: Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:43 pm  

That Anthony seems to be doing good business with the club. Not sure who we used before him, though?

: Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:42 am  

pocket*trout wrote:

I think if we had kept hold of Gregory we would have won alot more trophies under Johnson.

....Hmmm, Gregory jumped ship for Wigan some 2 years before Johnson became coach??.....It was Tony Barrow who had to continue without him, and did an excellent job of finding his replacement, teaming John Woods with Keith Holden at half back, which, but for terrible luck for Holden, would have been an even better partnership than Edwards/Gregory at Wigan.

Re: Warrington Coaches Over The Last 40 Years : Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:31 pm  

pocket*trout wrote:

Of all the coaches that we have had since the early 70's, where do you rate Jimmy Lowes?

1 - Alex Murphy
2 - Brian Johnson
3 - Billy Benyon
4 - Tony Barrow
5 - Kevin Ashcroft
6 - Paul Cullen
7 - Darryl van de Velde
8 - John Dorahy/ (Murphy)
9 - Reg Bowden
10 - David Plange
11 -Steve Anderson
12 -Jimmy Lowes

Looking at our league positions during this period, as this is probably the best measure of how good a team we were shows some interesting average finishes.

1970/71 = 22nd

Murphy
1971/72 = 15th
1972/73 = 1st
1973/74 = 5th - Cup Winners
1974/75 = 6th - Cup finalists
1975/76 = 10th
1976/77 = 5th
1977/78 = 9th
Average finish of 7th, high of 1st

Benyon
1978/79 = 2nd
1979/80 = 9th
1980/81 = 2nd
1981/82 = 8th
Average finish of 5th, high of 2nd

Ashcroft
1982/83 = 11th
1983/84 = 3rd
Average finish of 7th, high of 3rd

Bowden
1984/85 = 11th
1985/86 = 4th
Average finish of 8th, high of 4th

Barrow
1986/87 = 3rd
1987/88 = 6th
Average finish of 5th, high of 3rd

Johnson
1988/89 = 11th
1989/90 = 8th - Cup finalists
1990/91 = 9th
1991/92 = 4th
1992/93 = 8th
1993/94 = 3rd
1994/95 = 6th
1995 = 9th
Average finish of 7th, high of 3rd

Dorahy
1996 = 5th
Average finish of 5th, high of 5th

Van de Velde
1997 = 9th
1998 = 10th
1999 = 7th
2000 = 6th
2001 = 7th
Average finish of 8th, high of 6th

Anderson/Plange
2002 = 10th
Average finish of 10th, high of 10th

Cullen
2003 = 6th
2004 = 8th
2005 = 4th
2006 = 6th
2007 = 7th
2008 = 6th
Average finish of 6th, high of 4th

I have gone off the dates in the original post, so they may need some tweaking, but it shows that even Murphy only had us finishing an average of 7th (although the 1st place finish in 72/73 surely earns him bonus points).

I have purposely only counted the league and Challenge Cup as they are the two trophies available to all of these coaches.

What I find quite depressing is that no matter who we have had as manager, all with different circumstances, we have never had a period of consistency. Looking at the averages, they are all much of a muchness, but that is where you would factor in the budgets they had etc.

: Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:35 pm  

Moe syslak wrote:

Barrow should be at number 2. In his era wigan were the only full time team with everybody else part time. We were consistently challenging them in finals for lancashire cups, prienierships, john player etc and when they won romped to a league title only losing 2 games it was us who beat them home and away. Wigan apart, we were the best team in the league under barrow.

There was only one season where you could say we were the 2nd best team in the league behind Wigan (and that wouldn't be strictly true as we cam 3rd behind Saints, level on points), and that was 1986/87, and then in the following 2 seasons we finished 6th and 11th.

Re: Warrington Coaches Over The Last 40 Years : Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:57 pm  

Dave T wrote:

What I find quite depressing is that no matter who we have had as manager, all with different circumstances, we have never had a period of consistency. Looking at the averages, they are all much of a muchness, but that is where you would factor in the budgets they had etc.

There we are then. We ARE mediocre. Perhaps we should just accept it, and put these delusions of grandeur to bed.

Re: Warrington Coaches Over The Last 40 Years : Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:12 pm  

worthing wire wrote:

There we are then. We ARE mediocre. Perhaps we should just accept it, and put these delusions of grandeur to bed.

Depressing isn't it? I just don't understand it. Other clubs have been capable of at least a few years of consistency, yet we are up and down like a yo yo, even during some of our supposedly good periods.

One of our most consistent periods was actually under Cullen, however we were consistently average rather than very good then poor.

: Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:27 pm  

Dave T wrote:

There was only one season where you could say we were the 2nd best team in the league behind Wigan (and that wouldn't be strictly true as we cam 3rd behind Saints, level on points), and that was 1986/87, and then in the following 2 seasons we finished 6th and 11th.

Maybe that was a little bit over the top, but i don't think it was just about league positions back then as there were several other trophies on offer and wigan always ran away with the league. Aside from winning the premiership, Barrow also took us to a lancashire cup final, a john player final and another premiership final. Although we lost them all to wigan it's still pretty impressive for the amount of time he was coach. I should have phrased it like this, we were wigan's main rivals for honours under barrow.

: Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:49 pm  

The Angry Pirate wrote:

:? ....Hmmm, Gregory jumped ship for Wigan some 2 years before Johnson became coach??.....It was Tony Barrow who had to continue without him, and did an excellent job of finding his replacement, teaming John Woods with Keith Holden at half back, which, but for terrible luck for Holden, would have been an even better partnership than Edwards/Gregory at Wigan.

Yes agreed, Holden was very unlucky. He never did recover after that afternoon at Swinton.

We had quite a few half back partnerships in those days but we did pull through & reached quite a few finals.
Bishop Mackey Kelly Holden Woods Peters Turner Crompton Gregory & Ellis . They were all internationals (with the exception of Peters Turner & Crompton)
Today, all we have had is Briers for the past 10 years & a few average scrum halfs.(maybe Natt Wood & Langer were the exception

: Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:55 pm