Wigan Warriors • Matty Peet

Graham Lowe will always be one of the greats for me. Not just because he revolutionised Wigan, but because he revolutionised the entire British game.

Prior to Lowe, successful coaches in the UK had been people like Alex Murphy and Peter Fox, who were all motivation and no technique, or Dougie Laughton, who was closer to Lowe in approach but still seemed like a dinosaur once Lowe's all-conquering team were out in the world.

The first thing Lowe did was get us hyper-fit. You used to hear stories around that time about how mid-season training would consist of a couple of times round the pitch, a game of tick-and-pass, and then into the bar to exercise the old drinking arm. I remember when the '82 Kangaroos arrived, and blew everyone away. They were so much fitter and faster than we were, but we didn't seem to learn anything from that. It took Graham Lowe - four years later! - to take a leaf out of the NRL's book and treat his role as head-coach with much more professionalism.

The rest, after that, is history. Wigan became a dominant force in the British game for years, and serious contenders on the world RL stage. John Monie brought refinements of his own - the Mission Impossible season was a staggering achievement - but it was Graham Lowe who set the standard that only the best would do.

As to whether or not it was his players that won those trophies for him, this is a tired argument. Firstly, Wigan did nothing at that time that any other club couldn't have done. Yes, they pulled together some quality players, but that in itself was an admirable feat (because a couple of years earlier, no one wanted to play for Wigan), and it's a myth that they were fully professional when no one else was. All the players in Graham Lowe's team had jobs or their own businesses. They only went fully pro in the early 90s - and Lowe had been and gone by then. But there's nothing morally questionable about signing great players anyway. I doubt there's been a great team in any sport in history who didn't have great players as well as a great coach. And that in itself was a challenge for Lowe, with some of the egos he had to manage.

Off the top of my head, the only 'great coach' who got found out later on was Ian Millward, who helmed an unbeatable St Helens team, but when he arrived at Wigan, who were in a sorry state at the time, was unable to do anything with them (and it pains me to say this, by the way, because I met Millward once and he was a thoroughly pleasant guy).

I can't comment on Jim Sullivan because he was so much before my time, but for me, Graham Lowe was the trend-setter, and the guy who reminded Wigan, and the Wigan fans, who they actually were.