Anybody watching?

Cullen did an [iawfully[/i good job of deflecting the Widnes question. The man should have been a politician!

I was expecting a thread this evening questioning why he was currently out of a job, as based upon his analysis of the matches on the show, he clearly has a great tactical Rugby brain. Like Tony Rea last season.

Listening to him tonight I think if Widnes offered him the job he wouldn't turn it down.

I noticed he also had a dig at our fitness levels and the talk of our "so called tough pre-season training".

what fitness levels....i`m fitter than that lot,from what i seen on friday night

Cullen is a nutter, he thought Wigan missed Mathers

he clearly has not done his research.

they missed him if you consider Amos Roberts looked like a blind man playing rugby

If you watched, and listened, and concentrated, and used that funny thing that the skull protects, you'd have realised that Amos Roberts is even more innefective than Mathers at FB. Though Mathers couldn't tackle a hot dinner, he presumably communcates very well with the defensive line and offers a bit more than Robers at Full Back.

Now, now, let's be a bit realistic. You ask for people not to jump on your back everytime you post, yet you post something like this.

What he said was that we had had arguably one of the toughest pre-season training. One of the first things I did when Cullen said anything negative about Wire was to give a little wry laugh and raise an eyebrow. Then I realised he was actually spot-on in much of what he said and I only reacted like that because it was Cullen. At the end of the day if it had been Tony Rea that had said that I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, I would have just took it as a sports pundit commenting on the game.

Cullen now will always have to neutrally comment on every game as he is not the coach anymore, which means saying good and bad things about any club inclluding Warrington. It doesn't neccessarily mean he's having a dig.

Your possibly correct, maybe he wasn't having a dig, because it was Cullen I did think straight off that he was maybe a little bitter. As you say though he does need to comment on all aspects and had it been someone else I daresay like you I wouldn't have raised an eyebrow.

Have you not noticed the people that criticise others are usually the worst culprits....

Cullen "Warrington lost as they only tackled in pairs whilst Saints gang tackled." Quickly followed by "The reason Catalans got hammered was they had too many men in the tackle & left themselves exposed".

The world & his wife "Wire got beat by giving daft penalties away in their own 30 to a team that runs whiote hot from that position. followed by " Catalans have a new coach and not one jot of pre-season match practice".

what did he mean when he said "our legs fell off"

You lot were calling poor Richie Mathers a hero last year when he smacked King round the head..

The world and his wife are not professional coaches though, or professional pundits.

I found Cullens analysis interesting and he communicates it well to the audience with a non-coaching background. I like pundits who spend time giving detailed analysis because it makes the watching public more educated about the game. Boots N All will definitely be a show to watch this year if he's on it every week.

Bring back King Cullen, all is forgiven.

I did notice that Paul Cullen never mentioned or gave any praise to Chris Riley for his very good performance at full back, i wonder why

Because if he sat and praised every player from every team that played well he'd take up the entire hour.
The Wire Saints game was on telly so had enough post-match chat and discussion. If you noticed not a whole lot was said about our game in general.

All he had to say was "The positives for Warrington were Chris Riley at full back and the debuts of Micky Higham and Gareth Carvell", how long does that take ?

To me he didn`t mention Chris Riley simply because he never gave Chris the chance at full back himself while he was coach which is even more alarming when we had plenty of full back problems at the time, it would have been nice for Eddie to ask a telling question for once like "Paul, i`m suprised you never gave Chris Riley the chance at full back based on that performance".

Yep let's use Boots'n'All as an interrogation tool against Paul Cullen and his coaching skills. I'm sure that's interesting for everyone who's not a Wire

to be fair Rob if Riley had been plucking bombs out of the air like a young Radlinski or had been making superb last ditch try saving tackles i think he would have mentioned it.
Riley did none of this he just had a quiet error free game, as he wasnt asked a single question by the Saints offence....

he joined the attack well but on one occasion when he kept the ball himself instead of giving it ,Jimmys reaction was there for all to see and was the same as everyone else in wire colours.... "'kin ell Riley"...

one offload for a try does not make him a rival to Billy Slater....

if he gives us an added attacking option great ...if it means we get goosed under every bomb or last man line break then thats a different matter.

They are fair comments mate but given his limited oppertunities at Warrington along with some of the dreadful performances at full back in the past from the likes of Grose at times (in defence) and Reardon then i`m suprised he was never given the chance under Paull Cullen to start at full back, apparently he had played well there before in the under 21`s by all acounts.

He reminds of a Jack Russell that will always be nipping away at your ankles and no matter how many times he gets put on his back he will bounce straight back up, of course he is no Slater or Brett Stewart but when you have a salary cap he looks a useful player to have especially in attitude and consistency.

I can't believe that no one has mentioned the line about our left hand side defence might not have been the best one to take on Gidley and Gardner - like Bracek and Penny then?

No and I'm dissapointed you've misunderstood that Steve, I expected better than that.

What he was showing was that alot of Saints tackles involved 3 or 4 tacklers, who would effectively shut down the runner and turn him onto his back, slowing down his recovery. Then, whilst he (slowly) gets to his feet to play the ball, the 3rd and 4th tacklers sprint back into the defensive line with the 1st and 2nd left to become markers. This compared to Catalans 3 or 4 tacklers losing the collision and hence all being still scattered on the floor whilst the player with the ball gets a quick play-the-ball.

He did similar analysis of the Bradford v Hull KR game which highlighted how powerful some of the Bradford forwards are, there were clips of Langley and Burgess driving into four man tackles and still hitting the floor in a good position to get a fast play-the-ball which Newton then exposed.

Given the apparent power of the Warrington pack this year its something I would be looking for us to do, surely the likes of Carvell, Morley, Rauhihi and Westwood are as good as the Bradford forwards, if we can get these quick play the balls against multiple tacklers then a hooker like Higham will do damage.