Not many fond memories of those games at Runcorn. Apart from future Russian international prop Bob Campbell scoring a hat trick for us in a rare win!
Won 2, Lost 2.
And if my memory serves me right, the 2 we lost (against Leigh & Swinton) were very close games.
The games at Runcorn were fun, simply for the fact, the pressure of relegation was off.
We actually played some of our best rugby at Canal Street that year.
And a shocking injury to saints loane Sean Richardson. Anthony singleton and Howells are play cough cough makers?
Note duggies last signings Ben lythe Brian jellick and Boyce Nelson. Jellick and Nelson played int for NZ and jellick is top video ref.
So did we get relegated to division 2? I am not there is anyway of explaining but Widnes, were in one way fortunate to be in the top flight for so long, both Hull and Wigan were relegated in different periods, but they always bounced back unscathed.
Whereas with Widnes, it seemed like relegation 95, 2005 and 2018? Follow long and dark periods in the lower diversion.
And a shocking injury to saints loane Sean Richardson. Anthony singleton and Howells are play cough cough makers? Note duggies last signings Ben lythe Brian jellick and Boyce Nelson. Jellick and Nelson played int for NZ and jellick is top video ref.
Singleton was long gone by 1997, think he was a Tony Myler signing, and if my memory serves me right, Sean Richardson came on loan from Cas Tigers.
It was a real shame when he broke his leg, as he was probably, along with Jamie Bloem, our best player that season.
As for Jellick, Lythe & Nelson...
Jellick came with rave reviews, but also came with a badly broken leg, so we never got to see whether he was any good or not.
From memory, Lythe & Nelson weren't that crash hot, but then again, I think you could've put Darren Lockyer in that team, and he would've been rubbish 😂😂😂
So did we get relegated to division 2? I am not there is anyway of explaining but Widnes, were in one way fortunate to be in the top flight for so long, both Hull and Wigan were relegated in different periods, but they always bounced back unscathed. Whereas with Widnes, it seemed like relegation 95, 2005 and 2018? Follow long and dark periods in the lower diversion.
Officially Yes we did get relegated, as we finished 2nd bottom ahead of Workington Town, however, because Paris & Oldham went bust, 2 clubs were promoted to Super League instead of 1, meaning only 1 club in the Championship would be going down, but confirmation of our survival only came 2 months after our league season had finished.
So did we get relegated to division 2? I am not there is anyway of explaining but Widnes, were in one way fortunate to be in the top flight for so long, both Hull and Wigan were relegated in different periods, but they always bounced back unscathed. Whereas with Widnes, it seemed like relegation 95, 2005 and 2018? Follow long and dark periods in the lower diversion.
Rugby League has changed a lot over the years, up until the 1973/74 season, the league was just 1 division, so there wasn't any relegation anyway, however, in the years following that, Hull became a bit of a yo-yo team, until the Kiwi invasion (Gary Kemble, Dane O'Hara and James Leuluai) arrived to turn them into a world class side... Wigan too, had some really lean years until Maurice Lindsay took over... And believe it or not, Widnes did too! ....12 months before we won the League Title in 1988, we finished 8th in league, but ONLY 2 points clear of the relegation zone... 😳😳😳
I was having a debate with a colleague who is a saints fan, he is big advocate for SL and suggested it made the game more competitive, I totally disagree. In today’s structure, could you really imagine a Wigan been relegated today or a team like Featherstone with a population of 12,000, winning the grand final?
Teams such as Wigan, Saints and Leeds, who will always attract 10,000 plus gates, backed up by a superb and resourceful academy, will always be in the top 4 more often than not. Whereas prior to SL, teams merely had to splint a good coach, make some good signings and produce their own talent and they could win the league without much fuzz.
I was having a debate with a colleague who is a saints fan, he is big advocate for SL and suggested it made the game more competitive, I totally disagree. In today’s structure, could you really imagine a Wigan been relegated today or a team like Featherstone with a population of 12,000, winning the grand final? Teams such as Wigan, Saints and Leeds, who will always attract 10,000 plus gates, backed up by a superb and resourceful academy, will always be in the top 4 more often than not. Whereas prior to SL, teams merely had to splint a good coach, make some good signings and produce their own talent and they could win the league without much fuzz.
Rugby League has always been a cyclical game with regular peaks and troughs.
Teams like Wigan, Leeds and Saints didn't always get crowds of 10,000+... Wigan from the early 70s until the early 80s only mustered around 5-6,000 per game... Saints, up until the success they had in the mid 90s, only got anywhere between 6 & 8,000 per game... Leeds too, in the 70s & 80s struggled to get anywhere near 10,000 per game... However, success breeds success ...You have a winning team on the pitch, and fans flock to the turnstiles.
The same can also be said for Widnes too.
Super League on the other hand, was born out of a delusion of grandeur... men in suits believing the game was bigger than it actually was.
As a result of this delusion, the rest of the game outside the top flight has suffered irreparable damage to its 126 year old foundations.
Wigan, Saints, Leeds and now Warrington (who seem to have taken over the mantle of Bradford Bulls as the final member of the "BIG 4")will never be relegated from the top flight any more because their owners make the rules.
Super League, without a shadow of a doubt, was THE worst thing ever to happen to this wonderful game...
I was having a debate with a colleague who is a saints fan, he is big advocate for SL and suggested it made the game more competitive, I totally disagree. In today’s structure, could you really imagine a Wigan been relegated today or a team like Featherstone with a population of 12,000, winning the grand final? Teams such as Wigan, Saints and Leeds, who will always attract 10,000 plus gates, backed up by a superb and resourceful academy, will always be in the top 4 more often than not. Whereas prior to SL, teams merely had to splint a good coach, make some good signings and produce their own talent and they could win the league without much fuzz.
I can only remember the Super League era - but the games of the 80s/90s (in terms of interest, stature, TV coverage, crowds) look absolutely magic in comparison to now.
But then if it was that good, why did it need the Sky money etc.
I was having a debate with a colleague who is a saints fan, he is big advocate for SL and suggested it made the game more competitive, I totally disagree. In today’s structure, could you really imagine a Wigan been relegated today or a team like Featherstone with a population of 12,000, winning the grand final? Teams such as Wigan, Saints and Leeds, who will always attract 10,000 plus gates, backed up by a superb and resourceful academy, will always be in the top 4 more often than not. Whereas prior to SL, teams merely had to splint a good coach, make some good signings and produce their own talent and they could win the league without much fuzz.
I can only remember the Super League era – but the games of the 80s/90s (in terms of interest, stature, TV coverage, crowds) look absolutely magic in comparison to now. But then if it was that good, why did it need the Sky money etc.
People remember everything with rose tinted glasses, the game was on its arse, loads of debt. The crowds looked good for the big games but if you look at the numbers there were some pretty awful ones also
If Widnes got the Sky money from the off, we wouldn't have had half the issues we have had in recent years
Based on research, attendances appeared “hit and miss” although people would always say that, a decent promotion of fans who attended Naughton Park were never counted for attendance due to a combination of gate hoping and the club cooking the books.
I think the biggest difference from today and yesteryear is that small or mid table clubs could attract decent gates compared to the clubs of today. SL, has turned the game into a monopoly, teams simply win the big trophies by retaining their best players due to superior budgets.
Between 1970s and 1999 Leeds and Saints went years without a league title win, Wigan had a lean spell for over 12 years, surely the game is better when the competition is more diverse with teams having good and lean spells. SL has certainly destroyed the player pool.
The same thing happened to Football with the Premier League as in rugby with the SL. Ask yourself who is more famous, Eric Bristow or Michael Van Gerwin, Steve Davis or Mark Selby? People have more choice now both in leisure time and TV choice. A lot of people don't even watch regular TV with social media and Netflix.
RL was only part time, but as a sport I think it was much better and the Challenge Cup and Internationals got bigger crowds at the likes of Wembley and Old Trafford rather than Wigan and Hull.
Without naming names, quite a few people hand their fingers in the Naughton Park pie which ultimately lead us to where we were in the mid 90's, even before Rule and Co we've had our share of dodgy board members in the past.
Without naming names, quite a few people hand their fingers in the Naughton Park pie which ultimately lead us to where we were in the mid 90’s, even before Rule and Co we’ve had our share of dodgy board members in the past.
if you’re not going to name them I call bull
Question here: Whitfield by all accounts did a good job, so why was he sacked when he was?