Warrington Wolves • Best Wire Coach - not the 'transport' type.

I definitely think personal bias plays in to it, Lowes should have been above Plange in my ranking but I really disliked him, whereas I thought Plange seemed like a decent guy who was handed a hospital pass taking over that team in mid season.

I can see a case for Johnson at 2. I tried to be extra critical in my analysis of Johnson to counter my bias towards him as one of my all time favourite Wire personalities. In the early Johnson era we went through some rough seasons when we were in the lower half of the league and we were frustratingly inconsistent. He managed to cover up some disappointing league seasons by winning trophies (Lancashire Cup and Regal Trophy) and getting to Wembley. Thinking back, there was more of a feel good factor about winning those trophies in an inconsistent season than there was about winning the Challenge Cup under Price!

I also wonder if I was a bit harsh by saying some of the rugby we played under Johnson wasn't great. We played in winter on bad pitches so inevitably that had an impact on the style, and we did have some nice tricks and runarounds with the halfbacks and Mike Gregory or later Kelly Shelford. And the 1993/94 season was a wonderful time, especially with Davies winning Man of Steel and Harris breaking into the team and a young Sculthorpe coming up the ranks too. A great era of hope when we could see the first cracking of the Wigan reign of terror.

Statistics: Posted by sally cinnamon — Mon Jul 10, 2023 8:55 pm — Replies 24 — Views 1620

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