yep believe weve offered lee briers a 6 figure sum 2 year contract to tempt

him to widnes watch this space !

Not going to go through your whole post and evaluate all the signings pre and post Gleeson, some were crap before, and some were crap after. If you want a statement of intent, then the signing of Morley was the turning point for our club in terms of attracting class.

I'm not talking about how good they are I'm talking about whether or not they were 'big names'. Grose was better than Reardon ended up for us but Grose was a young NRL player at the wooden spoonists, Reardon was a GB fullback.

But yes it went up another level after getting Morley on board. Gleeson was a good player but not really a big personality in the game. In terms of world status Morley was probably the most high profile British player in the world when we signed him.

Widnes aren't going to sign loads of top players now they have Brown but they will be closer to where we were in the market after Gleeson. If they then back it up by signing Thurston on loan next year and then Roby in 2014 we know they're serious like us.

With Morley still undecided, perhaps Widnes will offer him a two year contract?

The problem at this stage of their development, is that Widnes will be paying well over the odds, salary-wise, for their signings.

Why would Brown leave Huddersfield, where he is an established 'star' of the team??.....Simple - Widnes are offering him 'silly' money.

I'm not saying they shouldn't, after all to make any progress they need to attract some better known and better quality players, but for the next few years they will go through the Wire 'Cullen Years', steadily bringing in some decent players, but probably paying a bit too.much for them.....What they ultimately will need is a top class coach - Betts is pretty hopeless and shows little sign of getting the something extra needed to be competitive.

I think if they are successful franchise-wise, which they should be with their owner's obvious support for the club, then I would reckon it will be about 2015 or 16 before we see a serious challenge from Widnes.

I think they are sticking their neck out a bit.

Brown is a good player, but nowhere near as stand-out in his position as were Gleeson or Morley when Wire signed them. We can guess he will also be the top earner at the Comics. A step up for them, sure, but, given that he's also cost a tranfer fee, not really a 'star' signing.

you're having a giraffe, he's a good signing for em

Brown is a decent player for them. But the worst part of Widnes' game is their defence. Kevin Brown isn't really going to improve that area for them. They need to sign some players who can tackle.

Brown's a "7out of10" SL player. He's very good on his day, but, there's a lot better out there.
He puts me (a little) in mind of Kevin Ellis. Very good against similar standard (in his position) players, but when he's up against quality, he's a bit Emporer's New Clothes, and he gets found out.

Make no bones about it, Brown is a good signing for the Demics, but on this season's showing, Widnes need a whole new side. THEY'RE AWFUL!.Today, they were oblitterated in the forwards (for 75% of the game), awful in broken play (when we had the ball). They look collectively like a side that's resigned to the fact they're 5hit3, and they can't do anything about it. Yes, they "blew hard" for the opening 10-15 mins of the second half, but after we got another try, they just went even worse.

Widnes don't need Brown, they need prayer, and I can't see the next 2 seasons being much different, even with Brown in the side.
Shame really, as we need a strong Widnes due to their travelling support (in the past).
We allready have, Cats, London who bring no-one to away games.
The travelling Leeds/Bradford contingents have dwindled MASSIVELY in the last 4 or 5 years.
SL NEED a side who take large numbers to away games. At this moment, the Widnes side are lucky to get anyone watching them.

It's forwards that Widnes need; a whole new pack in fact.

I like Kevin Brown as a player but it will take a lot more than him to sort that shower out...

i have commented this on the widnes board but what they are missing is a spine in the team that work together, they have a hooker playing halfback and what half backs they have are supporting halfbacks they have no leading halfback. Halfbacks have to mesh together like briers is a leading goes with myler as a supporting, sinfield and maguire etc (hence why they looked a bit better with o'brien in the team as he is a leading style halfback)

also they are lacking an intimidating forward we have morley, leeds have bailey, wigan have hock etc the best they have is cross and he just gives penalties as he cant control his aggression.

brown is a good start as he will bring a bit of leadership but they need a good pack and i hope the rumour of tickle going widnes is true as it will give them a bit of biff upfront.

I think they need a decent Super League coach more than anything.

ps they need to get rid of betts and bring cullen down from his cushy upstairs job

Sign all the players in the world, it matters not if the coaching staff are not of the required standard. As we have proven.

Sign all the players in the world, it matters not if the coaching staff are not of the required standard. As we have proven.

Why Cullen?.....Let's be honest, Betts is their equivalent of Plange, and Cullen would be their version of Cullen.....so why not just skip the under-acheiving period and instead get a top class coach in, a la Tony Smith?

Cullen was useful to us for his first 3 years, his last 3 was a waste of everybody's time.

Cullen is proven coach with sl experience that has connections for signing players

Some of these comments are pretty much what everyone was saying back when we signed Gleeson...

"The Dire will need a lot more than one player to make them competitive for trophies"

"The Dire won't win anything with Cullen in charge, they need a top coach"

Five years later we had a lot more players and Tony Smith as coach and we won the Challenge Cup. But we had to make the first move somewhere and so do Widnes and they've made it.

But realistically....do you expect Widnes as they are now, to be able to attract a top coach? Top coaches have earned the right to pick and choose their jobs and they wouldn't touch Widnes with a bargepole at the moment because it's a fast track to killing off a good coach's reputation - like when Mal Reilly came back from Newcastle Knights having won an Aussie Grand Final and took over Huddersfield....they finished bottom and got an 80 point beating from Leeds and Reilly never coached top flight rugby again.

A coach might be attracted to Widnes if they think they will have the financial muscle to sign a new team and be able to attract decent players so now Brown is there maybe they might be able to turn someone like Brian Noble's head. I agree that Widnes are probably paying over the odds for Brown but I bet we paid over the odds for Gleeson, Reardon and guys like that.

He ISN'T a proven coach.....I agree he may have connections, but once he has the players, he has no record at all of getting the best from them.

A Director of Rugby is as good as Cullen will ever get at Super League level....Let him lure the players to a club, but leave it to a decent coach to work the magic.

We'll be fine. He is just the 1st piece of the jig-saw regarding new signings, with a few players east of the pennines looking to come home the the west, certain goal kicking 2nd row.

Ben "the man mountain" Cross leaving?

He got man of the match for them in the league express report. Presumably for his line break, and then inability lo shake off a defender half his size.

One of Widnes' subs during the game showed that they shouldn't be an SL team, Ben Cross off, Steve Pickersgill on...