If we get beat on sat its season over IMO

it's not a 'trys' show, for that you've got maaaaaaartin on a sunday night and the online program. BnA hasn't been 'try' based for a few years now.

I just watch the BnA on-line. That has every single try on it.

Start it downloading and leave it, when you come back you have it all there to skip the chatter between game highlights so you don't have to listen to Barry Mac trying to form a sentence.

Big test ahead, win a semi, get as high in the 8 as possible and give the fans a 2009 to talk about, even if a loss at Wembley occured, and a loss in the GF of get to the GF semi occured, its a season to say "not bad".... but on the other hand it could be a case of lose the semi, finish 8th and bomb out straight away, or even finish 9th and not even be in it to win it... big test, can the players do it....oooooooo nervy times.

Theres always next year...

2010, Year of the Wolf??

Great post

I really hope that you were not serious about Cullen "spoke a lot of sense" ?

A great player for us, BUT he failed as a Coach - despite having so many great players.

His Boots N All spots are really embarrassing

"show & Go", "edge defence"

it's going to be hard to make the top 8 and to be honest is doesn't worry me too much this year. I just want to see steady progress at the club, over the next couple of years....

Would be very nice to be in the Challange Cup Final though.....Come on the Wire.....

But even so, Cullen knows far more about the game than anyone on here.

Cullen is awesome, wire will be spent after the weekend. He knows the mentality of the players.


Over and out

Seeing as he was at our club for so long as a coach and part of his responsibilties as coach were to get our players mentally right for games then i wonder where this mentallity that you elude too came from.



Would this mentallity have possibly come from the current Widnes coach who has now found his level as a coach ? You won`t need to worry about possibly bouncing back from a challenge cup semi final loss as thats something you won`t have to deal with for a fair while.

Over and out

True. It's such a shame that he couldnt translate such vast knowledge and ability into making a team he had under his command for 6 years anything other than rank, unconsistent, illdisciplined, under achieving also-rans.

Maybe not, but I bet he can sleep easy at night knowing that he did his best & that he left the club in a very healthy state for his future replacements. You look at other clubs, the rebuilding that needs to be done, we haven't got that, he put together a good squad, it just needed fine tuning.

I enjoyed his reign in the main, okay, it lacked success. But, I liked what he stood for, he wanted to play open, attractive rugby, he wanted the fans to enjoy their rugby, and for periods I did, 2005 was great, 2006 play-offs were great too. I always felt we were on the tip of something brilliant, yet miles away from it at the same time.

the way macnamara has ballsed up the bulls

Is this the same Cullen who helped keep you boys in Sl in 2002, when the likes of Rodwell and Dale laughton were playing? Not trying to troll, but all we ever hear from Wires fans is how much of a disaster his 6 year reign as head coach was. I seem to recall Wire being flaming awful that year, and then twelve months later reaching the top 6?

Yes thats the same Cullen ! The Top 6 is not good enough for a club like the Wolves. My main problem with Cullen is his Boots N All comments - he needs to concentrate on his own club instead of trying to tell other Superleague Coaches where they went wrong.

If Widnes get back into SL under him, then I will be the first to congratulate him & I hope Widnes do get back where they deserve to be.

I just think Cullen would be out of his depth in Superleague again - the Championship is his level for me.

Come on the Wolves for the semi !!

Ermmm.. isn't that what is he paid to do on the show? Have an opinion?

I disagree with the part in bold, every Wire fan respects what Paul Cullen did as a player and the passion he showed for the club, its his ability as a coach in SL that people questioned.

He was given far longer in the job than the majority of SL coaches get to turn us into a successful club on the pitch, he failed to do that.

He left us without a youth structure of any note, he wasted a fair amount of money and time on signing hookers to play scrum half. He built a squad and team that was too heavily reliant on Lee Briers and wasn`t balanced.

Given the money that was available to him especially in the 2nd half of his time as coach we should have at least threatened to make a final, we got nowhere near one, the players constantly looked like they were not enjoying their rugby, morale looked poor and team spirit didn`t appear to exist.

I wish him well at Widnes, i think he`s found his level as a coach where he can feel more comfortable and relaxed. Nobody is questioning Paul Cullen the person, it was about his ability as a SL coach to take a club like ours forward to be realistic challengers for silverware and he failed to do that.

Are you taking the "mickey" about the youth structure Rob?

Tony Smith has specifically stated that he hasn't paid any attention to it yet. So is the current Academy team and the development of Cooper, Harrison, Mitchell and Riley the result of James Lowes' brief tenure?

So from the 6 years he was in charge of the first team how many players have broken through from our youth set up to cement a regular first team place ? A regular first team place means someone that starts in the 13 on a regular basis and has made that shirt their own.

How many pivot players have we produced in that time frame ? We havn`t produced a full back, a stand off, a scrum half, a hooker or a loose forward in that time, Ben Harrison has played at 13 for a brief time but in my opinion he will eventually be a 2nd rower or prop. I wouldn`t call that a successful youth system that he left us with.

You are blaming Paul Cullen there for a problem that starts far before the players even arrive at the club. You may be surprised to also hear that recent changes to Service Area rugby will mean that players will now not play representtaiuve rugby in competitive games until U16s. For various reasons I am not going to comment on whether I think that will help the situation or not.

No, i`m blaming the development of the youth players whilst they were here.

Mark, surely you must question the ability of the coaching staff that Paul Cullen assembled in its failure to produce a single pivot player in 6 years to put pressure on first team players. Anyone in our first team that had either 1,6.7,9 or 13 on their jersey was not threatened at all by anyone in the reserves other than through an injury crisis, Harrison has had a run at 13 but that was originally down to injuries and like i said above i think he will be a 2nd rower or prop eventually.

As well as the pivot players we havn`t produced a single centre in 6 years either.

He left us with a squad that's 80 minutes away from getting to Wembley, that'll do for me.

The young players that he dripped into the first team, that have become regulars, are now becoming stars in the own right, Cooper & Harrison in particular. He was more than willing to give youth a go, so I'll just deem that during his tenure we had no pivots of a suitable standard. I'm sure he could have thrown another Gary Hulse at us, but what would that have proved.

We've had a centre Rob, Varkulis. We've had a fullback Rob, Riley.

If there were blokes in SL, that Cull had refused to play, in these positions that had left and gone elsewhere and were killing us, I'd accept your oint Rob, their isn't, so that'll be the reason why we've seen none in our side.

I just think he's easy to have a pop at, ultimately, he failed, sure. But for me, he left us in a good state.

I'm at a loss as to how the lack of halves or loose forwards is a damning indictment on the Reserve/Academy setup. Saints have done well to find one halback to (hopefully) come thorough in ten years. Leeds have been incredibly lucky to have McGuire and Burrow be in the same age bracket in the same time frame. One thing Paul Cullen should be commended for is getting the club to re-focus it's efforts on the junior setup.

That is my point, the problems run far deeper throughout schools, youth and junior rugby (and not just in this area).