First of all, the Challenge Cup. Who cares? We ain't gonna win it so we would be better getting horsed out straight away rather than playing more "meaningless" games. Bodies are better being saved for the important stuff at the end of the season IMO.

That said.....

Lowes is beginning to make McNamara look like some sort of genius now. He is arrogant and confrontational, skills that made him a wonderful player but hinder him in the coaching capacity. He also appears to be too stubborn, and, ultimately, clueless. It is time that he was "relieved of his duties" before he takes us backwards even further and get someone else in (Morrison/Kear/Smith etc.) who will be able to get more out of the team and motivate them better than Lowes is able to do.

And this has to be done sooner rather than later because if we do not go up this year, then we won't be back in SL until there is some more changes to the P/R system we currently have in place.

10 games perhaps? Then see where we are....

"I can't question the desire of the players", I'm sorry Jimmy if you think this is the case you must be on a different planet to most of our supporters. The only real desire I have seen this season was in the last 15 minutes against Leigh.

Yeah, agree with all that

We keep hearing people say 'His job was to get us to the MPG and he did that... so he gets a free pass'

Sorry, but we stumbled into the MPG on the back of some woeful performances at the back end of the season, and then in the Super 8s. If Leigh hadn't totally imploded, we'd not have been there at all - and its unlikely that Leigh will do that again this year.

More worryingly, we simply don't seem to have learned anything from last year. We're still putting in those patchy, unconvincing performances, filled with mistakes, tactical ineptitude and unconvincing defence. We got past Swinton and Whitehaven OK, but how did we do against reasonably decent teams?

Featherstone: unconvincing win
Leigh: fortunate draw after Leigh ran out of steam, on the back of purple patch
Batley: blew it, lucky to get a draw
Dewsbury - lost

It all points to the overall feeling that we've 'settled' at a Championship level. I think we'll do well to get past London on Thursday, and I've little to no expectation that we'll beat Halifax on Easter Monday.

Could leave the club today I'm hearing

I think we will get battered by Fax on Monday and that is IF we can beat London.

Thinking the same we have stumbled and luckily eaten team but we havent had a good performance throughout a game yet which is a worry, the only silver lining is that we arent playing very well but seem to be able not to lose.

Id rather we put in a great defensive shift and then have a mad 20mins or so where we blow the other team away, but as our defence leaks tries like a seive i wont hold my breath.

Was thinking the same for last year how man good full match performances did we put in, i can only think of several, Leigh draw, win vs Leigh in 8's, salford 8's, Fax at bash and Wakefield in mpg (with a good squad selection we could have wont that game) fair enough some might say "well Leigh ran the league but came unstuck in the 8's if they hadn't been naive when going up against some teams and shut up shot instead of throwing the ball around they would have won more and not fallen away.

Interesting. Do you have a source for this?

Yeah where's this come from? My week just got a whole lot better if true!

If this is a wind up it is in poor taste. If not it`s best news in ages.

Making this up would be like promising a kid a new bike for christmas then giving them a lump of coal and a slap in the face. Seriously bad taste.
Fingers crossed its true, we can only hope!

According to Mick Gledhill on Twitter there is the usual Monday press conference within the next hour, I guess we'd find out then. That said, I'd be surprised if it was true - I'd expect they'll give him the Easter fixtures at least if there was truth in it. If we're 0/2 from those, I'd expect huge pressure then.

I'm crossing everything

Frank is obviously somebody in the know, at a certain level.

He's not always been 100%, but I can't remember him calling a big one like this wrong.

He did only say [imight[/i, though.

I’ll be amazed if this is true. I don’t think things have really plumbed the depths yet. That’s not to say they won’t at some point or that I would be upset if he went.

I think he’s got time to turn it around but not too long. If we lose both Easter games which is distinctly possible he will be on very thin ice indeed.

The club has got time to turn it around but there is only time for one last attempt.
Jimmy has not shown enough to be entrusted with that final chance.

I'm inclined to agree.

who is available to replace Jimmy? Do you replace one failed coach with another like Wakey and hull kr. My choice would be Glenn Morrison and if we have to wait for him so be it

Wait until when? I'm not sure we the luxury of waiting around for a coach. I'd be straight in the phone to Brian Smith and see if he'd be willing to return for 6 months or so to try and get us back up, maybe with someone like Morrison alongside him if he fancied being head coach in 2017.

If we had to take the plunge and look for a new coach then I'd want Morrison too. Whether we could afford Smith as well until the end of the season and whether Morrison would want to work under him is another matter. We may not be able to afford to pay Lowes off and compensate Dewsbury either.

Failing that I'd consider Rowley (provided he isn't meant to be part of this Canadian club that's being formed).

I'd love to see Noble back at the Bulls.

I think his motivational skills would be what is needed to get the best out of the current crop of players. Player recruitment might be easier with him in charge, given his standing in the game.

I personally wouldn’t want Rowley. He did well with Leigh in a league with very little competition but was found wanting when faced with a sterner challenge. All that "we only play flare rugby" cobblers work well against part time opposition but not SL.

I don't rate Jimmy's coaching ability at all but I'm not sure on what grounds he could be fired? We're still unbeaten in the league and we were knocked out of a cup which practically everybody on this site said we didn't need to be in? I'm sure that he would have a case for unfair dismissal on those grounds. That said, I'd still sack him right now if it were possible.

Whilst I would love Nobby back - it's a huge risk for him if he doesn't get us up. Why risk his reputation at the club, especially with his gigs in the media etc he's probably better paid now than what we can offer him and he has nothing to prove - to Bulls fans anyway.

I'd be surprised if he is head coach of any club again to be honest - although if he was you could never rule us out of that equation totally should he change his mind. Maybe in a "director of rugby" style capacity though?

Re: Jimmy being fired today - Mick has said on Twitter today the club have dismissed it.

I've no idea what Jimmy's coaching skills are like as I've never been coached by him but looking at the team on the field we aren't playing anywhere near our potential. A lot of that may be down to us lacking a quality playmaker and having a few injuries. However I wonder if there's more to it. How do you explain our slow starts in games or our repeated inability to kill games off? We've also been slow around the ruck and vulnerable to a quick dummy half for ages without ever seeming to do anything about it. Our fringe defence has been shaky for a while too. He had my support last year - we were building a new team and we almost made it. However this year we seem to be worse rather than better. I'm really worried.

Lowes may be a decent coach but is he a good communicator? Noble certainly is. I think Rowley and Morrison are too. Is Lowes as good at putting over ideas and instructions? If his press conferences are anything to go by he certainly doesn't suffer fools. Can he get players of different personalties to respond to his instructions? I'm not sure that's happened consistently enough looking at our performances.

I'm sure a few convincing performances would shut all his critics up. The only trouble is they are so few and far between. Apart from Fev away and Leigh away in the 8s what performances really stood out as good from last year? There have been more bad than good so far this season so far.

I'm usually reluctant to say "sack the coach" as it's a big step and not guaranteed to work. However I feel that this season is our last chance. If we don't go up this year that's it really. Fans aren't going to keep paying top dollar for season tickets to see below par rugby. Our players with potential will seek moves as it's a short career. Much as Jimmy is a legend if it looks like he's not making progress we can't waste time hoping he turns it around.

If we did get rid, we would absolutely have to pay him for the remainder of his contract, as is the case whenever a coach is sacked.
It's only when they resign, like Webster did at Wakefield last season, when no settlement is paid.

So to answer your question, of course it is possible, providing Marc Green (and the club) can afford to do it.

You might have a better chance of getting to the nitty gritty of why we are playing so poorly if we weren't involved in this phony competition which gives nothing other than a qualification for the 'real league', which starts later in the season. I'm sure the pointlessness of it [maybe not the right word, but I'm sticking with it gets to the players too? It's an old truism to say there are no pots given out in March but when the real comp doesn't even start till around late August it must be strange for the players.

To be honest, whether Lowesy goes or stays [and I'm not too fussed which things will be better later in the season when the bigger games come round, if for no other reason than no club can stay on peak form all year. Not that I'm thinking about promotion as, under the current system, our, or any other clubs, chances of going up are negligible enough to be down to some momentous slice of good fortune, even if we got Wayne Bennett as coach.