Ok well late but I only got back yesterday.

Not really a report more a load of thoughts on the current state of the club and what the general feeling seemed to be amongst fans over in France.

Link: http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=671

Ok well late but I only got back yesterday.

Not really a report more a load of thoughts on the current state of the club and what the general feeling seemed to be amongst fans over in France.

Link: http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=671

Very honest comments there, Bilks.

I'm fortunate in that I'm part of the age-group who saw Billy Boston's Wigan as a child, and then saw the truly great Wigan side as an adult.

At the height of both those eras it was inconceivable that we would ever slip back into mediocrity, but on both occasions we did.

In the mid-80s, it was the dynamic chairmanship of a young, go-ahead Maurice Lindsay (and a willingness to take big-spending gambles) that dragged us out of the doldrums. Ian Lenagan seems to be more prudent, and let's face it - he has no choice, because the Salary Cap will now prevent the plethora of extravagant signings that so many fans want to see. But the first really positive move that Lindsay made - which many now forget - was to appoint Alex Murphy as head-coach. Okay, it ended in tears, and Murph is now rightly regarded as a dinosaur, but at the time he injected the club with the attitude that being second-best was not good enough. Prior to Murph we had a succession of coaches who were either content to be in charge of a mid-table team - like Kel Coslett, or didn't have the expertise to coach their way out of it - like George Fairbairn and Maurice Bamford. Murphy was the first one in ages who, by sheer rage alone, got the message through to his players that losing even a few matches was simply not good enough. Subsequently, he won us our first trophy in a decade, got us back to Wembley for the first time in nearly two decades, and basically restored the 'we yearn to win' culture that earmarked the Boston / Ashton era.

Players like Shaun Edwards and Ellery Hanley expanded on this. Suddenly, losing was no longer an option. That's something we need to do today - and surely it's well within Ian Lenagan's power. Because it all stems from the head-coach, whose salary is NOT counted under the cap.

I hate to repeat myself, but it's time for a change at the top - and, whoever the new guy is, he has to be a winner (not just because he inherited a good side that already knew how to win - like Noble seems to have done at Bradford, or Millward did at Saints), but because he knows himself how to do it, and will not accept anything less (either from his playing staff or from his coaching staff).

It won't be simple. There's never a quick fix when a club's hopes are as badly tarnished as ours now are, but it won't be impossible. We've done it before, and we can do it again - if brave decisions and the correct appointments are made.

Very honest comments there, Bilks.

I'm fortunate in that I'm part of the age-group who saw Billy Boston's Wigan as a child, and then saw the truly great Wigan side as an adult.

At the height of both those eras it was inconceivable that we would ever slip back into mediocrity, but on both occasions we did.

In the mid-80s, it was the dynamic chairmanship of a young, go-ahead Maurice Lindsay (and a willingness to take big-spending gambles) that dragged us out of the doldrums. Ian Lenagan seems to be more prudent, and let's face it - he has no choice, because the Salary Cap will now prevent the plethora of extravagant signings that so many fans want to see. But the first really positive move that Lindsay made - which many now forget - was to appoint Alex Murphy as head-coach. Okay, it ended in tears, and Murph is now rightly regarded as a dinosaur, but at the time he injected the club with the attitude that being second-best was not good enough. Prior to Murph we had a succession of coaches who were either content to be in charge of a mid-table team - like Kel Coslett, or didn't have the expertise to coach their way out of it - like George Fairbairn and Maurice Bamford. Murphy was the first one in ages who, by sheer rage alone, got the message through to his players that losing even a few matches was simply not good enough. Subsequently, he won us our first trophy in a decade, got us back to Wembley for the first time in nearly two decades, and basically restored the 'we yearn to win' culture that earmarked the Boston / Ashton era.

Players like Shaun Edwards and Ellery Hanley expanded on this. Suddenly, losing was no longer an option. That's something we need to do today - and surely it's well within Ian Lenagan's power. Because it all stems from the head-coach, whose salary is NOT counted under the cap.

I hate to repeat myself, but it's time for a change at the top - and, whoever the new guy is, he has to be a winner (not just because he inherited a good side that already knew how to win - like Noble seems to have done at Bradford, or Millward did at Saints), but because he knows himself how to do it, and will not accept anything less (either from his playing staff or from his coaching staff).

It won't be simple. There's never a quick fix when a club's hopes are as badly tarnished as ours now are, but it won't be impossible. We've done it before, and we can do it again - if brave decisions and the correct appointments are made.