I'll try.

When do you decide enough is enough? End of next year? Or would you give McNamara an extended deal just so he can see through the long term plan? Is it really McNamara or bust? Is there no possibility that a new coach wouldn't continue with the good work done in building for the future but also take care of the first team now?

A lot of questions there but life is like that. There are no easy answers. You just have to make the call on the information you have at the time. I personally think it's time for a change. We run the risk of jeopardising the future if the present isn't taken care of. If I were the chairman I'd be sounding out various agents to see which coaches might be available or be interested in the job. If there's a decent candidate or two interested I'd take the plunge.

If Mr. Hood can't see any of this then maybe it's time for him to step down? As much as I wouldn't like to see this happen maybe Mr. Coulby would have less faith in the man that has sent this club backwards?

In favour of whom?

I'm prepared to be ripped apart for this, but I don't necessarily see how sacking him is going to resolve anything.

When you consider yesterdays game, we bombed some try-scoring opportunities and we turned the ball over too cheaply with silly knock-ons and ill discipline. Should those things be attributed to McNamara, or the players themselves? I'd hope Macca doesn't teach the players to knock on, so I'd be more inclined to look at blaming the playing roster rather than the coach.

Also, would anyone else better be interested in taking this job? Don't forget, Macca's on Tony Smiths England coaching staff, and he's had nothing but good things said about him by many players in the game. Lynch might have signed his new contract because of Macca, and the ideas he has for the club. I'm pretty sure reading when Sam signed his new contract that he attributed a large part of re-signing down to Steve Mac. Personally, I think the answer would be looking at an older, wiser head to help Macca out.

One mistake Macca has made during his tenure was giving the captain to a limping, quiet scrum-half. He doesn't communicate behind the sticks, and I don't see any leadership characteristics from him.

I agree that the present playing staff have shown, to me at least, that they would as a group be worse than average whoever coached them.


I'd say "more than" the coach, he can't wash his hands of his share of the blame. Though i don't think you were suggesting that. But yes I mainly blame the players.


Oh yes, it's a dream job; the easier of the world's 2 top RL leagues, a club "with money", a better salary than an NRL club would pay, people like Menzies, Morrison and Burgess to work with and - given 2009 - an absolutely can't-lose situation. The better question would be, who [iwouldn't[/i want the chance to revive the fortunes of very recently the leading Eglish club, in these circumstances?


He does, but nowadays to save his voicebox they just play a tape.

I think there's some mileage in this.
The two factors against would be cost and availability of the right man.

The situation from the outside looking in smacks of a divide or unrest in the camp.
This may be wide of the mark, but it certainly seems the case.

McNamara's had 3 years as head coach, bringing in a more experienced man to help him further will be like admitting that appointing him in the first place was a bad decision, that'd entail a alot of humble pie eating for Hood and and McNamara

Perhaps McNamara is best suited to a job as a number 2. He's had plenty of praise for putting in place systems to bring you players thorugh. Perhaps he's better sticking to this area? There's no shame in sticking to what you're good at. He's had a dig at being a head coach and I'm sure given it his all but it hasn't worked out.

Maybe he's actually one of the best young coaches in the country, thus the high praise from players and coaches he works with, but the head coaches job is taking him away from what he does well. I think we can say he's not shown great tactical awareness (2 weak defenders down the same side, substitutions that don't change games positively) and, given the apparent poor motivation in difficult situations displayed by the players, isn't a great motivator.
Tactics and motivation are often a side effect of experience, and I'd hold up someone like John Kear as an example of this, and MacNamara doesn't have that.

I'm a massive John Kear fan, but he hasn't always been successful. He certainly seems to be improving with age. Perhaps Mac is still too naiive, he may well make it one day. I'm sure Brad Fittler was the best young coach in Aus not too long ago.

That's the thing, the Kear of now appears to get the sum to be more than the parts and i think a significant component of that is tactics and motivation.
Can we wait until Mac develops this side of his coaching, if he ever does?

why don't you ask Jimmy Lowes to come back, don't think i would stand in his way

Whereas Mac seems to get a fraction of the component parts.

As a head coach his Warrington team showed many of the same deficiencies we currently have and his experience as head coach is more limited. So unless he wasn't trying previously he's still the unfinished article as a head coach.

As a moral boost to the fans he'd take some of the pressure off the club and if he could impart some of the cunning and desire to win he showed as a player he'd be welcome by me.

Increasingly agreed.

The long term plan is the long term plan for the club, not a particular coach.

Yes McNamara has obviously played a role in it, now that the people who run the club have realised the importance of having a good youth development structure and setup, but it is something that has to be in place irrespective of who the current first team coach is. We can't just stick with someone who isn't doing a very good job of coaching the first team because he happened to be in the post when we started working towards getting the structures back in place.

Leeds and Saints have both had numerous coaching changes in the last few years, but their kids keep coming through, it isn't linked and the idea of it all falling down because the first team coach doesn't make any sense unless, as I suggested a few weeks ago, he is funding it all himself!

We have appointed a number of youth scouts and coaches over the last couple of years who are there to look after this, let them got on with it and hopefully the first team and the club will reap the rewards, not a specific employee.

Still beating the same drum?

At first I considered this to be a curious argument, now I find it downright bemusing. The club is going backwards under McNamara and even if these future stars make it as top RL players then they will no doubt want to leave us to play at a higher level.

Anyway, given McNamara's record with established players, what on earth is there to suggest that he can make stars out of young kids?

OK, as requested, to clarify:

Based on what we know (as opposed to what people guess or assume or want to believe) I defo do not want the club to lose Macca. I believe what he has done and been doing on the youth and academy development, and trying to build a production line for the future pretty well from scratch (after the near fatal situation the current regime inherited) is vital - the history books will record that fact. I'm sure that particular role must be ongoing, regardless of whatever else happens.

But, there is clearly something very very wrong with this team. I don't think a single poster on here could deny that (even Tiger Beer

) Whether its trouble in t'camp a la early 2005 or 1998, or lack of commitment, or lack of discipline, or poor coaching, or what - maybe some combination - is unclear. But something is very very badly wrong, and it has GOT to be sorted. I am sure we don't need to tell you that, Mr Hood? This season is surely gone, barring a miracle of biblical proportions - and the implications of that financially and otherwise will no doubt haunt us now for some time. So we MUST get this sorted for next season. The apparent loss of form of and rumours about players like Burgess don't just happen for nothing, surely?

I do not for one minute think you can blame the coaching staff for everything - that's the usual easy option for fans of any club anywhere. Its the players screw up on the park or don't look like they are at the races, after all. But equally, they must be far from blameless - no such thing as bad soldiers, just bad officers and all that? In the absence of a bit more honesty from the club and its officials about what is wrong (and there may well be good reasons why this has to be so) it is inevitable that the finger will point to the coaching staff for at least part of the blame.

With that in mind, I would be ecstatic if the club could secure the services of an experienced, proven and TOUGH coach to come and try and sort out the shambles we see on the field, for the time being at least. Maybe taking some of the load of Macca at least for now. I suspect that with the necessary very lean structure at the club nowdays, Macca has too many responsibilities. I SUSPECT he is not tough enough with the players - and he certainly seems reluctant to drop under-performers - but maybe there are reasons why he can't be? Maybe we have more injuries than we are admitting to (like in 199icon_cool.gif? Maybe Macca IS out of his depth? Maybe we all know jack shît about what really goes on...?

And its all very well for folk to argue that the Bulls must be an attractive proposition to any prospective experienced coach, but why? No sugar daddy; no spare funds (and very tight on what we have); no new stadium (yet) and a track record of failed schemes; major player turnover before next season, much of which will finalise before any new guy can get his hands on things so it could be a couple of years before he can say its "his" squad; ongoing emnity with the Leeds club; collapsing fan base - if you choose to list all the negatives and pass by any positives then its hardly attractive, is it?

Why would an experienced guy risk his reputation and set himself up for a load of grief by coming here? For the challenge? Maybe, but he still has to feed his family. For the money, then? That would be the money we are rather short of then, especially with collapsing gates and any settlement to incumbent staff. Not that the economic realities cut much ice with many people angry with the situation - and, lets be fair, understandably so.

And please don't expect Macca to just walk without any compo - he has HIS family to feed in a very very uncertain profession. He won't have the luxury of just chucking his job in - and I challenge pretty well anyone on here to say they would do differently?

But remember please what Hood said at the Fans' Forum, in response to (my) question about the financial implications of falling gates - not worried about the profitability, but more worried about the cash flow. You don't go bust because you are not making profits; you go bust because you run out of cash. This board inherited a dreadful cash prognosis, and the history books will record how they saved the club and (hopefully) set it on a more sustainable (if unpalatable) financial footing - in my opinion. But all the options I see on here involve expending cash we don't have before we see corresponding cash inflows. How will that work, then?

Can folk on here explain how, as a household, they would find a way of spending a load of cash up front if they had no savings and no appreciable overdraft or other borrowing facilities? Cos that's what you are asking of the club. Anyone got an answer to that? There IS a way, of course - you sell some family silver or cut your expenditure even more - in this case, expenditure on players. It wouldn't be the first time. But what would folk say if or when we saw best players being sold and cheaper replacements? We had a "selling club" thread recently, did we not? Or, of course, you come into an inheritance from a rich relative. Which is basically what happened at clubs like Saints, Wire, Wigan, Hudds, Salford...but where are OUR rich rellies?

Regulars know I have been pedalling this argument for ages. Some, like one unpleasant guy recently, choose to accuse me of forcing my views on others as being the only acceptable view. That's nonsense - if you don't like what I say, don't read it - or better, improve on what I say with better arguments - that stand up financially as well as operationally. I hope there are better arguments, I really do, cos the conclusions I reach from my own arguments thoroughly depress me. I'm desperately hoping some of you guys do have some practicable answers or, more to the point, that the club does. Cos, short of a rich benefactor chucking a load of cash in, or some miraculous improvement on the park, I don't.

But I stress - it is very hard to comment objectively without knowing what is really going on behind the scenes - which I suspect is as always rather more than we are aware of.

But hey, what do I know and what do any of us know?

Great post Adeybull. But we've all continued to go along and pay our money for the last two seasons and seen standards drop. Eventually the Board must recognise that this is not going to continue. If there is a long term plan then the supporters should be let in on it along with milestones. Otherwise, to paraphrase a certain film, when other loyal supporters ask 'What is to become of the club?' the answer will be a loud 'Frankly, I don't give a damn'.

The single most articulate, balanced, all-encompassing and yet concise post on this issue.

(I particularly think the all too real issue of people including Macca needing to earn to exit is a very good one - maybe a few people on here are too indoctrinated in a football world where top players and coaches earn as much in 2 months as many of us earn in a career and can afford to quit easily on points of principle.)

Unless the Club wants to keep the Fans informed the Fans will speculate. It's not for us to come up with answers, that's what the Club pays the Coaching Staff to do. Unfortunatly the Coaching Staff seem devoid of answers despite 2-3 years of learning lessons whilst getting worse. An losing quality Players is the only thing we seem to be any good at. Should the Fans say nothing? Just turn up every week and accept the poor and pathetic performances and excuses?
We pay our money and have a right to speak our minds and vent our anger. How bad have things got when Season ticket holders are seriously considering having a barbeque, party, day out, whatever instead of turning up for a match they have already paid for?

As a fan, hard to argue with any of that. I made the point about a bit more honesty with the fans (as I have done before), and I'm sure you can see from what I said that I am not in any way condoning the current debacle of a position. Of course fans are expected to want to vent their anger - I am no exception in wanting to find someone responsible to bray hell out of. Except, worryingly and like more and more on here, I'm finding I'm just increasingly numb to it all. Both of your last sentences are highly pertinent.

But my point is...what if there ARE no quick-fix answers that the club can realistically afford? All the anger in the world is not then going to fix the problem. What then? That is my real concern. There must BE solutions, but I struggle to that see bringing in an expensive replacement coach is amongst the practicable ones - even if in an ideal world its the one most people now seem to believe is the only solution. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic and we WILL see a new man soon. Or maybe its Catch 22. Only the club can know the answer to that, and they ain't telling.

Adey I've made the point before and I'll make it again. Granted the club may not be able to afford to sack McNamara but the way things are going it will get to the stage tat we simply can't afford not too. The declining drop in gates should be worry enough but what sort have impact is this season going to have on season ticket sales I dread to think. IMO the only way to reengage the general attention of the AN Other fan is too replace the coach this would show that the club has still ambition.

If the Club wants to keep the Fans happy they need to make some changes. Some transparency and honesty would go a long way. Why the reluctance to announce new signings? Other clubs don't have a problem making the announcements early. Announcing all the leavers and waiting until after the season ticket deadlines are over to announce players does nothing to inspire confidence in the Fans.
Maybe the Club should have Fans forums on a more regular basis? One thing's for sure announcing any increase in season ticket prices without offering substantial signings and changes is not going to do improve matters and that is what I think we may be looking at.
I would also really like to see some consequences for all under-performing players, yes Platty is having a run in the reserves but there are more than him taking money under false pretences. If they can't play for pride you'd think winning bonuses would inspire them ( I remember Graham Bradley making some similar statement when asked what inspired a win from a losing position) We have some promising youngsters, let a few of them play each week until the end of the season and not 3 minutes at the end of a losing game.
If all else fails I suggest we have a competition to see who can provide the best in game entertainment. My first suggestion is we all bring Beach Balls to amuse the sleeping masses. Quite a few years ago I did suggest we had a beach party, sand, parasols, barbeques, loud shirts and white legs. The Club seems to have forgotten how to do stuff like this. We used to be inovators as well as a good Team.

If only we could change some of the existing player contracts to make them more performance-related, eh?