I sent this quote by Michael Jordan as part of a good luck message:

     
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”

Yesterday was a perfect example of all these. In recent previous seasons, if we had lost a player of Pat's calibre during a game, we sometimes had a tendency to have "rabbit in the headlights" syndrome.

Last night, we juggled the on field personnel around and carried on.

Maguire head coach

Mike Gregory Assistant.

Gregory was so underrated as a coach. When he became ill the side collapsed. Players would go through a wall for him.

take the emotion away from the mike gregory situation , and as much as we was shocked and saddened by the demise of mike , and ultimately his sad death , it would have to be madge in my book . mike greg had more talented individuals to rely on

i think most are in agreement the 2003 1st team where possibly better individually , but madge has managed to instill a spirit and desire in slightly lesser talented players to more or less die for each , the commitment is unquestionable

in madge we trust

Although i disagree with you on a couple of points (Main one being we are a far better team today) i think we will win the CC & GF next year, the thing IL & MM have brought to the club is progression, we ain't standing still, we are continually looking for improvement.

Well, this is what debate is all about.

I do hope you're right!

Damn Right and keep those avatars coming, Quality..

Is 2003 the season Lam got injured in the last seconds when we defeated Saints in the semi?

That happened one year and I knew then when it happened that was curtains to our chances in the final.

With him in the side we would IMO have won.

The difference between then and now may well be back then better players but now better coached into a winning team unit.

In other words the current team is greater then the sum of its parts.

Dave

The difference for me is that the team of 2003 was a team on its way out.

We'll never know whether Greg would have arrested or even reversed that, but, though I loved Greg as a bloke, I don't feel he had the intellectual depth to his coaching that Michael Maguire does. He also didn't have the support from the management that Maguire has. You really get the feeling now that Wigan is a club that is going places again. There's been quite a lot of petulance towards us this year - from other fans, other coaches, certain pressmen - but the truth is that we've been pace-setters, not just on the park but off it as well. The club feels totally revitalised to me, at every level - whereas in 2003 there was an atmophere of malaise.

As others have said, 2003 saw a Wigan side that was big in names, but small on spirit and team ethic (they should never have fallen apart simply because one of their wingers was injured). 2010 sees a Wigan side that is exactly the opposite, and they've done so much better (including not falling apart when their star winger got hurt).

Hey Cruncher stop posting my thoughts better than i could put them. I'll get you for it.

Great post. Very well put.

I'd argue Sam Tomkins is world class, even at such a young age. He breaks games wide open.

The character and spirit of this group make it the better TEAM.