All this knee jerk reaction, Lowes this, Noble that, Smith is the answer etc.,etc., dosn't actually get to the ROOT of the problem.

Players are contracted and their job is to play Rugby League.

On the evidence then, in certain clubs, players are not fullfilling their contracts and should be dismissed through the proper channels as per employment law.

It's always the players who come out of these situations intact when it is obviously their fault that the situation has occurred.

Perhaps a bit more reality kicking in may focus the players to do WHAT THEY ARE PAID TO DO, because I know in my job , even with a contract of employment, if I don't do my job, after due procedure I can be dismissed without recompense and this should apply to sportsmen as well.

It really is down to the players.

How do you prove in law that a player is not doing his job properly?

The problem is this:

We do not have a proper system for coaches to learn their trade.

All the English coaches in SL are previous players - Lowes, McNamara, Kear, McDermott, Noble, Agar - is it a prerequiste of being a coach that you have had to play the game at the top level?

I like the idea of ex players coaching, But for me you should have worked your way up the coaching ranks for many years, You should have spent time with the youth teams, worked up as assistant and then got the main job, Some players are given assistants jobs, dont do a great deal to assist and then step in to the big job when things go pear shaped

All part of the ' instant ' society we have now

Some can/could do it , but far too many dont or arent willing to do thier ' apprentiship '

In Warrington's case they are only doing what every team their new conditioner has done throughout his career which is fade badly in the second half. He works their n**s off too close to match day and they start brightly then run out of gas. Hardly the players' faults if they're doing exactly what the coaching team want them to do during the week..but it turns out not to be the right thing for the game.

There is only a problem because coaches are often appointed on the grounds that they will instill some idealistic sense of 'pride in the jersey' rather than on any technical basis, which is obviously far more important. Basically because most of the time club directors are morons with limited knowledge of the game.

Plenty of players get dropped, sold, loaned out etc. It is the managers job to get the team playing, if the players are not playing, then the buck still stops with the coach.

When the team goes backwards from this time last year, that is the coach.

Its not the players fault.....and let me tell you why.


Players brought up in the UK are not taught many of the fundamentals of the game.

Its not the coaches fault.....at any level....because they were never brought up on the fundamentals of the game either.

So what you have is generation after generation turning over under skilled players.


What needs to happen is the RFL needs to start at the top and works its way down to the grass roots.

I've outlined the coaching clinics, coaching packs, change in national coaching structure and so on that I think the RFL needs to put in place to re-educate the British players in how to play the game.


Super League is the shop front and TV is how kids these days learn a lot of the skills needed to play the game.

If you teach SL and developing players how to play well, it will filter down through the ranks.



But this is going to take a long time and quite frankly, I dont think you lot care enough about it to be bothered doing the hard work.

Yeah I reckon Agar only got the job because of his reputation as a player.

One things that prevents coaches from wanting to work their way up is this apparent image that once you're a lower league coach, you'll always be a lower league coach.

There are plenty of coaches who have been succesful outside of Super League but I can;t think of many who have gone on to get a job at a bigger club (Millward off the top of my head)

Cullen?

Agreed

(I was also trying to remember what happened with Agar but he was assistant for a while so was promoted internally)

Agar was fairly successful at York too

I seem to remeber a lot being made of Chris Joynt being put through some sort of new age coaching system during his final years at Saints, but I don't he's involved at all now (although he always did have his figers in pies outside the sport).

What (if any) coaching school do we have set up in the UK??

Rubbish. If all a club needs to do is employ decent players who try their best, then there would no need for a coach. In your world - what exactly is the role of a coach?

Err

Coach the players?

Precisely! So if players are not performing, perhaps they are not being coached correctly? Hence a different coach might be required?

On what evidence?
If you want players to learn skills, you need coaches to teach it to them at an earlier stage of development. Probably around high-school/college time. There is no harm in coaching the elite as well, but you won't get very good results from them as they'll have to alter their original methods which may take time (if it ever actually happens).
If you want players to pick up the right skills, start at the beginning, not the end.

Then sack them!!!

It's not a difficult concept.

If my boss says do this or that and I don't then I would expect the worst.

Why are players in any way different?

Players are different because this is a game, it's a sport where someones got to win and someones got to lose, even if everyones good at their job