us from going down, steadied the ship and took us up a level from where we were in 05 and 06 (for a variety of reasons).

One thing I think we can all agree on is that nothing should detract from the job Madge has done in his first season as a Head Coach, and long may it continue.

id echo this whole statement!

"Tutelage" ..... word of the day

Yeah, great post Crunch, sums up my feelings very well.

I think people make out that he did a lot worse than he actually did.
Doesn't really matter anyway they're maguires team and it was down to him this year really.
I was ust made up watching highlights on the bbc and they interview brian and he's behind wigan the whole way, backed to win before the match and i'm sure he said 'we came top of the table' and seemed made up at the end.

Like others I don't wish to be harsh but a thread about Brian Noble has no place on a board full of "Wigan winning the GF" threads.
I, like everyone else, appreciate the turnaround Nobby initiated in 2006 and the fact that we got close (in terms of minutes but nowhere near in terms of ability) to reaching the GF.
BUT 2010 belongs 100% to Maguire, Wane and staff. Furthermore and being totally brutal what Wigan have achieved this year has quite frankly embarrased Noble as a coach and I can't see any NRL club touching him.
I don't think I've spoken to a single oppo fan this season who hasn't said:
"What is Maguire doing? I can't believe it's the same team as last year."