Some excellent points BUT Austin and Roberts in the same category,? I’m afraid I strongly disagree!

This is a good point for discussion.

I think the fan base would be more chilled out, because we had won the big one, so some of the short term angst about why have we spent all this money and never won it, would have gone.

Also being the coach to deliver our first GF would mean a certain section of the fanbase will always be on board, just like TS had his bitter-enders like me, who were still on board with him when we were in the bottom eights, or a certain section of the Liverpool fanbase forever reveres Rafa for winning the Champions League.

But for me the calculation about whether the coach is the right one or not isn't about giving a reward for past achievements, it's about whether the coach is better than the next best realistically available alternative, in terms of taking the club forward.

So if the other options are all crap, we have to be really dire, to get rid of the coach.
If Craig Bellamy or someone is available wanting a "fresh challenge" in the UK, then you have to be pretty sure about Price regardless of what he has won in the past.

And most importantly never fall in to the trap of just taking the punt on 'change' when you don't know what change involves, eg "why not make a change, it can't get any worse". It can always get worse. Or "we've done well, but we need someone different now to take us to the 'next level'". Hudds did this with sacking Paul Anderson. Hows the next level coming along?

This is crucial in the recruitment of a coach, or players. TS if not top of the list was certainly very close to it, I'm not sure about SP when he joined, but i doubt he was top of the list. We also had to be patient and wait for TS to become available. However, when you look back at Steve Anderson and David Plange, we are in a far better place than I think we realise.

We have much better resources than the Anderson and Plange era so I don't see that as a reasonable comparison.

Price can be expected to do better.

I'd give him a lot more leeway for having that trophy in the bag.

Yes, it's only winning one game, but trophy wins buy a lot of credit.

Man United fans put up with way more of Mourinho's dross football and alienating man management style than they would otherwise have done because he had a track record of winning trophies, which he transferred to United. They ran out of patience eventually, but extended him more patience than they would otherwise have done.

Well obviously it didn't buy Price much credit with the fans because I remember within weeks of that Challenge Cup final win everyone on here was slagging him off for dull rugby and failing in the playoffs after that long losing streak in the second half of the season.

I'm not a massive Price fan but I think his, and the team's achievement in winning the Challenge Cup has been understated. It is the only time I can remember us going up against a team that was clearly superior to us in a final and winning, it was a masterclass of negating a top team's strengths.

Comparisons don't always hold up, but that's why I think the United comparison is a fair one.

It's reasonable, given our situation and resources, to expect a team that plays coherent, decent rugby and a coach that actually improves players rather than them treading water or going backwards in some cases.

I’m all for the Wire and Wolfie media video. Wolfie is probably getting on for being the best known mascot in RL if not other sports too.
Well done KF for that area.
Anyways, there was a time where Aussies would likely be able to only name one SL team, whereas now, they may be able to name a handful and I think Wire would be the first choice in recall in most.

Yes, SP should be doing better (something one and all on here would agree with, I would have thought), and yes we have more resources than the Anderson/Plange era), but my point was to do with the next "available alternative". We'd crossed off 5 or 6 names before we got we got down to Steve Anderson, which did not improve on the coach we'd sacked. We should only replace Price when an available alternative, that improves us a club, becomes available. I'm hopeful that we have somebody lined up for 2022, already, but not holding my breath.

All hypothetical MPN but what would you do IF we managed to win the GF with Price in charge?

Would we want to miss out on a coach upgrade to a Bellamy I understand that lining someone up isn't the same as having them signed but in those circumstances would Price be retained or still bulleted/moved on by mutual agreement with an 'excuse' that anyone could coach that squad with Inglis on fire, Widdop clicking, the new look bench being a force, the luck we've had with injuries, the young lads kicking on a bit like some Leeds fans that put their success down to Peacock Sinfield and Maguire rather than McDermott?

It's all about who is best placed to deliver a successful title defence. If we had just won the title with Price in charge, then we probably had a coaching approach that was working to get the best out of this squad so any kind of change would be a risk. Even a coach with a great track record in the NRL like Bellamy, wouldn't come with a slam dunk guarantee that it would transfer over to Super League. And also with a new coach there would be a transition period where it took a while for the squad to adjust to his approach. Usually a new coach comes in when things have gone wrong under the old coach so there is patience during the adjustment process, but if you've gone from being champions to struggling early the next season, the pressure comes on from the start. You see this when coaches leave voluntarily on a high - like when Graham Murray left Leeds to take over the Roosters and they struggled to adjust to Dean Lance, or after Ferguson left United.

And if you really felt that the squad was so good that "anybody could coach it to success" then you wouldn't go chasing a big name who would probably want big money...you'd just let the current coach's contract come to the end then you'd appoint one of the assistants to replace him on cheaper wages.

The only reason you'd replace the coach after winning the GF (other than if he was leaving voluntarily to take an NRL job etc) would be if he was toxic in the dressing room. If you were the owner/CEO and players were saying "we've won this title in spite of the coach, not because of him" you may make a change like Wigan did after they won the Double with John Dorahy.

If only we had problems like this UR! That's a win, win scenario, where I would have a nice block of shares in Harvey's Bristol Cream.

I think that was my point Sally having the best available coach isn't a guarantee of success and success isn't a based on a singularity there are many factors some of which are beyond anyone's control even a Ferguson who absolutely picked the right time to go. He'd earned that right by creating a winning dynasty but you could argue that him and Gill going together really hampered the next coach.

I'm not so sure that IF Price won it he'd get the full credit I think it'd buy him another year maximum before a hypothetical thread announcing the arrival of Pepenhuyzen and the Bromwich brothers to Warrington was derailed by a new coach thread if we made a poor start.

IF Price won it, I'd support him for longer.

That's what top coaches and players do, they work on things that give them the slim advantage required amongst fierce competition to actually win rather than come 2nd or 3rd or 4th.

Who remembers, for example, who came 2nd in the league between the years of 1989 and 1996? Most people could probably tell you Saints were in there a couple of times, Bradford Northern, Widnes... (who really cares now?) But everyone can still tell you Wigan were the champions.

The problem some people have is he isn't really a proven winner and isn't really looking like one.

This will also be an issue.

Remember how Leicester City sacked Ranieri, the season after they'd won the league.

If they'd got in Guardiola or Ancelotti who had won their first title, I doubt they would have sacked him even if they'd been in the same position that next season as they were with Ranieri. It was easy to think "well, coulda been a fluke", which is probably why Price doesn't get enough recognition for the CC win at this point.

Maybe if we win the GF next season, that CC win will start to take on more significance, and people would say...ok took over a team that had been in the bottom 8s, first year 2 finals, second year CC win, third year disappointment but pandemic, fourth year GF win....not bad.

But equally this all feels like rather strange speculation its a bit like me musing on whether if I get my missus pregnant next year, I would stick with her if I could upgrade to a 21 year old model. Even though my criteria for deciding would be well thought through she would probably just get stroppy about the whole concept.

I'm going to view this season open minded, price could well be improving as a coach all the time, I hasten to add I haven't really seen any real evidence of this though. The way we restarted the season really took me by surprise and if we play like that then price gets my full backing, I'll have absolutely no complaints about that sort of entertainment, even if we were to fall short having played well in the playoffs but beaten by a better side on the day.

It's also a (probably greater) possibility that if we were to win it, we would snatch the grand final win with a surprise good performance on the day (like the cup in 2019) having bored us to death all season playing poorly, looking very disjointed and completely toothless in attack.

I suppose we will just have to see which version of prices wire turn up. I'll be straight on the moan if they are as dreadful as we have been for the majority of prices tenure.

If he can change the mentality of the team and actually improve the attack i'll keep supporting him. But we have gotten worse for large portions which i find really weird. Like the start of last season for about the first 7-8 games we looked amazing then suddenly for no apparent reason went 5h!t and have never recovered since, It was absolutely weird. We clearly have the ability and skill so why does it keep disappearing? This is the last year i have any patience with him, we've signed players we needed, offloaded some we don't so we should be good to go. I'm excited for this season and i have a great feeling but this is a definate make or break year for price i think.

Came here to read about GI... and instead it’s pages of the same old.

Do your job mods.

A great oak has many branches.

I'm sorry that you didn't find the editorial content that you were looking for and I apologise for my own non GI contributions on this particular thread.

However it's a been a little slow on the news front, he's landed was he at Lymm Dam or Thelwall? This also applies in general with no matches and performances to comment on so it was fairly obvious that threads might drift particularly as there is some extended preseason inactivity.

We do seem to get hijacked (more than normal at the moment) by someone moaning about Price/Management/Lack of Trophies etc.

Phew...if you’d have said lack of prop size, I’d have had no hiding place. Anyways, such as might have had some resolve now.

No worries Rubber. BUT ... I do blame you for us having 407 props on our books.
I can always see a love of the Wire shining through on all your comments.

Nowhere to be seen in the friendly game against Widnes this week. Rumours of a calf strain already.

No country for old men.