according to MEN is favourite for the assistant coach role. Is he currently assistant at Wigan?? whats everyones view on him??

Is this the same Phil Veivers who coached swinton for a bit?

im not sure matey. I didnt know he was at wigan( if he is!!)

If he brings his lad Josh to play for us then I'd welcome him!

I seem to remember him playing for Swinton at the very end of his playing career. If I'm not mistaken he was an assistant to Brian Noble at Bradford Bulls before joining Wigan.

Shaun Wane is assistant at Wigan IIRC. Think Phil Veivers used to be.

[url=http://www.cisionwire.com/intereurope-communications-group/local-hero-joins-central-sports-team-2Central Sports[/url

Saints ' legend ' Phil Vievers , Australian born 1964 , came over 1984 to play for saints , playing Stand-off , loose forward ,
Was at Wigan as assistant coach to Brian Noble , also at Bradford with Noble in the same capacity , didn't go to Crusaders with him and stayed with Wigan , but subsequently was replaced by Shaun Wayne . seems to be doing some teaching- coaching at present ( link ) .
certainly fits the bill as a experienced assistant coach who can guide Alker next season

I think going from no assistant coaches to two will be as important in our progression next year as all the new players we have signed. I'd imagine the extra individual/specialist coaching the players will recieve can only help but improve the team.

lets hope so. Id much prefer Veivers to Millward. For some reason i think the team would be unsettled with both Mcrae and Millward at the club.

Currently working for Central Fitness in St Helens mentoring and training young sports coaches since leaving Wigan.

don't want another bloody aussie. what about Betts or someone as assistant

I recall he helped tighten up Wigan's defence the year he was brought in by Noble to starve off relegation. (And we did ship 857 points this year, the worst defence in Superleague) I don't really care where a coach is from so long as they contribute to making us a better team.

Not too sure about Betts he'd probably want too much money and he hasn't been in involved in our game for about 5 years.

Fine. But why?

I'm with KMT. What have the aussies ever done in RL??

well whats wrong with an english coach in the mould of, Dave Clark? why do we have to keep recruiting aussies all the time its detrimental to the english game, we have a quota limit on players why not on coaches?

who was the last decent aussie coach we had?

For me I'm very surprised that John Stankevitch hasn't been mentioned, he seems to have done a qaulity job at Rochdale and is the age where he still has a link to many of the players of the day. Think he shows some real potential.
Though personally I'd be surprised if Compton hasn't applied and if he indeed has I think his name will already be top of the pile.

But on the other hand, some prominant English coaches have done their apprenticeships under the tenure of Aussie coaches. Noble under Matt Elliot. Kear under under Stuart Raper and McRae.

Look, I see your point regarding the benefits of producing English coaches. But, for me, the whole academy system needs a drastic overhaul over here. That's right from the very bottom at under 8's level, upto first grade. We simply don't produce the goods in comparison to the Aus game where coaches, players and countless other members of staff involved in the Aus game are churned out. In comparison, we're fairly amateurish...

But, to simply remove or further restrict the numbers od Australian imports would be going too far. What I'd like to see is a change in philosophy from the RFL in which we actively learn from the Australian system and their produce and create an evolved version of that and them.

Of course, my view here and many more I could put out there are complete idealism and simply not going to happen for a multitude of reasons.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I still think McRae has something to offer. For the first time he'll have a decent set of players working for him. If they produce the goods and make the play-offs, I'd say the coach has achieved his objective.

In the last two years, all things considered, it could be argued that the teams of players we've had have over-achieved. The difference this year is that we have a squad that is probably worth 9th to 11th on paper. If they make the eight, bonus! A stepping stone to a higher position in 2012.

I could also ask, who was the last decent British coach we've had? Andy Gregory in 1997? Tis a long time ago when RL was a different game...

What you mean we have cleared all that deadwood to hopefully finish just one place higher ? you really think the new signings are that bad ?

Who knows he may have applied ( Stankevitch), Martin Crompton has been 'named ' as a possible. From the people mentioned, apart from Millward who has distanced himself , Phil Vievers has the best chance as he has worked in a similar capacity for at least two previous SL clubs.
Salford seem to be going for experience in the playing staff so it stands to reason they'll do likewise with the coaching vacancy.

Not at all. But they're not world beaters either. And even if they were, to expect them to be so in their first year as a group is asking more than is possible. But as I also pointed out, our final league standings of the last two years are arguably over-inflated based on the fact that we've had the smallest budget for players in the league. We have, in this respect, over-achieved.
Furthermore, the squad that's been assembled so far, although good with undoubted talent, still lacks the crucial and fundamental dynamic of at least 3 or 4 dominant prop forwards. Without these, the frivalous and highly skilled players that we have will invariably be surplus to requiremnts in their main roles. That is, they'll be expected to work harder than they should in helping the team move forwards. (The props we had last year are the same as the coming year. They frequently struggled to make 20m in an average set. Very, very poor!)

If you compare our squad with other squads in Super League, especially those that made the play-offs this year, you'll surely see that we're no better on paper, than 9th to 11th. And I might add, this is in comparison with squads that not only know each other better, have other significant resources at their disposal. Better training facilities, better deals with sports nutrition companies, better teams of coaches etc, etc.
However, I still believe that if the players step up, we're capable of making the play offs in 2011 thus continuing the trend of over-achievment.

I get what your trying to say kind of but not all of what you say adds up, for instance Crusaders had no team no kit no coach no ground and managed to finish the season in the eight, so seasoned pro's don't always need time to gel.

As for over achieving going into round 27 with the spoon hanging over us was hardly over achieving, we could have run in last with ease !! (remember the against column)

Better training facilities/Nutrition I would need evidence of that ? the top four but not the rest.

I think the 9 or so coming in are far better than the 9 or so leaving, massively in some cases, not to mention there is every likelihood of having one or more grand final winners and a challenge cup winner this year. I read a Warrington fans view on our squad which said with some luck and the right coaching (the difficult bit) we may even make the four. Now thats optomistic but there is no reason we can't run in at 6 or 7 and be competitive in every game and stand a chance of winning instead of wondering how many over the 50 we will take.

IMO of co .

My prediction, all factors and not just the improvement of the squad considered, we'll finish 8th. Still a long way to go but moving in the right direction.

Apologies for deviating.
Phil Veivers. Erm, don't know enough about him to comment on him.