Yeah I cant understand why people are desperate for McGuire back, especially those that moan that we give too many jobs to the old boys, hes not proven anything so far, he may do in the future.

We need an assistant that Arthur could mould into a future replacement, preferably with previous head coach experience.

If Brad Arthur signs on for 2 years the only person who's opinion matters on the assistant coaches is his!
What they have done previously is irrelevant.

I have no issue with former players being involved. We’ve lost that winning mentality, and at least they have it.

I don't mind former players coming in as assistants. I would, however, be against appointing one of them to be groomed as Arthur's longer-term replacement as first team coach.

This is because coaches inevitably have limited shelf-lives at a given club (Bellamy aside). At Leeds right now the knives will be out among certain sections of our support within 10 games if we are not winning on a weekly basis. We don't want to see this happen to players that were once favourites, all the more so if it is their first gig as first team coach.

Sinfield did the right thing in quickly moving upstairs and exiting the club after Agar had steadied the ship. Contrast Cunningham and Wellens, two giants of recent history at Saints who look set to be remembered as coaches who just weren't up to it.

Others have been more lucky - for example, McNamara was heading the same way at the Bulls but he managed to resurrect his career by hanging around the NRL for a few years as assistant and doing the national coaching job when we had a handful of decent players who could hold their own on the international stage (e.g. Burgess, Tomkins, Hall etc). Now even he is surely coming to the end of his tether in Perpignan.

A sensible former player stays on as assistant permanently (O'Loughlin?), or moves on to another club if they want to be a head coach (IMO).

Its an interesting point.

Has an ex player especially a successful one ever gone onto be a success at their club? I can't think of one in the SL era?

Shaun Wane maybe but he was retired for a long time before taking the reigns at Wigan

Dean Bell was okay aside from our financial collapse year but he didn't play that much for us (one season). The game when he came out of retirement was good though!

Brian Noble won three grand finals with the balls and lost in a couple as well in a 5 to 6 year period so I think that has to be considered a success.

Bulls

Yeah Nobby is the only one in the modern game I think other than Wane. Three GF wins, one CC win and three WCC wins.

Pre SL there must be a few successful coaches who were successful players at the same clubs, let me have a think.

Yeah Jim Sullivan at Wigan - 5 championships and 2 CCs at Wigan.

Bit of a dry spell between Jim Sullivan and Nobby there Bullseye...

You're forgetting the obvious one. Mal Reilly, Cas coach in 1986 CC victory.

Wasn’t Arthur himself a Parra player? Long stint there tho admittedly no trophies

Arthur never played first grade.

For Leeds there's an obvious former player as successful coach in Syd Hynes. Just for completeness - I think its generally not a great idea.

Arthur signed up for 25. Initial one year contract.

Yeah just seen that now, great news!

Excellent news, now lets sort the pack out.

Pretty happy with that, think I can confidently say no matter how long he stays, we’ll be stronger when he leaves compared to when he arrived.

Great news, im looking forward to seeing how he guides the recruitment we need in the pack. The more i think about it (and with the news that Martin to HKR isnt yet confirmed) i hope he might have a Uturn with the news of Arthur staying, especialy if he doesnt count on the quota next year?

Good news a full preseason with Arthur should see a big improvement .Surely the only place he'll he'll look to strengthen is the pack.

I think Hull KR losing Opacic at the end of the year means they will announce Martin soon.

Probably so, Im sure Peters slight deviation in his response to whether theyre signing him is justa standard reply but left me with a chink of hope.

That would probably mean only one prop coming in.

Would it? I like Martin but also not sure where we're going to get a reliable kicker from, and if he goes im not sure the back row options are sufficient as they are, we'd be putting a lot of hope in Gannon getting back on track.

I’m not sure we have enough strike in the backs to completely ignore their part in a so far poor season. The pack has obviously been the weaker of the two areas but to completely abdicate the backs of any responsibility would be wrong. If cap restrictions deem the pack is the only place where players move in/out that’s understandable, but my preference would be to strengthen throughout the team. Arthur may believe changes in structure, fitness, confidence and other small areas will give him a more potent back line and ultimately yield more points. My concerns are a sub standard kicking game, a lack of pace from distance and a lack of guile and strength on the opposition line from our current backs. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and if the pack becomes the only focus imminently then so be it, but I’d be happier to look at strengthening throughout.