OK. Following on from the Paul Cullen thread, who do we think were the 3 best Warrington Coaches in say the last 30 years?



Oh, and by Coach, I mean the human variety..........

mine

I feel that our present coach is the one to take us to the next level, but apart from him I would say:-



1 Tony Barrow. Under him we were more than a match for Wigan and Saints.



2 Brian Johnson, before it went pera shaped for him 80-) etc.



I'm stryggling to think of any others to be honest. Steve Anderson perhaps

1) SHEARINGS



2) MAYNE



3) HAMPTONS

Plange?

Billy Benyon



Brian Johnson



Tony Smith



In no particular order....

Tony Barrow

+2

Alex Murphy



Tony Barrow



Barry Cooper

in context surely Paul Cullen has to be up there with the modern day best. Dragging us from the jaws of relegation and turning us into a team that demanded silver, which i know he didn't deliver but he set solid foundations for one other of our best coaches, Che Smith.





Another of my favourite's in the modern era was Van de Velde, may not win a lot of games, but a guaranteed dust up if we were losing! And also brought the worlds best ever player to the club, Alfie!

Disagree. Apart from keep us from relagation PC did nothing during his reign we were known has the biggest under achievers. TS had been in six months and had already won the CC, also you could see the improvement in our play. PC used to go out drinking with the boys in Stockton Heath. Not a chance in hell is he won of the best coaches.

He did nothing? We went from being bottom of the league, the whipping boys, to being, as you state " biggest under achievers" by making the top 6 the previous year, and building a great stucture for a team, to get us to be regulars in the play offs.



I might be missing something, but if Avram Grant got Portsmouth into Europe next year, i think they might build a statue of the bloke on the town hall steps, instead, Cullen did 'nothing' according to some.



I must have been in different stadium than some people on this forum

We didnt win anything though, it's no goo being in the playoffs ifyou don't win it. Fair play to him he kept us up and im gratefull to him for that but come on what sort of manager goes out drinkin every weekend with their players. I mean talk abut stting a good example.

A good coach changes a team



We were poor, he changed us to being above average.



I for one will be on my feet on the 26th December applauding the guy who kept my team in the elite league, like it or not... "there's only one Paul Cullen"

Jimmy Lowes. He singlehandely rescued our season in 2008 at a time when we were doomed to a year out of the playoffs which would have been catastrophic for our future. We were going nowhere under Cullen and Lowes took over and won 7 of the next 8 games to guarantee us a playoff spot.



I know some of our fans have short memories but I will always be grateful for what Lowes achieved that season.

tony barrow plus sir les..1986 elland road..thrashing halifax....2nd best day of my life...boy did i have a headache....2009...the great tony smith...wembley has to be 1st..another bad headache.....hope i have another bad headache in 2010

Barrow, Cullen, Johnson

Would have to say the following



Alex Murphy



Billy Benyon



Tony Smith

Alex Murphy

Brian Johnson

Kevin Ashcroft......we just dont sack managers that get us to third in the League anymore.

I know we like "recency" and/or "celebration of the mundane" on this board but has anyone mentioned Ces Mountford ?

I doubt anyone on here saw a Cec Mountford side, but in terms of achievement the top 2 have to be Mountford and Murphy (the first time round). My number 3 would have to be Tony Barrow.

Agreed most on here, including me, never saw his side. Most on here, including me and it seems your goodself, do have access to history books though.





Murphs a great (if not essential) shout for No 1 and if we need to make a top 3 I'll go for Tony Barrow as I saw how he turned that side around in '86. As for attacking play, some of the best tries I've seen us score have been under Johnno and our most recent claim to the league title. The rest, including Cullen, come nowhere remotely near.

What Mounford and Murphy had (especially Murphy) was access to ready cash. They both made a number of big signings, but both also made some very cheap and astute signings which paid almost immediate dividends. Murphy's signing of Barry Philbin to play at Loose Forward with the money won from the Captain Morgan Trophy made a very good side into an outstanding one. Until the move to the HJ no other Warrington Coaches have had all that much money to spend.

Thank god.