Just reading through Sallys 2005 post and it got me thinking about Paul Cullen and just how quickly feelings can change in sport. We litteraly begged the board to bring him in during the Planderson 'era'. But by 2007 the majority wanted him on a stake. I personally went from pure admiration and the upmost respect, to complete dispair and frustration, even refusing to go to games durng his final year with us. He came like a knight in shining armour but left with little to no honour and in such dissapointing circumstances.

I'm at a loss when I think what went wrong. He didn't bring "success" in terms of cups, but he did, working with Moran did take us from the depths of depression to Superleague hopefulls in a very short space of time and got us playing some of the best rugby I have seen from a Warrington side.

For the first few years, I dont think there was a single fan who wanted anyone other than PC at the helm of our club. His love for the club, his terrible but comical ability to turn the most simple of question in to the most articulate, sometimes irrelevant answers. Add to this he was Warrington through and through. He just couldn't fail, yet did so spectactularly. How, why did it all go TU so quickly for him?

Now that we are "back on track" so to speak, fans will probably look back with Cullen tinted specs but I wouldn't be suprised if he shunned any chants of his name on boxing day, and thinking about it, who could blame him?

we all know its rare in RL for a coach to remain at any one club for more than a few years.. thats just the way the game appears to be these days... in the sheme of things he had more than enough time to 'have a good go'... at the end of the day he wasnt up to the job of creating a top 4 side.

his status within the club bought him much more time than it should have done... but then again i suppose you could say he earned it with all his years of hard work as a player... its a shame he was hounded out in the end.. i personally thought he should have walked before it all came crashing down around him...

Couldn't agree more

Cull went with his heart not his head.

I still believe this guy is Wire through & through

Cullen has seen the light and is now black and white through and through... Tbh he's been like a breath of fresh air at Widnes..

He just have walked at the end of 2006 as it was obvious then he wasn't going to take us any further. He's a legend at the club and Warrington through and through but sadly it ended acrimoniously because he stayed too long in my opinion. Everything was in place off the field and the financial backing was there so ultimately our lack of success was down to the coach.

I'm definitely not one for getting on the back of the coach and chanting for them to go, and I'm always a staunch advocate of giving them time to build their own team. I'm also mindful off problems at the top of the club that may be significantly hindering the on field plans but Cullen did not have any of that from 2004. By 2006 it was clear to me that 2005 was a peak and Cullen wasn't the right man. Let's be honest if he was a top class coach he wouldn't be at Widnes now.

Sad really.

Interesting thread. I think Cullen probably secured his own downfall by bringing in so many big names. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, but as a coach with such a strong squad the excuses for loses are a lot harder.

On a more general note, and in line with the theme of the original post, what I find most remarkable is how we write-off coaches who, after a period of relative success at a club lose their job because of a poor season.

By contrast down-under, a coach may lose his job in the NRL, but has some chance of gaining another one at the top level. Here, if you've had a bad season in the top flight and you're English, then whatever you've acheived before is forgotten and you have to start again in the lower divisions- such as Cullen and Harrison have had to. Others will get bounced down to assistant, like Jon Sharpe now or John Kear was for a time, and more still will drift away from the game.

I know its a cliche, but we judge coaches on their last game (or few games). However, the Aussies tend to judge them on their career as a whole and offer coaches with decent records more chances.

I hear they are hard to come by now-a-days...

Rather like the chemical / landfill ming that hangs over wiretown wouldn't you agree?

He quite simply took the club as far as he ever could and had stayed too long. I felt that 2006 was as far as he was going to take us, but he'd never have left after having beat Leeds away in the play offs. After 2007, he really should have helds his hands up and acknowledged he could do no more.

It is a shame it ended the way it did, and it's a shame I spoke to some people who didn't know why they were giving him abuse, they just thought it was the right/cool thing to do because everybody esle seemed to be doing it.

He's a good transitional coach, I'd say. He was bound to do a good job at Widnes; he did a good job at Whitehaven and a good job for us when we in the position we were in 2002. The 2003 season was something special and he instilled a lot of pride in the team and they played some really good rugby. We stuck some points on teams that season. I don't think he really hit those heights again as a coach, as the novelty seemed to wear off. 2005 was a great year, obviously, but there was a peroid between losing at Wigan and Johns coming in that it looked like the wheels had fallen off the season. Losing at Huddersfield in the manner we did was incredibly difficult to swallow after having hit that run of 11 wins from 12. That was typical of his reign; we were too inconsistent. We looked as close as we have since 2001 - and since he left - to beating Saints under Cullen, but we also lost badly at Salford and were thrashed at Cas on his watch.

I doubt he could handle a 'top' job, as he's probably too much 'one of the boys'. You get the impression he didn't distance himself from the payers as well as he should have done. While this obviously created a good relationship, he seemed to lack any real authority over his squad and some players would walk all over him.

Spot on.

Cullen did a fine job for the task he was brought in for, which was to firstly save us from relegation, and then setting us in the right direction both results-wise and recruitment-wise.

However, it became obvious that he lacked that certain something which would enable us to take that final step to being a competitive, trophy-winning side...For a number of years we have had a squad, which while not world-beating, was definitely under-acheiving, and ultimately, the finger of blame would point at the coach.

For a good analogy, take a look at Man City right now....A very decent, highly expensive squad in place, but they have a complete buffoon in charge of them....Put Mouriniho in charge of that lot and City would become a differrent club completely.

Cullen wasn't a buffoon, but he definitely became out of his depth.....

He stayed far too long because the board supported him in blind faith. He was on a good screw and coaching at the largest club he ever would. This was his crack at the big time.

His lack of success, in my view, was a) the inability to get quality players to play to their ability b) to get sort out the chronic defensive problems c) to be too close with some of the players and to not weed out the drinking culture/bad apples.

I just see 2006-2008 as wasted years. I say it now, I said it then.

Arrgrgrgggghhhh we won 2/6.

Think Cullen will get good reception on boxing day as he changed Wire, they were battling with relegation the season before he took over, look at them the past couple of season's always near or in the play offs.

He's already done good job at Widnes, in first season incharge he already won a throphy

Maybe, but the Cullen 'effect' was that he gave everybody a common goal....There was a definite belief in the early days of Cullen, that things were different and not just a case of Wire drifting aimlessly towards more mediocrity, which is definitely what it was like under Plange....Even if we had survived under Plange, things would still have been downbeat, simply because the man himself wasn't THE man, if you get my drift.

With Cullen, there seemed to be a plan at least, and for the most part he carried out that plan reasonably well.

The players still go out for a beer or two, or is it because weve won something that it goes unnoticed

i bet tony smith doesnt join them in stockton heath every friday night.

A good bloke. Stayed too long. Too close to the players. Simple.

Yeah I get your drift. PC sold us a vision and went a step towards it in 2005 before failure.

I think people do seem to forget that Plange contributed more, in terms of league points in 2002, than PC did, yet he gets no credit at all.

Probably tainted by association with Anderson, plus he was a complete outsider with absolutely no qualification to be in charge of Wire....Cullen, at least, had the 'local boy' tag to fall back on, and he undoubtedly had the gift of the gab as well...

You are quite correct about the qualifications however Plange had taken a team to a final before getting the Warrington gig. I'm no huge fan of Plange but he was more critical to Warrington remaining in SL than PC was based on league points.

Anyway I welcomed the PC appointment at the time, I thought he was the real deal as we all did. Sadly he wasn't and isn't, gift of the gab or not.

Re: Plange vs Cullen and who saved us etc. comes down to the following Question:

Despite Plange's better history of W/L ratios, would we have won the two games which kept us in SL without [ithe[/i, or [ia[/i change of coach?

In my own personal view, we wouldn't have won any of them and we would have gone down. Cullen coming in changed the outlook completely at the end of that year and thus I attribute us being saved to him and his influence.

Cullen coming in took the feet off the net.

71, regardless of the amount of games he won, he did what he was brought in to do; prevent relegation. I couldn't see Plange achieving that.

I have a lot of time for Cull and was sickened by the cr@p talked by many 'fans' during his period as coach - so much so that I gave up posting for a while. Unfortunately society being what it is today and 'fans' being what they are, they can say what they like, when they like with very little reproach (unless it's defamatory and even then.....).

Yes he should have gone before he did but some of the posters on here were just plain out of order - and I would suggest many (but by no means all) with very little understanding of the game.

We all pay our cash to see the team play and want them to do well and we have a right to air our views - but that's no different to all fans in all sports. If there's reasoned argument for views, again I have no problem with that but far too many times there was criticism without reasoned argument and that's what makes me really frustrated with forum like this.

Tony Smith is a good coach - and I'll admit I'm more impressed with him since I've seen him working with Warrington close up than I was when he was with Leeds etc. (I did not think it was a first rate appointment - and I was wrong). But even he had lots of critics at Leeds and I'm sure eventually 'fans being 'fans' will turn on him.
Luckily he knows that and - only my belief - he walked before being pushed at Leeds.

Everyone's expectation will be high for this year - even more so than in the previous 7+ years because the team won a trophy last year, arguably we've strengthened and we've got a good crop on youngsters coming through. But I really hope that at the first sign of trouble fans don't start to call for heads to roll.

When you look back, you have to realise Cullen took us to a position to where we were one season away from winning a major trophy, that's not a bad achievement. IMO you have to give the man credit, because without his ambition in 2002 we wouldn't be here today. I'm sure everyone would have loved it if he had the ability to coach Wire to that CC win and it would have been the perfect fairytale, rags to riches story.