Maybe a bit presumptious but assuming 2010 heralds the dawn of a golden age, How will history record the decade 2000-2010? I've had this debate with other fans. I said after the Grand Final that it meant so much after a decade of sh.yte but others argue that it wasn't all that bad. When you think, we had 3 Grand Finals, 2 Challenge Cup finals including a win in 2002, Trent Barrett, crowds on the up & up after the depression that followed our move away from Central Park. Just flicking through Wigan RL history books, each era tends to be nicely compartmentalised:

The pre war Leytham, Jenkins, Miller, Todd era.
Peerless Jim Sullivan 1920/30's
The great post war team
The Boston, Ashton, McTigue era 1950's/1960's
In the wilderness 1970's
Revival 1980/85
Glory Days 1985/1998ish

How will history record the last decade? How would you describe it?

Character-building, Jimmy. That's what they'll call it.

It wasn't all that bad in terms of we still had many memories of great individual games but in the end it was a decade of massive underachievement. Whilst a lot of that was down to poor ownership, it was also perhaps inevitable after the loss of Central Park.

I'm not sure how they'll categorise it but I for one am glad I endured the 2005-2006 seasons. It made 2010 all the more sweeter because no one can throw that "living in the past" argument at us anymore. Just where have all those Warrington fans gone off this board?

Had pretty much any other team had the decade we have had, it would have been deamed a success.

However with it being Wigan, it was deamed failure. Which once again hammers home how important Wigan is to everyone! Just important for different reasons.

What a great analogy.

I was told years ago byy a football fan friend that you're not a 'proper' fan until you've ben through a relegation battle (she was an Evertonian!)

I always took it with a pinch of salt at the time, but after the 2006 season I can see exactly what she meant.

I enjoyed 06 for some sick reason.

the way the fans got behind the team was brilliant..the depression of walking from the DW after losing to cas.making us 6 points a drift.

all the abuse we got..NL1 NEEDS A STRONG WIGAN !

then 10 games to go we turn it around..the DW was rocking every game..the best being fieldens debut against warrington.

brilliant memories BUT i never want to go through that again

Agreed. I think Wigan fans have a lot to be proud of, we didn't just endure those terrible times we rallied behind the club in its hour of need in a way that - I am absolutely convinced - the fans of no other club would have.

It certainly is all the sweeter now that we are back on top. The challenge will be to stay there, to keep raising the bar in the RL world. We will start 2011 by testing ourselves against the "other" Saints in February, a club whose proud history and return to the top of the NRL will mean they will present a very, very difficult challenge indeed but that's as it should be. I can't wait to find out whether we are truly world class again. If we aren't quite there yet, well you can bet IL, MM and SW will not rest until we are back challenging the best Australian club sides, as we were in the golden era when even the mighty Brisbane Broncos were defeated on their own ground by an injury hit Wigan team that simply refused to be beaten.

We went from an underachieving side to GF winners in the space of an off season.

If you are saying we won the GF this year due to a steady progress over a number of years that finally got us there I think you are wrong.

What has happened at the club since the end of 2009 is basically a revolution.

The last time we had a similar revolution was when Lowe arrived who replaced Clarke and McInnes who has just won the cup in 1985.

So to answer the question posed by the o/p I think history will take a simple view of the period in question. Generally in the doldrums for 9 years going nowhere fast until IL took over and appointed the right coaches and back room staff.

Dave

The Great Transitional Period

Would the same "Revolution" in the Off season been possible if it had happened end of 2006 and not 2009?

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.

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.
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.

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?

It's always darkest just before dawn

Started ok but slowly dropped back in the pack then steamed up to snatch it late on the line