A very good, and typically blunt interview from the man. Very critical of Cunningham, and Saints in general. https://soundcloud.com/paul-doward/alex ... gby-league

A very good, and typically blunt interview from the man. Very critical of Cunningham, and Saints in general. https://soundcloud.com/paul-doward/alex ... gby-league

Really enjoyed listening to this, thanks for posting the link.

Alex is absolutely bang on what he says about Saints current style of play. I'm glad he hasn't held back.

WOW what a good interview with Alex

He say's it as he see's it. Trouble is we can all see what's happening only Cunningham.

What a fantastic interview. Would love to show this to Cunningham for his reaction.

As an aside I have just watched Gary Neville criticise Man Utd on Sky Sports and thought that he could have been speaking about Saints. Neville was saying how Utd are too safe at the minute and he said that they want to control the game instead of wanting to win the game. No pace/strike in the front 6. Sounds familiar to me.

I should imagine Cunningham + Co has listened to the interview.Might raise his awareness to :- Play Boring Rugby and Lose or Play Exciting Rugby and Lose.........2 choices!!

It does feel like a case of playing not to lose rather than playing to win.

Murphy it the nail on the head every time he said boring

Having read Paul Vautin's memories of Alex Murphy as a coach I'm not sure I'd be that interested on his views on Cunningham (I know Vautin was poor in the CC Final but I suspect his views of Murphy are probably close to the mark).

I,ve spoken to Alex Murphy on 2 occasions, the latter occasion was at the Lincoln RL World Cup Series at Bolton, he said to me quote " Sean Long will never make it as a good scrum half". Murphy is probably the exact opposite of KC, very verbal and threatening and would probably be OK if the opposition scores 50 points as long as we score 51 points. But that didn,t work in our 27-0 thrashing at Wembley. I,m glad Murphy has given his opinion though on the current situation.

There's a slight irony in Murphy being critical isn't there despite my agreeing with his view? He, along with KC, is another shining example of 'great player makes poor coach'.

Was Alex record as a coach that bad he left Leigh in 1973 to become player-coach at Warrington. Starting with a 20-match unbeaten run in the league helpinb Warrington win the League Leader's Trophy. The 1973–74 season was the most successful at Warrington, with the club winning the Challenge Cup, Captain Morgan trophy, John Player trophy and Club Merit trophy. The highlight was when Murphy captained them to a 24-9 win in the Challenge Cup Final against Featherstone Rovers at Wembley, Warrington returned to Wembley in 1975 but Murphy missed the match through injury and Widnes won the Challenge Cup. Murphy retired as a player shortly after but remained on as coach of the club until 1978

Murp built upon the experience he had acquired as a player-coach by taking up the reins as a full-time coach. He was co-coach of England with Bill Oxley during the 1975 World Series.

After Warrington, Akex was appointed to high-profile roles at Salford (May 1978 to November 1980), before taking the role of coach of Wigan in 1982. There, he led them to victory in the John Player Trophy in 1983, and took them to the Challenge Cup Final in 1984, where they lost to Widnes,

When Alex took over Saints in 1986, he took them to Wembley in 1987, against Halifax, and again in 1989 where they played Wigan.

Many ex players would settle for that type of record.

Quote ="jaybs"Was Alex record as a coach that bad he left Leigh in 1973 to become player-coach at Warrington. Starting with a 20-match unbeaten run in the league helpinb Warrington win the League Leader's Trophy. The 1973–74 season was the most successful at Warrington, with the club winning the Challenge Cup, Captain Morgan trophy, John Player trophy and Club Merit trophy. The highlight was when Murphy captained them to a 24-9 win in the Challenge Cup Final against Featherstone Rovers at Wembley, Warrington returned to Wembley in 1975 but Murphy missed the match through injury and Widnes won the Challenge Cup. Murphy retired as a player shortly after but remained on as coach of the club until 1978 Murp built upon the experience he had acquired as a player-coach by taking up the reins as a full-time coach. He was co-coach of England with Bill Oxley during the 1975 World Series. After Warrington, Akex was appointed to high-profile roles at Salford (May 1978 to November 1980), before taking the role of coach of Wigan in 1982. There, he led them to victory in the John Player Trophy in 1983, and took them to the Challenge Cup Final in 1984, where they lost to Widnes, When Alex took over Saints in 1986, he took them to Wembley in 1987, against Halifax, and again in 1989 where they played Wigan. Many ex players would settle for that type of record.'" I love this on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxpwZX5X6kI I started watching Saints a couple of years after Alex took over. I was just a little kid but I still remember the rugby being entertaining and full of character. I also remember that if we played poorly in the first half they'd come out in the 2nd half like a house on fire. Just because Graham Taylor's reign as England manager wasn't fruitful, does that mean we should disregard his opinions on the current crop of England players? As quoted above, Alex has got a decent record anyway. I'm glad he's spoken out. He's a voice for the fans. I doubt KC has a look at what's been said on here.

Quote ="jaybs"Was Alex record as a coach that bad he left Leigh in 1973 to become player-coach at Warrington. Starting with a 20-match unbeaten run in the league helpinb Warrington win the League Leader's Trophy. The 1973–74 season was the most successful at Warrington, with the club winning the Challenge Cup, Captain Morgan trophy, John Player trophy and Club Merit trophy. The highlight was when Murphy captained them to a 24-9 win in the Challenge Cup Final against Featherstone Rovers at Wembley, Warrington returned to Wembley in 1975 but Murphy missed the match through injury and Widnes won the Challenge Cup. Murphy retired as a player shortly after but remained on as coach of the club until 1978 Murp built upon the experience he had acquired as a player-coach by taking up the reins as a full-time coach. He was co-coach of England with Bill Oxley during the 1975 World Series. After Warrington, Akex was appointed to high-profile roles at Salford (May 1978 to November 1980), before taking the role of coach of Wigan in 1982. There, he led them to victory in the John Player Trophy in 1983, and took them to the Challenge Cup Final in 1984, where they lost to Widnes, When Alex took over Saints in 1986, he took them to Wembley in 1987, against Halifax, and again in 1989 where they played Wigan. Many ex players would settle for that type of record.'" I love this on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxpwZX5X6kI I started watching Saints a couple of years after Alex took over. I was just a little kid but I still remember the rugby being entertaining and full of character. I also remember that if we played poorly in the first half they'd come out in the 2nd half like a house on fire. Just because Graham Taylor's reign as England manager wasn't fruitful, does that mean we should disregard his opinions on the current crop of England players? As quoted above, Alex has got a decent record anyway. I'm glad he's spoken out. He's a voice for the fans. I doubt KC has a look at what's been said on here.

I don't have an issue with past players or coaches criticising, but it is especially important to remember that RL is quite simply a different sport to what it was even 20 years ago. When I started watching in 81 most coaches were of the "shout when we're losing ilk". I'm not sure any British coaches back then had a clue about fitness or how to coach skills or tactics. Mind you, the "physio" at Leeds then literally was an old bloke with a bucket of water, a sponge and for severe cases smelling salts.

Very true, Alex would,t have a clue about conditioning, player structures, game plans etc. All we can do is value his opinion and observations, KC does need some form of consultation though so he doesn't get bogged down in the best way forward.

Alex Murphy, the Kyle Eastmond of his time!

Whilst RL in Murphy's day was undoubtedly a different game - it's completely silly to think one of the finest scrum-halves and tacticians the sport has ever produced can't critically evaluate today's game.

But whilst Murphy is critical of Saints. It should be pointed out that he's equally scathing about the competition.

The truth of the matter is that Rugby League goes through phases when playing the percentages assumes greater importance than taking risks. A classic example would be the Australian game during the eighties when wingers were relegated to little more than an accessory.

I view the current situation as a failing of the game rather than any particular coach. All the new coaches in the world couldn't have addressed the lack of entertainment we saw in the eighties. Which is why the game itself was forced to intervene and switch to ten meters.

But given the far stronger position of the NRL these days (which for some reason remains pretty entertaining) I really can't see something as drastic taking place.

it's a little early to be saying Cunningham is a poor coach, it's his first year, he's an inexperienced coach. If he learns from his mistakes he'll be a good coach, if he doesn't then he'll be a poor one.

Powell was arguably worse than Cunningham at Leeds in the same position, now with more experience he's regarded like a second coming.

Isn't that the issue? Powell was unfortunate in getting dumped into the head coach role when Dean Lance left, but it was clearly way too early. Thank goodness he's been able to learn and develop into a good coach. I can't think of any examples recently where a player has successfully transitioned into coaching within a year or so. even if the long-term plan was for Cunningham to be Sts coach, surely it would have been better if he'd earned his stripes in the Championship first?

I can't agree with your opinion that the sport is failing. You only need to look at the rugby Leeds have been playing this season to know that the sport is alive and kicking if you play the right way. Hell, I'm a diehard Bulls fan and even I have enjoyed watching Leeds this season.

Warrington are struggling as a result of poor player recruitment, and yourselves are struggling as a result of a poor coaching appointment.

Castleford can be another example of a side getting it right. A squad that, on paper, doesn't look that great but the combination of an astute coach and a club philosophy has seen them become one of the most entertaining sides in the league.

For all the wailing about standards in SL, its worth reminding ourselves that crowds across the board (whilst maybe falling a bit in the last year or so) are way up on what they were through Wigan's dominant era for example, and completely dwarf those in the 70s and 80s. So whilst those of us that were around then may prefer the way the game used to be (I don't TBH), there are far more fans who have only known RL as it is in recent times.

Why cherry pick the 70's and 80's we use to have crowds of 30 000 + at one time for a league game. The standard of super league has been dropping for quite a few years now, intensity in matches have dropped, lots of time wasting, bad officiating and large parts of games in general are a bit of a bore fest for most teams. The number of Quality super league players is poor which is understandable with our poor salary cap ceiling and the RFL/Clubs messing up the grass roots level losing out on some of the sporting england funding.

For myself, I get pretty bored watching some of the SKY matches and we can include this years challenge cup final as well, most of this season with the saints we have been mediocre, its likely I'll not bother with a season ticket next year and will also cherry pick some of the SKY matches.

Sadly its all about hyping up a game to get the punters through the gates, when in reality for most of the time we don't get 80 mins of competitive action week in week out, the game has lost a lot of its entertainment value which is what Alex M is talking about.

One definite and one possible is no great evidence to support an argument. In any case, I think it's a more complex question. If I'm honest I'd say that this has been a pretty entertaining season in terms of close games. But I can't say I've been impressed by either the intensity or the standard of play across the board. I think a lot of this is down to some very mediocre halves spread throughout the league.

Great RL players would be great players in any era, regardless of weather they play the game now, or in the past. I do think the positions some players play, or played would be different because the skill set required in certain positions was very different then, and it's very different now.

As for the overall standard, I don't think the standards or skills have dropped at all. Where I think the game has changed is that players today have a lot less time on the ball, and less space to accurately execute there skills. When you look at the game from the 20th century what's noticeable is how 'broken' the defensive lines were, and how few players were involved in the tackle. Also, the likes of Andy Gregory used to crab across the field and looking for gaps, I think if he tried that so often in todays game he'd more often than not got smashed by the advancing defence. I'm not saying that he wouldn't have been a great player now, he was a very skilful player, but I do think he would have to adapt his game significantly to succeed, not to mention his lifestyle.

Personally, I love the game as much as ever. It's totally different to when I started watching it, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to watch. Granted there's some dross served up each week, but that's ALWAYS been the case in any sport.

How Rob Burrow must wish for the return of [i[uthose[/u[/i days !!

He would have gone down in history as an even better scrum half than Andy Gregory...maybe in fact as the greatest RL player ever