Furner didnt appear to have a clue what day it was, could argue he too was a hire made on friendship over actual ability.

Yeah every hire, coach, player etc comes with a risk, theres no guarantees with any appointment, but as we stand right now, poeple are going to form an initial opinion, its not hard to see why many poeples initial opinions arnt great, theres not a lot of coaching success throughout our setup and rightly or wrongly...It looks more of a 'who you know' rather than 'what have you done'

Im not getting too excited either way just yet though as im with you on waiting to see how it pans out...But i can certainly see why people arnt happy, at this moment, with the coaching set up we'v assebled.

Don't get me wrong I can totally understand why people aren't jumping up and down with the coaching appointments made, I suppose I'm just trying to try and look at it a bit differently, I think there's a bit too much emphasis by us supporters on past CVs and the like when if you actually look at some of the successful coaches in SL over the years not all of them had great CVs before becoming successful with the clubs, there's more to it than just previous successes.

I think also a lot will come down to expectations, my expectations after the last few years are so low I'll be happy with just enjoying going to the games without the fear and nervousness of relegation hovering over us, perhaps my expectations are too low (and I hope the squad and coaches are a lot higher!) but that's where I'm at.

The coaching throughout the club has been shambolic for years now and i feel not much is going to change with this bunch . Our supposed fantastic juniors either never get any better or at best never reach their full potential .

The thing is though re-CV's Powell had already established a good connection with the Acadamy & knew the 1st Team set up so knew exactly where the youngsters were going to come through & build round them which he did.
He may not have won a Trophy but he re-built after Lance had a short clueless reign.
Tony Smith was "well known" as an up & coming Coach with great ideas & a blueprint to take us further forward which worked.
Bluey had done a great job with the Kiwis & was the right man at the right time.
McD had worked under Smith knew the Club the players & had experienced success with Smith.
Agar Webster Jjb Walker etc NONE of them falli nto that category ok Furner was highly rated as an Assistent after a turbulent time at Canberra & it didnt work out.

I'm pleased with this appointment personally. You need the right characters and personalities around a squad to set a good culture. I see JJB as being a great leader and example, as well as showing the character of a champion to the younger players.

Another way to look at it with the string of ex-players returning to the club is that we may never have had a golden generation if GH wouldn't have guranteed that he look after them in retirement, and I feel pretty comfortable with that.

But you're looking at the with great hindsight and there is one vital ingredient that Tony Smith, Bluey and McDermott all had to work with - a core of very talented once in a generation players all coming through at the same time.

Agar has had experience of success as an assistant with Warrington Wolves and was then employed in the NRL, talk of him being a failure before is overstated.

What success at Wire? All i ever saw on the wire boards about him was derision and blame for the slip in standards under Smith towards the end of his tenure. Same at Hull and Wakefield for that matter. His track record is of failure from what i see but i hope he can book the trend with us this season we will see.

What was his role in the NRL? First i have heard of that.

I wouldn't take Warrington fans opinion any more serious than any other fans on a fans forum, did they have a thread running year in year out wanting the coach to be sacked? I mean which supporters would do that, even if the team was winning SL titles and CC finals?



Whilst Agar was assistant they won a League Leaders shield and got to both the Challenge Cup Final and Grand Final he then went to work for st George as Junior Recruitment and High Performance Manager - whatever that is but working for an NRL team will have given him its of experience.

Coached Stanningley for several years.

Christ, let's get Jordan Lilley in to coach us too then.

Didn’t he coach the under 16s at one point too?

Yep think so

Well let's see what's Lilley like when he's had another 16 years in the game. JJB has worked under a lot of very good coaches. It's not as though he's the Head coach he's the assistant.

It was claimed that in the later stages in the golden generation era that the group leaders used go do the coaching.

Personally i think the club will always choose recognised ex first team players over other coaches in our system.I have made no secret of the fact that I rate Butterill and it seems others do on this forum but i don't think he fits in with the clubs ethos. He's never played SL and he's never played for Leeds so those 2 criteria alone would see he would never get promoted to be part of the first team coaching squad. My guess is that he's accepting of that and happy to continue in his current role or he recognises thats he never going to get a gig in the first team and leaves in the none too distant future?. We don't know but when you speak to people at games or parents this lads rated as a coach, maybe he's a year or two away and the club recognise this hence other assistants are filling the void? Rugbys a funny game and its who you know that rings true and ex players all seem to get first dibs on vacancies who's to say thats right or thats wrong?. I like JJB i think he will do a good job so i think we should trust Kev and Agars judgment on this one.

He has been a good coach at junior level, he has a lot of knowledge, he loves the club and will bring IMO a different voice to the dressing rooms. He isn’t shy he isn’t a yes man he will say what he feels I think it’s a positive for the team. On the whole quote happy at the moment time will tell, not sure it’s a winning squad or coaching set up but it’s for me a step in the right direction

Yes but isn't she busy doing coronation street. "Surely" can't take another part time seriously.

I'm pleased for JJB, and glad he's staying within the club.

However, I'm massively underwhelmed by this as assistant coach, in fact by the coaching setup. In a salary cap world, you can improve the output of your squad by having a good coaching group, to get the extra 10% from the players. This seems like it's going the other direction

No it wasn't. It was said that Sinfield and Peacock did the daily team plan coaching. Specific individuals.

There is usually a "threshold of credibility" within a culture. Think of Alex Ferguson in soccer - never the best player, but he'd done enough for other professional players to take him seriously.

People don't generally like taking instruction from others who haven't walked the same path as them.

I'm not sure Agar has been given enough credit so far; he took a floundering side and pointed them back in the right direction overall. They have made lots of tough calls on players and pushed to renew the squad.

Looking at what Agar and JJB bring, they might complement quite well.

Whether the club is looking too nostalgically at the past and failing to embrace the future I guess we'll find out over the next few months. From what I've heard from Agar he does know what he's doing.

Oh I bow to superior knowledge.

100% get that and i agree fully with what you are saying to an extent that is what is going on but at the same time if you don't try you don't know. We just need to give the coaches our fully support and judge it further down the track .Good post

I think JJB will turn out to be a very good appointment.

I'm sure I read somewhere that JP will have some involment with coaching.

JP will do some coaching on a fairly regular basis around leadership, I think.