Warrington Wolves - History - 1970s Onwards

1970s Onwards

After a disastrous start to the 1970/71 season, coach Joe Egan decided to stand down. He was replaced by Peter Harvey. The change made little difference as the club won only 11 out of 24 matches. The club also had debts of around £33,000. An Extraordinary General Meeting of the shareholders was called and they agreed to increase the share capital to £30,000 by creating 20,000 'A' ordinary shares at £1 each. All of these 'A' shares were sold to Ossie Davies and were worth five votes for each share, rather than the usual one. The directors of the old board agreed to resign and Mr. Davies who had been Vice Chairman of the old board, became Chairman of the new board. Alex Murphy joined Warrington as player-coach on 20 May 1971. The indifferent league form continued in 1974/75, as did the early exit from several cup competitions, the Challenge Cup being the exception. Warrington again reached Wembley to face Widnes; the Chemics winning 14–7. The first trophy was the Locker Cup won with a 14–9 victory over Wigan. Next was the Players No. 6 trophy, the final at Wigan against Rochdale Hornets providing a 27–16 win. Salford put an end to the success with a defeat in the first round of the BBC 2 Floodlit Trophy. A new competition, the Captain Morgan Trophy, provided the club with its third trophy of the season. Wins over Wigan, Castleford and Leeds led to the final against Featherstone Rovers which Warrington won 4-nil. However, the team continued to perform poorly in the league. Warrington defeated Huddersfield, Huyton and then Dewsbury were defeated to get to Wembley for the first time in twenty years. Warrington beat 24–9 Featherstone Rovers for the second time that season in a cup final to win the Challenge Cup. In the Merit Trophy play-off, Warrington played and beat Hull, Bradford Northern and then Wakefield Trinity in the semi final. The final at Wigan was against St. Helens, and after a great struggle Warrington won their fifth trophy, 13–12. Alex Murphy then retired as a player but continued to coach the side. Poor league performance continued in 1977/78 but Warrington again made it to the Regal trophy final. Warrington beat Widnes 9–4. In 1978, Warrington appointed Billy Benyon as Alex Murphy's successor. A solid year round performance saw Warrington finish second in the league, losing only 8 matches all year. A major highlight of the season was the controversial 15–12 victory over the touring Australians. For the second year running the club reached the John Player Trophy final, but were unable to repeat the previous year's victory, the match going to Widnes by 16–4.

The 1980/81 season brought the Lancashire Cup and the John Player Trophy. After consistently good performances in the league they were League Championship runners up. Australian Brian Johnson was appointed the club's head coach and manager in 1988. In 1990 Warrington made it to the final of the Challenge Cup at Wembley Stadium and faced arch rivals Wigan. Warrington lost 34–16 and this is the last appearance in the Challenge Cup final before their success in 2009. Warrington won the Regal Trophy in 1992 beating Bradford Northern 12–2 at Headingley, Leeds. Warrington did make it to the final of the Regal Trophy in 1994 but lost 40–10 to Wigan at McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield. With the advent of Super League, several mergers between clubs were proposed. Warrington were scheduled to merge with Widnes to form Cheshire who would compete in Super League. This was, however, resisted. Warrington were awarded a place in the Super League and Widnes were at one stage given a place but then were dropped and had to be relegated to Division One.