This,

Can someone read this thread back and tell me whether my opinion on this thread was IN or OUT? I don’t mind contradicting myself but generally prefer not to do so on the same thread, it makes me look fickle/indecisive.

Neither

It wasn't aimed at you particularly; just a general observation that the support and criticism of Powell on this thread and others, was more evenhanded, almost constructive more considered, less personal, you could say more grown up.

Whether you're an 'inny' or 'outy' we should recognise that we all have the same aspiration for the club

The Wigan fans in work are saying Mike Cooper has refused to play for Powell again and is demanding his move to Wigan is made immediately. Wardle also signing for them as he's been unimpressed with the Warrington setup and wants out. The same rumours seem to be on the Wigan board and Twitter too. Wigan fans getting delusional again, or something in it?

Saints rlfans forum down again is it?

Half delusional

Powell:

"Mike Cooper is fine. I've just decided to give young players a bit more of an opportunity."

Wardle looked like he was hating it on Sunday. I think he was so angry that he expressed his frustration through his rugby, in the same way Kevin Bacon did with his ‘angry dance’ through the town in the movie Footloose. I swear when Wardle put Ashton away I saw him silently mouthing a Kenny Loggins song.

Pick him for Wigan away, stop off at Burtonwood Services for a comfort break and see whether he gets back on the bus

Do they go past Burtonwood on the way to Wigan?

This utter clown needs to head out and take Sheridan with him.

I don't understand if Powell wants us to play with pace or none at all. Does he want us to actually implement a kicking game or not. Does he want us to play with an attacking structure or just throw the ball around until Mata'utia inevitably drops the ball, a player who offers absolutely nothing, and somehow is meant to REPLACE JAKE MAMO!!! Just think about that for a minute.

This is also the only season we have really complained about Toby King's defence, but his attacking form has been slowed by Powell. If our backs were made up of Thewlis, Wrench, Mamo, King, Ashton, Williams and Ratchford under Price, were a Top 4 side easily. Anyone still pretending Price wasn't good enough is lying to themselves. If he was in charge of next seasons team we'd be scary.

Since Powell took over Castleford in 2013, his average League position is worse than ours in the same time. His being 5.6 and ours at 4.1, with 2 different coaches. While he only finished higher than us in 4/9 seasons... And we are supposed to make progress with a coach that hasn't even been better than us in the last decade? He hasn't even made the playoffs for the last 2 seasons.

All the stats aside, you can clearly see his attacking style or structure does not work. But I'm sure we'll work hard in training this week guys, so it's all under control.

Powell has ripped the heart out of this team. Whether players who have left or leaving haven’t performed is debatable, but perhaps in some areas warranted criticism, but look at what we have, a fractured team, with no cohesion. It’s got to be more than a bad apple or two, for me it’s Powell and his cohorts.

The way this club is heading we could be re-signing some of our rejects for next year's Championship campaign.

Why would our 'rejects' want to play for a disorganised Championship club who can't string 2 wins together?

At work so this'll be brief. I'm not attempting to defend Powell too much after that first half - dreadful.

Point 1: with all the changes and young players, it's going to take at least a season to get those combos working.

Point 2: those stats aren't really compatible as Powell was working on a much lower budget.

Point 3: Powell track record has shown he is a renowned attacking coach ie classy cas.

What I will have a go at is the effort in the first half - appalling and disrespectful to the fans.

I was critical of Price and thought he should have gone the year before he did, however, I don’t think there was ever a time when I questioned if the players were playing for him, and never did I question their effort. What I did question under Price was the ability to attack in opposition 20m zone.

This lot, maybe no all of them, but a big group of them aren’t playing for Powell and there will be a reason for that.

Do you think the players performed for him in each of the 3, 1st round, home knockouts to teams with much smaller budgets?

At least Price's team got to the playoffs to have the chance to disappoint. We're getting a whole season of it under Powell.

Do I think they performed? No

Do I think they put a shift in and tried (but failed miserably) to execute Prices game plan? Yes

He's been here just over half a season tasked with a total restructure - what were you expecting?

Price had 4 seasons and presided over dismal rugby with the fans leaving in droves and 3 failures at the first stage. Virtually every player became less effective under his coaching too; help me out, who improved apart from (ironically) Toby King?

Who would you get in then?

Or if you didn't want him in in the first place, who would have been your pick?

Price's game plan was 5 drives and a hoof to Toby King, so it was executed to perfection - I didnt see anything else. Are you really telling me that Price was quite a tactician and coach, it's just the players we're unable to carry out his attacking masterstrokes?

No, if you can read you will see that I wanted Price out (at least) a year before he left the club at the end of his contract. To be honest I thought he should have gone before we won the CC, but credit to him for getting that win.

Price was limited and as I said, any attacking threat inside the oppositions 20 was often completely missing, to the extend that I often wondered what they were practising during training!

What I don’t doubt though was that the players were trying for him, they were trying to execute his miserable game plan. That’s the point.

What really worries me here is we're quite far in to the rebuild in terms of the volume of new players brought in. So if we're hoping "at least we'll have a completely different side when Powell has refashioned it", we're looking at a lot of that side now. And it doesn't fill me with much hope.

During the Price era I would look at our squad and think - this squad is not as good as people think it is, a lot of these players are overrated, there aren't any leaders there, it's not a team that can win Grand Finals.

Now I'm looking at this squad and thinking - these guys just aren't very good. It's a mediocre team which has mid table feel at best. There's no wow factor there that makes me think we're reshaping the squad into a team that will challenge the teams at the top. We look like we are rebuilding the squad by moving players out and bringing lesser ones in.

Firstly, don't attempt to patronise me - rather pathetic.

When making the comparison between Price and Powell's tenure, to me, you've insinuated that Price is the better coach/your preferred coach because the players put in more effort:



Why use Price as a comparison to back up your argument against Powell if you didn't rate him?

Just to clarify, are you saying Powell is better or worse than Price?

If Price is better, based on the efforts players were putting in, we may as well have employed Mr Motivator given Price's tactical nouse.

.