If this is the case then it goes to counter my 17th best coach in Oz argument.



Fair enough. Do you know this for a fact?

NOTE. i read this post after "posting" my last post (it can get confusing all this swapping around





Reading what you say above, i better understand your arguement. The only things i can say is that i agree that signing MM is a gamble, but in all honesty what coach would not be a gamble?.



Yes if MM is a total flop (and i do not beleive that he will be) then IL should be in line for a bit of stick. but only after a decent period of time.



I would hate for you to be correct in what you are saying. not becasue i (and others) will be wrong in backing IL, but because it will mean Wigan are not the team i think we could be.

He chose to carry on as assistant till he felt he was ready for it, there were 2 NRL clubs interested in taking him when he agreed to sign for us.



There are a tiny number of outstanding coaches:



Wayne Bennett

Craig Bellamy

Tim Sheens

..........

..........

..........

..........



It's common practice for assistants in the NRL to serve a long apprenticeship, the Bulldogs appointed Kevin Moore as head coach from being Steve Folkes' assistant - and won the Dally M Coach of the year award, with the Bulldogs having a fantastic season (this season)



Nathan Brown had a great season at Hudds after having 5 years at St George were he was considered by many to be a failure.



Whoever you give a coaching job to they are a gamble, and tbh apart from the 3 I listed I don't see anybody that would have been less of a gamble than MM.

Feel sure i have read it on several occasions and he himself has been quoted as saying he is not available for a first team seat until he has finished his current/last contract with the Storm.



I am not sure what not having a first team seat proves anyway. Were people like Wayne Bennett and Jack Gibson not top coaches prior to being appointed, they were simply unknown/waiting for a chance. It does not make someone a poor coach or a worse coach than a current head coach simply because they have not been given or turned down the chance until they felt the time/position was right.

Me too.

Quote XBrettKennyX="XBrettKennyX"If this is the case then it goes to counter my 17th best coach in Oz argument. Fair enough. Do you know this for a fact?'" Not the links I was looking for, but proof enough I think. www.news.com.au/couriermail/spor ... 09,00.html www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,865 ... 14,00.html There were other (and better) links but I can't be a*rsed looking for them! I seem to remember he was linked with Souths as well, amongst others.

Quote XBrettKennyX="XBrettKennyX"If this is the case then it goes to counter my 17th best coach in Oz argument. Fair enough. Do you know this for a fact?'" Not the links I was looking for, but proof enough I think. www.news.com.au/couriermail/spor ... 09,00.html www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,865 ... 14,00.html There were other (and better) links but I can't be a*rsed looking for them! I seem to remember he was linked with Souths as well, amongst others.

Why should he present you with a fact?



You admit that you dislike IL, and you don't even know him. You quote the 'way he treated Noble' as if it's gospel.

Some folk think Noble was lucky to get the extra year he did. I'd say he was treated pretty well considering he couldn't even get the team fit.



What on Earth are 'facts' in your world?

Why not take the time to find out a bit more about him then?







But its not though. I do it all the time when I think it is justified but unlike some it is never black or white for me. Sometimes he gets things right and other times wrong - in my opinion.



So I can on the one hand say he hasn't handled the way Noble went very well (or the Hock situation for example with no announcement) but on the other I can see things he has done right and while we won't be able to judge if appointing MM is right for a couple of seasons all things considered I can see the logic of going for MM. His CV and reputation are all about doing the things I think Noble failed to do so in appointing MM then IL has IMO made an attempt to directly address these issues.



How many head coaches got the job without being an assistant first? Wigan may not have made a habit of going for assistant coaches to fill the head coach position but it is not unheard of in RL and our last two head coaches who both came as supposedly established top class head coaches have failed.



Dave

Thats the key point Dave.



Noble - Matt Elliot's assistant

Craig Bellamy - Wayne Bennett's assistant

Kevin Moore - Steve Folke's assistant

Steve Folkes - Chris Anderson's assistant

John Monie - Jack Gibson's assistant



the list goes on and on

But I don't think some people will ever be satisfied until we sign all the biggest names in world RL, just as we did - supposedly - back in the late 1980s. (How quickly some fans seem to have forgotten that Graham Lowe and John Monie were not the biggest names in the antipodean game when they came to us; how quickly they seem to have forgotten that we did not assemble a multi-trophy winning side by packing it with Kangaroos).



I'm tired of hearing people insist that they don't expect us to go out and 'buy success' - and then talk as if that's exactly what they expect.



It's highly unlikely that any British club could recruit either a top NRL player or a top NRL coach at the present time. The best we can hope for is to catch these guys on the way down, or, even better, on the way up - which is what we appear to have tried to do with Mike Maguire.



I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear Wigan fans being 'cynical' about MM's appointment. Who are they trying to kid - the rest of us or themselves? It's no wonder some Wigan fans come over as being arrogant to non-Wigan fans. This idea that only the very best in the world are good enough for Wigan is laughable in an era when we appear to have fallen so far behind so many other British clubs. It's even more laughable when those who advocate it then bemoan the departure of Brian Noble, who operated so far below the ethos of Wigan in the 80s and 90s that it was almost untrue (not my words, those of a respected Wigan player from that era).

Of course we did, Henderson Gill, Billy McGinty, Neil Cowie, Martin Hall etc were all World famous players before they came to Wigan.

As were Sam Panapa and Ged Byrne. Still, let's not cloud myth with facts, eh?