Quote: Jukesays "Would the same "Revolution" in the Off season been possible if it had happened end of 2006 and not 2009?'"
Undoubtedly IMO. Had a coach with Madges methods been appointed in 2006 instead of Noble I see absolutely no reason not to believe that following an off season under the new coach the team would have played in the same way as it has in 2010 instead of the way it did in 2007 and the next two years after that.
Quote: Jukesays "Clarke & McCinness had not just won the cup when Lowe took over, they'd done it the year before.
Would Lowe have come in 81/82? He did come in 86/87 due to the clubs steady improvement in 88/83/84/85/86.
If he had come in 81/82 would he have achieved the same overnight Miracle transition and reached the heights he did in 86/87?
I doubt it, the infratructure wasn't in place for him to do it with.'"
What do you mean by infrastructure exactly? Please define it.
In any case you don't know if any of that is true but it's not really relevant to today anyway. Most people accept Lowe was a revolutionary coach that took Wigan to the next level. Madge has taken Wigan from a lot lower level to top of the pile in his first season.
Quote: Jukesays "I think Maguire etc would have improved us & probably more & quicker than Noble did if he had taken charge 2006, but he wouldn't have got us to where we are now in 1 season IMO.
The reason he has been able to do it (again IMO) is partly down to a lot of the infrastructure put in place 2007/08/09 that he has been able to reap the benefits of. Some of that were Noble's doing, a lot were IL's. Other things such as Marketting etc were in place pre both of them and believe it or not I think ML could deserve a hint of credit for employing them.'"
What Madge did was replace everything that Noble had in place with his own methods. The entire back room staff was replaced. The coaching methods completely changed. The fitness regime completely changed. The way the team was selected was completely changed. This was not fine tuning some well oiled machine set up by Noble but completely replacing whatever Noble did.
The reason Noble lost his job was because what he did and more importantly the way he did it, didn't work. In 2007/2008/2009 we saw NO improvement. Three virtually carbon copy season where no progress was made. It is just not credible to suggest this was some work in progress that Madge has benefited from or we would have seen steady improvement in those three seasons and we did not. Comparing the way this season has gone to those three is like comparing chalk to cheese. It is has not been an incremental improvement but a stark contrast.
The way Noble did things no longer happens at the club. To suggest Noble put things in place and Madge is reaping the benefits is simply not true IMO and takes credit away from Madge. There is no doubt in my mind the season we have just had is all down to what Madge has brought to the club and the fact he replaced whatever "infrastructure" Noble put in place. And Noble's outdated methods certainly needed replacing.
Quote: Jukesays "He still had a lot of work to do and possibly I think he may have slightly Over ahcieved were Noble Slightly under achieved given the merits of the playing squads etc available to both, Bearing in mind the Youth set-up & Back up was IMO far stronger when Noble Left and handed over to Maguire than What Noble inheritted from Millward & the 2 years previous to that.'"
I don't think anyone quite expected a GF win but it just shows what modern methods and coaching can achieve given the same squad of players Noble had in 2009. Saying Noble "slightly" underachieved is being far too kind given Madge took basically the same group of players to another level despite not having a Trent Barrett to paper over the cracks.
Quote: Jukesays "Same applies with Lowe.
Would he have been able to turn the JPS winning team of 83 into WCC in 1 season with the players we had at that time?
IMO I don't think so.
The groundwork was done in the 3-4 seasons prior to his arrival with the continual improvement of the squad, recruitment, attendances etc that meant that a lot of what was needed was in place on arrival
Again, Clarke/McCinness couldn't get us over that line, Lowe did (Spectacularly).
I know what you want everyone to believe Dave, I just don't agree.
I could draw similar parallels in Footbal with Ferguson at Man U, Cantona was the Spark, but if Ferguson hadn't completely overalled Man U in the Youth set up and Backroom departments and brought a totally different attitude to the club then Cantona's spark may not have happened.
If Ferguson had been sacked maybe someone else would have benefitted from his good work at a later stage?'"
You can draw whatever parallels you like. You are still just wrong. Cause and effect is what we have here and it's that simple. Noble and his methods went out of the window and it's no coincidence with the new bloke in charge things changed dramatically for the better.
You also give far to much credit both back in the 1980's and now to this notion of some sort of build up to success you have cooked up. Being a coach is a short term job. It always has been and we can see that when the best coaches left we went backwards and when the good ones arrive we improve. It's not a coincidence and the success of the good coaches is not built upon anything the poor ones left behind. It's because they replaced what had failed. That is all that happened with Noble and Madge.
With a bit of luck Madge will leave a positive legacy behind for Wane to carry on but I am absolutely certain Noble left nothing behind of any value to Madge.
Dave