Gwaze asked for too much money during a short spell of form and also banned for 8 games .

Springer was removed for questioning the authority of the coach after being called out for being lazy in defence.

Doro stole from a fellow player and shortly after his transfer to Bradford deliberately smashed miles lawfords teeth out during a training session.

Grix made the right decisions imo .

I’ll tell you where there is a common theme.

Your opinion is based on not rating Grix from day one before he had even started running his course it didn’t start 3 or 4 years afterwards and still continues to this day and your posts are based on trying to proof that you were right from day one the bulk of them based on the original biased opinion with no factual support it’s almost like an obsession.

Yes we could have had a pack with Springer, Doro, Gwaze and King if taking them in that order they would have done what was being asked, trained like the rest of the squad, had been offered a huge pay increase that would have made him the highest payed player at the club and didn’t have a girl friend who was still living in Cumbria at the time.

On the other hand if you think allowing players to refuse to do what their asked, not train as hard but still get picked ahead of those fighting for the same position who train their butts off, break the bank and somehow sort out their personal affairs so their minds are fully on the job is the way to do things then as before go and do it then and see how far you get.

Because that’s what was happening and what Grix had to sort out along with the rest of it which is a lot harder to do than sitting in an armchair.

Gonna do a poll , what’s tony fax’s’ favourite song ? https://youtu.be/BkKDSFYvxKU?si=DJZOTOVZKDQF7pse https://youtu.be/aAiVsqfbn5g?si=fY0fY1j4uLXe-x9_

Gonna do a poll , what’s tony fax’s’ favourite song ? https://youtu.be/BkKDSFYvxKU?si=DJZOTOVZKDQF7pse https://youtu.be/aAiVsqfbn5g?si=fY0fY1j4uLXe-x9_

It would be a lot higher than 10th. The sad facts of sport at a high level that simply giving 100% and trying hard is not enough for some players. Managing the players who have the talent but are not putting the effort in is a huge part of coaching.

In your dreams it would be but I don't recall seeing your name on the applicants list or did you think after listening to you on here they should have called you



On coaching and managing players the facts of sport at any level are if and when a player and coach don't see eye to eye ( which does happen, in fact it has even happen to me on more than one occasion but I was always the one who didn't get picked or had to leave and it wasn't quietly

) the coach should have the final say, why, because the coach is thinking about the team and the squad the player is thinking about himself and on the latter point I'm sure you will understand.

Incidentally, how much managing / coaching of players have you done at any level in the past or recently more importantly in the modern game ?

Add King and the common theme is any forward that can make a difference on the pitch causes issues off it any gets moved on..we're now stuck with a dearth of ordinary forwards who cause no problems off the pitch and even less to the opponents on matchday..

.Anyway if we're not paying the players we do have now,the emphasis changes again..

Keep up, as with all the others King’s issue has already been explained several times ever since he left and again just a couple of posts up.

After a years grace of holding the poison chalice he’s now holding the cup and the challenge is for Finn to bring in the players to change things, if we survive that is.

That's part of management in any type of business. And I agree that a manager's role is to get and coach the best out of his team to deliver results, and to do the job effectively, including nurturing talent within that team. But it also means that you don't make special allowances for some over others to where it creates an unfairness, lack of engagement or even unrest within the rest of your team, and which could result in the ones who have always put in the effort from thinking why do they bother and they start to give less. In a successful team each member will have common values, attitudes and goals and where some are not pulling their weight the least you expect is that they are managed, including managing them out!

I think the last Fax coach the fans have been content with is Chris Anderson, and even he was criticised at the beginning because of the apparent unfair sacking of Colin Dixon! Since then, we've had:

Ross Strudwick 1988–89
John Dorahy 1989–90
Peter Roe 1991–92
Roger Millward 1992
Mal Reilly 1993–94
Steve Simms 1994–96
John Pendlebury 1997–98
Gary Mercer 1999-00
Steve Linnane 2001
Tony Anderson 2002-04
Anthony Farrell 2004-06
Martin Hall 2006
Matt Calland 2008–11
Karl Harrison 2012-14
Richard Marshall 2015-19
Simon Grix 2019–23
Liam Finn - 2024

Every single one of them got hounded at some stage or another.

Maybe selective memory but I loved the Calland era and remember being surprised when it ended..

I attended the Damien Ball function a few weeks ago and that was his best time. It was all about scoring more points than the opposition with the likes of Penky terrorising the opponents.

Yeah on reflection seem to remember beating Whitehaven something like 74-46 and thinking this is a bit daft now lets drop the basketball and get back to a proper game..

That will be Fax 76 York 38 (attendance over 1,900) when Penky was awesome.

It was the week after our late NRC loss against Leigh at Blackpool (loved the day out despite the loss, it was the days before I became a partial armchair fan) and if I remember rightly that game was the beginning of the end re Calland's reign as there were rumours of players being drunk in Blackpool having shopping trolley races in which Calland took part.

You’ve missed somebody off.

GFB ( Armchair coach ) 1895-2024 and counting.

pretty sharp considering his age then..

As chief hound you have to be, trouble is as the poor lad gets older they can only see through one eye and just goes round in circles barking a lot and chasing their tails.

Not ready to be put down just yet IMO..

More than 5 years worth. Maybe that is why I don't have any hair.

TBF, that's a good 'un, but could be applied to all of us. Lol!

Did you ever have to deal with any awkward rebellious beggars that just wouldn’t toe the line no matter how hard you tried and they didn’t stay long?

Aye and all sponsored by Shackleton’s High Seat Chairs, there lovely.

No and didnt also take an instant dislike to newcomers for no particular reason other than they were better than he'd had previously..

That would be apart from Simon Grix then .

Ive seen all sorts, the most frustrating always tend to be the ones with obvious talent who do not put in the same effort as others but ultimately it always boils down to results and there is no doubt it is a fine line between keeping players happy who are giving 100% and those who think they can just toss it off and still get picked.

That said though once you get to semi pro or above there are lots of ways to do research on players which is the thing that always gets me about Doro and Springer. Watch Springer pre-match and in game and taking in to account the number of clubs he has had, its pretty obvious there is something not quite right. There is no doubt it would be fair to say he is a bit on the lazy side, and that is without doing any deeper research but don't sign a player like that and then complain that he is lazy when you already knew that. Maybe Grix had a plan to get the best out of him which did not work out but at the end of the day we lost a player who created more tries through offloads/tackle busts than any other player in his time at the club, we also lost that to a rival club who then proceeded to get the best out of him.

The Doro situation was even stranger in my eyes as up until the alledged theft he was not in favor at all and it goes back to doing research on players. Questions must have been asked about his character and his liking for a flutter but his work ethic and attitude when it comes to training could have been discussed with multiple people at Widnes who had links to Fax yet Grix signed him and didn't deem him good enough to play most weeks despite us lacking obvious punch in the forwards. Doro now moves to SL to play for one of the best teams in the country.

We are in a totally different generation nowadays though where players have to be molly coddled where as back in the day stuff like the above would be dealt with in dressing rooms and it would be on to the next bit of drama.

It was the other way round with Doro being the lazy one in training and wether people know it or not he had a couple of injuries as well, one was against Saints the other before that was a calf issue if I recall correctly so through no ones fault he didn’t get off to the best of starts up until the shall we say showing he had a good pair of hands display and after that understandably there was no way back.

Springer was doing fine and played in every game with no problems until one night in the team review Grix was going over it with the squad and then from player to player when it came to Gadwin he was asked to be more disciplined especially when in possession and not be giving penalties away which he had done a couple of times away at Oldham where we lost, watch the game back it’s on the tube.
The bust up came from that, nothing really but GS didn’t like It and let his feelings be known and blew up.

I’ll have to check but I think it was the very next home game Springer still plays but after the final whistle when the team are coming off as a group Springer isn’t with them and comes off on his own and it quickly deteriorated from there and within a week or two he had gone.

Talking of due diligence and checking players out of course it was checked and interviewed and it’s there where you talk to a player and tell them what sort of job you want them to do, the conduct expected and if they are happy to do it, if they say yes then they get signed up and what comes next can’t be known for sure until it happens.

I know of a couple of points regarding the thinking to do with the QLT and Scott Grix decision and there’s a bit more involved with another player in the frame that played a part in the outcome that had nothing to do with favouritism but I’ll post that later.

PS: At the Fax v Fev home game managed to have a quick word with Gadwin asked if he was keeping alright and said we wished he was still with us, he simply said he was fine, smiled and said he was getting stuck in at Fev.

PPS: Don’t think I’ll bother with the QLT info after tonight’s announcement.