I agree, Madge is irreplacable and has done some fantastic things with the squad at his disposal. Like you say, we couldn't get another real big name, so who better than Madge's understudy for the last two years. The only two in England I would have taken are Tony Smith and Nathan Brown, look where they are from and you realise the problem with have with English coaches.

Comfortably the best coach in SL. I'm gutted that he's not seeing out his contract with us.

He has seen his contract out. The third year was an option for both party's.

Has that been announced, though?
I still get the feeling that you'll pull something big from up your sleeve.

We certainly will..........................................




Gareth Thomas

Not sure if there is anyone out there to replace him except a couple of the coaches in the NRL who are very unlikely to leave their current jobs.

He showed real class in his post match comments...took it very well with no excuses....impressed.

PS - you can't have Tony

well south sydney will learn all about cheating win at all cost mentality. good riddance.

in fairness he didnt have much to complain about, apart from a dismal team performance.

every single player had an off day......wembley hangover?....or (and this worries me) have we already peaked and are now falling off?

Its a bit soon to consider have we peaked, weve had one dismal game after a big final. If we lose against Crusaders then i will start worrying

The start we made against Wire was very instumental to our downfall, had we not fu**ked up so much so early and kept it tighter it might of been much closer. Wire got the wind in their sails early and our players looked too tired to cope with them and they ran away with it and could of scored more. That start was very unlike us as we usually start very strong. I cant see a start like that happening again especially after Sunday.

What Madge has done at Wigan is turn them into the super leagues Melbourne Storm. A few years ago i came back from living several years in Australia and saw first hand the dominance they seemed to have over every other team. Craig Ballamy brought a style of rugby that no one really had seen before and Madge has done the same with us. The Storm didnt just have dummy runners, they had 2 attacking lines. They had a line of forwards passing the ball across the line flat, but also had the backs lined deep using the flat line of forwards as dummy runners when they spun it out wide. Everything came and still does from Carmeron Smith, whos undoubtedly the best hooker in the game (ok Robys a good un too haha) due to the options he has in attack and his workrate in defence. Then the Storm have 2 half backs thats sole job is to feed the outside backs the ball at precise timing. Of course then they have Billy Slater coming around on the loop ball with electrifying pace running through holes created by the dummy running forward lines. In defence they've been tackling 2 up 1 down for this same amount of time and just like its being questioned over here, everyone in Australia accused it as bending the rules. You could say every team in the NRL and Super League also do these things now, but the Storm have been doing it for almost 10 years and do it the best and have it down to an art form. Their training sessions arnt to learn this way of playing, its to make it better and more clinical. Madge brought that exact same structure to the Warriors, not just the way they attack but also the way they defend. Everything is to a structure and everything is about timing and how they play to it. How many times since Madge has been here has he spoke about "we lost our structure and game plan" when they wasnt playing their best?. Look at the similarities between the Storm players when Madge was there and the Warriors team of today. Billy Slater/Sam Tomkins.....Joel Tomkins/Greg Ingles....Isreal Falou/Pat Richards.....Cameron Smith/Tommy Leuluai.....Bret Finch Jeff Lima and Ryan Haffman all switching to another team but still playing to the same structure. I just hope that when Madge leaves, Shaun Wane has learned enough from him to stay to this structure and keep the players doing what Madge taught them.

Roughly translated...........he is way better than the guy that coaches my team.

didnt wigan win 4-5 games when mag went back home for family reasons ??? im sure wane is the man for the job,,,, 100%