'season 7, episode 15'

we are still waiting.

So true


Said Tony Hadley

Yep, club legend but not a good coach at all. Take Pricey with you on the way out please Lee.

Does any other club's fans blame the assistant coach?
We've done it with lowes, agar and now briers!

Without having any idea what input they have. Why Briers and not Henderson ( genuine question, not a suggestion).

How long has Briers been there? It’s like he’s there because of his status rather than on merit. Almost like Duncan Ferguson at Everton. He still be there in the year 2068.

No definitely not! Head coach dictates tactics and style.

To be fair to Ferguson, at least he appears to do a job, considering England's latest superstar has basically been hand reared by him over the last year or so.

Maybe Briers could do similar with one of our youngsters?

The plan to replace Briers was sound, Richie Myler and Stefan Ratchford were brought in while Briers still had a few years to go, plus we had Gareth O'Brien coming up through the ranks.

We got to GF's and won the Challenge Cup with Briers. We also did it without him.

The problem has never been replacing Briers. It's been about changing the mentality within the whole club.

I might be being harsh, but perhaps Briers being there is just a constant reminder of failure for all to see, for people both inside and outside the club?

Maybe it's time we dropped the replacing Briers angle. Let's not forget, we never were anything special, with him. Yes, he had some dross and average to deal with, but he also had the Langer, Nikau, Nutley era, as well as Moran's spending power era. In his 16 year playing time, we just had the 3 CC's and a LLS.

He was a very important player, but in the same breath, neither a Messiah or a naughty boy

it was a more a post out of frustration that its been 8 years now and we still haven't recruited/brought through a HB that could hold a candle to him.

Its certainly not for lack of trying.... i guess its a problem for RL in general, rather than just Warrington.... that kind of player seems to have gone from the game now.

Does that tell us more about Briers than the players who followed? Don't think the perfect replacement was ever out there.

We've had all different kinds of half back since he retired, some of them very good players.

In terms of his coaching, who knows what goes on on the training pitch. I also don't believe that just because he was so good, means he can teach that to our young half backs. It doesn't work like that

What was said for a few years afterwards, certainly in the case of ratch replacing hodgo, we were continuing to try and play a style, that we no longer had the playing staff to support.

Was Ratchford signed as a replacement for Hodgson.
The reason that I ask is that I remember Matty Russell being signed as a fullback well after Ratch arrived and then we signed Gidley who had been playing full back for Newcastle and gave him the No 1 shirt although from memory he only played a pre season friendly at No 1.
I thought we stumbled around signing players with no real long term plan.
It maybe that Ratch was signed as a full back but all the shuffling at 6/7 meant that Ratch had to move

At the start of this season I saw a programme and it showed a recruitment meeting at Castleford where they were looking to sign a pivot for next year. They had identified the need and looked in the NRL and SL as to who was available 12 months in advance. It sounds like that ended up being Evalds. It would be great to compare our recruitment process to what I saw at Cas especially with signing Latu and Burrell neither of which appeared well thought out.

I imagine our recruitment 'committee' to be a 3 man WhatsApp group, consisting of Moran, Fitzpatrick and Price. At various times of the day, Fitzpatrick pops up with YouTube clips of various NRL players that he's been sent by unscrupulous Aussie agents..

'Watch this fellas, this lad is an absolute monster' as Karl links them to a 3 minute clip of some huge Aussie or Kiwi lad knocking 10 bells out of various NRL opposition..

'Looks great Karl' says an excited Moran 'we'll have some of that'

'Yes, looks fantastic' says a giddy Karl,

'Ahem, lads, have we checked out his stats, his stamina, discipline, important stuff like that?' interrupts a not as enthusiastic Steve Price 'remember, I've got to work with the guy'

'Typical of you, Steve' says a mocking Fitzpatrick 'always trying to put my great scouting work down - I'm going to contact this guy's agent in the morning'

'Good stuff Karl, get onto it, I'll sign the cheque' says Moran

Price throws his phone to the floor and goes back to bed....


... 6 weeks later, Price walks into Fitzpatrick's office,

'Karl, that big lad you brought over from Oz?'

'What about him, Pricey?'

'He's another pile of $hi+e, Karl.. Thanks' .....

Sandow was a talent, who then decided to leave us and then completely waste it. If only he'd been fit for the full 80 minutes at both Wembley and OT.

Russell was a panic buy after Briers retired and he had a fairly decent world Cup.

Gidley was signed after we gave up trying to go young and British with myler and gob, ratch bridge an a young patton. We got Sandow and gids. Who as you say generally had been a utility player in oz

I don’t buy it , sorry.
Moran didn’t get rich by “staffing money up the wall”.
I think we can all make an educated guess re prop re ruitment.
SP “ We need an experienced front line prop”
KF “Turns out not to be as easy as we would like. Every time we got close to signing a contract his agen called to say he had been offered an NRLcontract based on our offer”
SP “ but we REALLY need a prop, even those know it all’s on RLFans have worked it out”
KF “Well there’s always Latu as a last resort, I know no one is keen on him but...”
SP “ (I with words he will come to regret ) “well he should do a job”

So the likes of Latu and Sita were thoroughly scouted and not picked up after viewing a 2 minute showreel on YouTube?

I'm struggling to believe that...

Wasn't sita signed because he was hiku's mate? And then hiku buggered off! Some mate.

Not sure you actually read my post, that is not what I said at all (or if I did I didn’t mean to).

How are you quantifying that Briers is a bad coach? As he's an assistant all you can really base it on is the opinions of others within the sport. The role of an assistant coach is to assist the head coach. He could be doing a sensational job of that and you wouldn't know.

I think what Warrington are lacking at the moment is a genuine leader in the squad. If you had a Jamie Peacock or Paul Sculthorpe in your dressing room over the last 10 years, I suspect you'd have three or four titles by now.

I've made this point a few times.
How many of us know what the exact role is and to what extent he's listened to by SP?

Agar was vilified during his time as assistant coacb to TS on here, but doesnt seem to be doing a too bad a job at Leeds.

Next time you're bored of watching our lame attack faff about in the opposition's last 20, move the ball from side to side with no penetration and hope for a mistake, strike up some of the highlights of the early TS era and watch how dangerous we were and how many options there were to score that came from Briers. High kicks up to both wings; cut out passes to players out wide; dummy and run through the line.

Also since Briers left, at what point have we had a good kicking game? A brief window with Sandow thats it.