Johns - Forgive me but wasn't Matty Elliott a rookie coach???? I appreciate that he came over with Smith but Brian was only here for a year. Don't let experience cloud your judgement, look at Huddersfield. He's also a big name that would help to recruit players. As far as I am aware he's worked with the likes of Canterbury, Newcastle and Parramatta, since his retirement, in a coaching role

Brian Mac - He's from Yorkshire and spent ten years at the club. Perhaps he realises that Quins have a ceiling whereas he can be the saviour at Odsal. A sticking point may be that he is under contract till 2011

I am merely suggesting these names but feel free to throw anymore into the ring

And so was McNamara. Some sink, some swim

You miss the point I was making about the Noble 'Disciple's mate............ They've all failed which would explain why he sank

Let's look for a new direction. Without checking contracts etc what about Millward, The Penguin (also a member of the '92 side under Smith)???? Using your terminology at the moment we're sinking quicker than the titanic

What have we got to lose in giving John's a leg up in his quest to make it in the NRL????

Penguin. . . . . ACE!

They'd be no messing about with dropping players who don't perform with him.

Can you image his "discussions" with the Director of Referees



Probably couldn't do worse than we are at the moment . . . though in all seriousness, probably not a smart move . . . . no matter how potentially entertaining it could be

. . . . . . . so it [icould [/ihappen then

Johns does not qualify for a wp/visa.

Steve Folkes or John Lang for me the mess we are in we need some real experience at the helm.

Hard not to agree with either of those. . . . . .

Something has to change to get out of this mess and not only McNamara, i think Clawson and Richards should follow him out the door, bring in a new coach who can select new staff, i would have Ellery Hanley

Please get real. Quality player, an inspiration to all but appalling track record in clubs when the going gets tough. Plus hasn't been involved in the game at the top level for a good few years

We need experience and given the way we are failing to do basic skills within games I think we'll have to go Aussie and the 2 that RER mentions would tick that box

Having watched Quins fairly regularly over the last few years, I'm pretty confident that Brian Mac:

1. Would do a good job at Bradford.
2. Would be unliklely to do such a good job that it was enough to satisfy most on here.
3. Won't be interested in leaving Quins unless they blow up financially, which is possible but unlikely.

Other possibilities - Matt Calland seems to be doing a good job at Fax and it would be enjoyable to stir that lot up by pinching him.

But then you all know who I think is the most realistic shout to turn things around, and he's already in situ.

Any prospective new coach with a proven track record would have to risk their reputation,i'm not too sure that any of the top coaches would touch the Bulls.Besides i'd have thought that if the club was in a position to bring a new coach in that they would have done so by now,i have heard that they cannot afford to pay macca off and that he will have to see his contract out

After Nobbies article in the NOTW today its fair to say he will become available sooner rather than later.

You dont want Brian Mac as he would get rid of the Quins wasters we have offloaded on you. Rinaldi would be first through the door thats for sure

We do indeed. How you can continue to be sure of that is beyond me though.

Why not go for a Warrington-esque option of simply putting a better coach in an elevated position above crapnamara? At worst, it could help to force him out if he feels "undermined" or something.

Whichever coach we try and recruit needs to instill a sense of pride and re-teach them basics like running and tackling hard, rather than the wet lettuce garbage that we're seeing all too regularly.

Not sure at all. We're dealing with probabilities, what's most likely to work. It's ok throwing names like Folkes and Lang around. Is there anyone on here who knows why they're not in work now, and how likely they would be to commit to a struggling club on the other side of the world.

Anyway, back to the topic. If SM were to be abducted by aliens, I'd like to see us approach Brian Mac or Matt Calland. I'm not sure we'd get either of them. Maybe there are better candidates available. Any ideas, Eddie?

Has the club got the finances to buy some real quality players?

Instead of just getting people to just make a squad.

I`d give a qualified yes to that question. We signed Greg Bird but couldn`t get the work permit and have since lost Tame Tupou from the payroll, all of which suggests the money is there. The biggest problem is getting the standard and type of player you want mid season when all are already under contract.

Which brings us to the qualification in the answer which is with the word `buy`; money for contracts yes, to buy out a current contract from another club, probably not. At least I don`t really think The Hood would regard it as the best use of resources and if he did take that view I`d agree with him.

The difference though is between trying to sack and buy your way out of trouble, a type of slash'n'burn policy, and building for the future.
a) we apparently don't have the cash to start sacking everyone and we certainly don't have the cash to replace the catalogue of players many label "duds" with what the same people would call "stars"
b) Even if we do have some money available it certainly wouldn't run to replacing even 10% of the squad with "stars"
c) Buying 2 or 3 "stars" doesn't work, never has, never will, if the backbone of your squad isn't doing the business.
d) Whatever only-to-be-expected fighting talk emerged from our camp pre-season, we all knew (well, those who understand that time had finally caught up with our team which had served so well for so long, and we were always going to be in transition) we were never going to challenge for the title this year or next.

Sacking the coach often has a short-term benefit, presumably with fresh ideas plus the sudden desire to impress, but ATEOTD you've still got all the same players. But we are not in [ithat[/i much trouble, in that there's no relegation, and IF we can turn the results around in the second half, then attendances should stabilise.

My main source of unhappiness is the way certain players have performed some of the time, and this has been made much worse by the frank admissions that some have not been giving it 100%. I agree very much with those who are of the view that as long as the team we put out tries its bollox off, to a man, they deserve support. Lord knows, I've had enough years experience of that in the past, and still went home happy enough after many, many losses. But on some occasions this year that's been far from the case.

Getting to be arguably the top team used to be a simple matter of cash, but now it's not possible to buy your way to the top table (though cash naturally helps). Putting together a top-of-the-table squad is a long game, is achieved infrequently, actually never by most clubs, and is as much luck and accident as money, planning, coaching and all the other factors. The jury remains very much out as to whether there's even any prospect of our doing this any time soon.

I said that earlier in the season that we should have made a move for Tony Smith. Shame we missed that particular boat.

Maybe if we had a Simon Moran and his deep deep pockets we could have.

Maybe indeed. But there are clubs above us in the league who I guess have less finance at their disposal than Bradford do who are using that money a damn sight better than we are?

Whether they are or not, your argument was that we should have made a pitch for Smith, and I raised one possible explanation for why we did not. Your diversionary comment above has not really advanced that discussion any, has it?

Nice try AB . . . . but it'll never work . . .

Unlikely, no.

Whenever he is confronted with an irrefutable argument (as is often the case) he just tries to switch the discussion to a different argument, doesn't he? I guess we can live in hope that he'll still find time to respond to the original point.

The original point is that af asked me who i would have had. I did not realise i had to give a full financial assessment before answering. Still, it will be interesting to see if bp can play your wind up game in the open for once.