I want Harris to succeed because that's good news for all Salford fans.
I think the signs are that he will ultimately succeed.
There is a 'but'.
He's in the results business and the constant reference to Nobles flawed signing policy is wearing thin.
I repeat that this is a team with Hock Hansen Tasi Sau Chase,and even the older players still have much to give.
Harris's job is to utilise the undoubted talent that's on the books and win a few games. This is far from the most difficult coaching job in the land.

In the longer term it is probably,almost certainly,a benefit to Iestyn Harris,that the friends of Noble in the press and media repeatedly remind everyone of how many games in charge he has had and how few victories.
Had the wins occurred immediately,the general consensus would be that it was Nobles side and he should be receiving the praise.
It has become more evident how difficult the job is,not helped by player injuries and coming into the job a couple of months into the season.
He does deserve a little bit of time to assess and decide before delivering.

Very humorous RJ. You've got to admit it is a little hard to understand the pull of Salford,even if he grew up in Swinton and his dad played for you. He left the double winners before getting the chance to play in the WCC in Sydney (surely the game of a lifetime that every pro would aspire to?) and the promise of a testimonial year in 2014. I can understand Morley for example because he is at the end of his career and was not likely to get another contract at Wire. But Hansen is at his peak and should be playing in Finals and proving himself the best second rower in Super League.

Of course there may be other reasons. And you are right not every player loves Wigan like the fans. Though those that know him insist that as a product of Wigan's academy he was well loved in the club and that was reciprocated.

He was fed up of eating pies!!!!!

Nobby's recruitment policy does account for most of our current predicament though:
* No recognised goalkicker
* No speed at dummy half
* No pace in the three quarters
* One member of that three quarter line who defensively makes Paul Carige look like Gary Broadbent.
* No-on field leader

I think that these problems have led to most of our defeats this season, and they're problems the coach can do little about other than recruit. He dealt with the second one on the day he joined the club, and the third should be less of a problem next season, but, at the moment, he's having to deal with the squad he's got.

I think Iestyn has improved things. We seem more solid down the middle and, since the introduction of Logan Tomkins, pretty sharp at dummy half. However, as we saw at Leeds, the lack of pace is a killer, both in attack and defense. When Leeds got through our line, they had the pace to finish off while our three quarters were left grasping at air. When we broke the Leeds line - as Rangi did with that 70 yard break in the second half - there was no-one with him and he got tackled near the line. You can't blame Iestyn for that.

(And to be fair to Nobby, the fifth problem in the list was a bit unfortunate.)

As a general rule of thumb, fans can [inever[/i understand why players leave their club and so assume it's for more money. They play for your club for the honour of doing so. They play for another club purely for the money. Your comment about his salary being tripled was just an extreme example.

I think we have more than one on field leader, the problem seems to be my estimation that non of them have been given the role.

HH or Hock would be my choice as both set a good example with the work rate. Odd as it sounds I'd give out of those two Hock first as I'd be in no doubt that he would tell a few people like it is and not mince his words in what he expects from certain people who are week in week out not carrying their weight.

I can only speak for myself RJ. I can perfectly well understand why Sam Tomkins, Joel Tomkins and Lee Mossop left the club.

It was a mixture of more money and the chance to play at a higher level in the NRL and in Joel's case try a new sport in which he was fast tracked into the England team playing in front of 80,000 against the All blacks.

I can't for the life of me understand what HH left for if it wasn't money.

I wonder if he is regretting it?

A lot of RL fans fail to take into account whole reams of things when it comes to players making moves. They see them as simply a commodity that Clubs pass from one to the other for whatever reason. Players actually base their big decision on lots of little decisions. They could range from Wage packet, Length of contract, Security for short or long term, Wives/girlfriends/kids security or happiness, any number of Family reasons, personal reasons, unhappy, in need of change, switch of focus, more game time, more influential position in a team, less influential position in a team, sentimental reasons, desire to do something different, desire to live somewhere different, better options away from the field, a link to gain coaching experience in the future, and many many others.

A player will move if the criteria for a number of reasons is met. It's a little simplistic to boil players down to simply going for the bigger wage packet. While important, it wouldn't be the only overriding reason but one of many.

Hahaha I was a little bit more subtle then the op. But fair enough, you win, you are foooooookin and are fortunate Bradford and London are worse then part timers.

You make some good points.

But can you see why I am mystified at HH's choice?

And can you think of a similar player who has made such a move? Because I can't. It would be like Paul Scholes leaving Man Utd to play for Oldham (when they were in the top division of course). Or maybe Kevin Sinfield moving to Oldham Roughyeds!! (Sorry I'm struggling for comparisons and am not meaning to insult Salford)

What you do highlight is the biggest problem MK had when developing a new team. Namely, getting players of a certain calibre to buy into his vision. This season, for me, HH is the stand-out signing (Away from the playing side of things) as he came from the best Club in SL at the time and was a regular first teamer. All our other signings have been what's left at the time (Meli, TP, Morley, etc etc) wit Chase basically made a sideways move, as did Smith. Our overseas signings have been solid with Sau and Tasi standing-out. So HH is the anomaly but when you factor in his Dad's connection with the Club, growing-up around the Club, and him being a fan of Salford since being a kid it makes it to my mind, obvious why he chose a good offer from MK. So far, for next season we have already upped the quality of signing so far from this year with Locke and BJB. So Salford seems to be becoming a more viable prospect for players than it used to.

With regards to HH, a good analogy is when Manchester City purchased Robinho. Regardless of his performances (or lack of...) on the pitch, he was a marquee signing and a statement of intent/ambition from a club aiming to do better.

Correct - but he came for the money. Nothing else. Certainly not the Manchester weather.

I'm more than happy to accept that HH went to Salford for the money - after all it's a short career and you are always just one bad tackle away from retirement.

Red John/The Butcher seem to be suggesting that it's his love for his home town. I still find that hard to believe.

This is getting like a tabloid story: one simple factor to explain something complex.

HH, and other stars, will have many reasons for the decision and some he will not be able to explain to anyone but himself. So boiling it down to money v love of Salford is making it too simple.
As Butcher keeps repeating, the factor of a "challenge" cannot be underestimated as part of the formula for the type of players MK wants to attract.

Whereas you seem to be suggesting it was for the money and nothing else. As Butcher has pointed out, there may be a whole range of factors, and it doesn't just apply to Harrison Hansen. Why did Gareth Hock join Widnes? What tempted Paul Cooke from Hull to Hull KR?

It may be that Hansen is on better money than he was at Wigan, but to suggest that it was money and nothing else that tempted him to join the club he grew up watching, and that Salford would have to triple his salary to tempt him away from the much loved Wigan is just far too simplistic.

And that's my point about the criticism of Noble,he could only buy what was available so he's had several failures.
He's also had successes ,the most obvious being Sau and Tasi who most fans would never have heard of.
He was also part of the team that persuaded HH and Hock to buy into the project

I understand your point. And it certainly hurts to be compared to a tabloid scribe. It is also possible that you are adding a layer of complexity where one simply doesn't exist.

Do you think if MK said to HH "Come and join my revolution - but I can only pay you what you are on at Wigan" that he would sign?

By the way, I'm not knocking MK in this. I think he's great for the game and I wish you and him success. The game needs a club outside of Wigan and Leeds to be succesful. I do think that the signings for next season are a step up. FWIW I also think that people are a little too critical of Brian Noble, who deserved to be shown greater respect, given his achievements in the game. I'm not sure what Harris will offer that Brian couldn't.

Brian Noble did a lot of good things, and I wish he'd stayed at the club and taken up the role as football manager because he comes across as very knowledgeable and erudite. However, I get the feeling he's slightly past his best as a coach, and some of his decisions have been baffling. Why send a young, sharp hooker with a full season of SL behind him off on season long loan and replace him with a player who isn't as sharp and, really, isn't a specialist hooker? Why not make more effort to keep Jodie Broughton and, instead, replace him with a much slower winger? Why was that winger not moved to the centres where he seems much more effective? Why replace a young prop with one 10+ years older and little better? Were there really no goalkickers available? When your three-quarters are desperately lacking in pace and depth, why send someone like Niall Evalds off on season long loan?

I like Brian Noble, and think it's a real shame it didn't work out. We don't yet know whether Iestyn is the right man for the job, but I'm afraid I think Nobby wasn't.

Fair comment.
I think Mullaney was signed partly because he is a goal kicker and,as I understand it, a prolific points machine.
So far that's hasn't been proved correct but he did come highly rated

I think back to the Devilution launch when a fan asked Brian Noble if he had given serious consideration to who would be kicking this season. He snorted a reply along the lines that of course he had.

I like Mullaney - I think he puts in plenty of effort, he's relatively young and he's looked good going forward. A top Super League kicker he ain't. Not sure who Noble had in mind as a back up...

Anyone got any update with the injured

Bingo. I was behind that end we were attacking second half and a few Salford fans sat near me were going mental about the decision not being given - no mention of the players stood there watching Hanbury pick the ball up and run past them.

I'd also agree with you, Talent Spotter and Walshy. Whilst I don't think we're playing as catastrophically as Wirecutter's needless meltdown suggests, I certainly don't see too much in the way of improvement from where we were after the Hull Cup game. I'm not in relegation panic mode, but we do need to pull a win or two out of the fire in the next few games.



Didn't you have a go at me for "snide remarks" recently? Whilst I accept a lot of people had a major problem with the style of rugby being played under Noble (with fair reasoning), we can't let any change in style mask the fact that we haven't actually taken any real steps forward. We're still making silly mistakes, we're still quite poor in the tackle and something just seems lacking. Even after we've scored, the body language from the players taking up their positions looks languid and down to me. Hopefully it's a minor problem that can be worked out, but we're far from this amazing improvement people seem to think we've made.

I sure did GT & you've improved a lot. Good work. Fair to say I think that we are all in the same boat.