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.

Hard to disagree with much of that, except the reference to Robbie McCormack. He's the best hooker Wigan have had while I've been watching them, he was a very, very good player indeed. Failing to re-sign him was an indication of how wrong things were going at that time.

what memories
the 1990- 1991 season the last 8 games in 18 days. 4 games in last 6 days losing to bradford in the 2nd half, in the next to last game coming back to get a draw and win at leeds 2 days later to win the league

the 1991-1992 season. the bradford semi and cas final in the challenge cup easy wins.the offiah 10 try game in the premiership semi and saints final at old trafford. on a hot day in may. scoring many tries in the 2nd half

but for me the 1994-1995 season was the peak the wembley final win against leeds 30-10 and the premiership final win against leeds 69-12. and the whole season in the league games

in those seasons. the best win was the brisbane 1994 wwc final

the worst defeats i think were both in 1993- 1994 season and both games against castleford the 46-0 loss in the league at cas and the regal final. cas winning 33-2 at headingley

Maybe those senior players should have earned the respect by their on-field performances from 97 onwards instead of expecting the kids to be in awe of something they did 10 years previously.

Respect needs to be continually earned.

1994/1995 - we won everything possible - you can't get better than that; the GB team had 11 (I think) wiganers in it at the time

great great memories

Quote: wigan pie man "remind us........what was the team?'" Hampson Myers Lydon Bell Botical Edwards Gregory Lucas Dermott Skerrett Betts Platt Hanley Goodway Clarke wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=410

Quote: wigan pie man "remind us........what was the team?'" Hampson Myers Lydon Bell Botical Edwards Gregory Lucas Dermott Skerrett Betts Platt Hanley Goodway Clarke wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... age_id=410

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