Just reading through the last few pages and having a little chuckle to myself.
I will admit Steve McNamara was my no1 choice as mentioned previously.
I will back Burgess and hopefully he will be a success.
What makes me smile the fans who are dishing the appointment back at the beginning of this thread were backing Michael Monaghan.
Say no more.

Like I said, you aren't a supporter. You have given up, which is fair enough - You just spout negativity and expect failure, which is a desperately sad mindset over something relatively trivial like following a sports team.

The whole essence of supporting a team is to follow through thick and thin and to give support even when it seems hopeless.

Your whining does make you come across like an entitled child.

We don't need a coach who has won with somebody else, we need a coach that will win with us. Nobody can know whether any appointment is good or bad until we can look back retrospectively and assess the squad performances. This feels like a huge freshen up from what we have been through recently. Powells Wire was far too easy to work out and play against, let's hope that the new regime will be much better.

NothingBurger
Longy
Gleason

The rehab unit at the Halliwell Jones Medical Centre are gonna be busy
Some of you lot are gonna lose your appointments

I think if you read the guardian first then you would be right but given you didn't and therefore didn't het the whole picture, reading it twice would have been quite useful, playing mata'utia is totally pointless.

So seems to be differing opinions regarding whether it’s Long or Gleeson or both. Some saying Long to Cas but that would be insane that would be a backwards step from Featherstone.

Try and answer this would you have supported the appointment of McNamara as our coach following his first stint at Bradford's academy, or his stint as Bradford's Head Coach, or at the end of the McBanana years with England, or now his Catalans team are looking like the real SL deal?

I'm not saying your choice is wrong BTW but it does illustrate that giving a coach their head and a chance with a big job isn't straightforward

The issue with this appointment isn't that he is a first time head coach. Holbrook, Maguire, Tony Smith were all assistants in the NRL and came here and did well. Going back further, Trent Robinson, Matthew Elliot and Shaun McRae.

The issue is that he comes with the kind of baggage that would be screaming red flags if he was a player. Loads of driving offences, fined by the NRL for taking drugs and threatening another player. You need the coach to have a higher level of character and reliability, like Holbrook, Maguire and those guys do.

This appointment feels like a bit of a gimmick like you get football clubs appointing guys like Di Canio or Lee Bowyer or Joey Barton as manager.

I also don't want Gleeson here as coach. Whilst I liked him as a player, he was part of the culture problem that hampered us in the Cullen era and everybody generally accepts that it was right for TS to move him on (although he did win Super League with Wigan). If we have Burgess and Long or Long/Gleeson it doesn't feel like we're going to sort out the culture does it.

We've ALWAYS been known as a drinking club, and to have those 2 (potentially) coming here, is a recipe for disaster. Wasn't Long referred to as the George Best of St Helens. I've heard some tales regarding Gleeson, too.
A couple of party animals. Great.

Burgess' charge sheet doesn't make pretty reading, either. He's here, now. I'm not overly impressed, but we've got him.

Good luck. He (and us) will need it.

On reflection I am delighted with this appointment. This guys an absolute winner. When I read the rest of the clubs laughing and mocking the appointment it only strengthens my belief.

In the immediate future, is understood the club are set to bring in an additional coach to assist Chambers and Richard Marshall, who will remain as assistant coach when Burgess takes over, for the rest of the year.

A second assistant coaching appointment is set to be announced in due course, the club have said.

Reading that does that mean Marshall will not be part of the first team coaching at the end of the year.

The back-rower, who also won five Test caps for England in union during an ill-fated spell with Premiership side Bath, will have ex-Salford and Halifax boss Richard Marshall as an assistant



That was copied from the BBC site

The press release says "Richard Marshall will remain as assistant coach with a further update about a second assistant to be announced in due course"

Burgess, long/gleeson and marshall sounds good to me. I'd prefer long because on the pitch he was one of the best at organising an attack and controlling field position that I've ever seen.

So was Briers.
But when he was an assistant to Steve Whatsisname, our rugby was, at best, turgid

Yeh didn’t we just hate that in his playing days

Still preferred Briers but Long maybe had a better team around him in his time.

Longs manager said he's not coming here, and said they've had no contact with us.

I was a big critic of Briers in his time with Price. But when he moved to Wigan and now over in the NRL I feel like Price handcuffed him and was bent on defensive structures more.

Did he say why he got sacked then

No but i'd say he has something lined up elsewhere as Sacking him in the position they are in is weird.
I'm happy with Burgess as he's no better or worse on paper than anyone else who is ACTUALLY available. And he might attract some players to us, all the best to him and we'll see how he does, only time will tell

Briers is doing just fine now by all accounts, he was well thought of at Wigan last season as well. Let's face it the best assistant coach in the world wouldn't look at all capable if they were working under a poor head coach. I don't judge marshall over what he did with Powell because the head coach was a poor fit for the club and squad. He did well under Holbrook and Smith though and has good experience working with really well functioning teams from those days.

While he is still in Aus hopefully he can find us some centres.

Welcome Sam….

Don’t listen to the moaners on here, use your remaining time in Australia to recruit a couple of centres and a hooker (bin the Dwyer deal off and release Dufty).

If our lazy players continue to shy away from the hard work, like they have for the last 5 years, then you have my permission to use a bit of tough love and that 6’5” frame of yours…..

Good Luck

I was a bit baffled when I heard Burgess mentioned.
One thing that is for certain though is that there will be young men at the club that will give it their all to be the best that they can be. There will be players like Thomas, Green etc etc will be thinking what do I have to do to get into that team. There will be players like Nicholson, Walker, Thewlis, Wrench, Ashton that have looked up to him watching him when they were kids with a broken cheekbone in that grand final. Then there is probably players like Currie and Williams that have been in an England camp with him.
You would hope that we would rarely have to question effort. The unknown is the technical ability
Looking forward to another ride on the rollercoaster.

Next coaching duo: Garry Schofield with Andy Gregory as his assistant. Imagine the quality of rugby we would play with them.

Or if we want a more recent ex player, with the standing in the game who would be able to command huge respect from every body in the dressing room - Keiron Cunningham.

I'm sorry, but I'm totally skeptical about this appointment. Remember the last assistant coach we recruited from the NRL because apparently he was ripping it up? He won us a challenge cup and knocked saints out the playoffs yet a lot of us still talk about his tenure like it was the first coming of (not Robert) Powell! And now we've recruited another NRL assistant, one with even less experience than the last one. And why? Because he was a great player and is doing a decent job thus far?

It's a huge punt/gamble, one that attracts a lot of attention from beyond RL journalism and puts us and Burgess under the microscope with other fans, pundits and a large section of our own supporters. It could end in a terrible mess and once again we could be the laughing stock of the sport. We're desperate for success, let's be honest. Now we've signed up to be the place Sam Burgess cuts his teeth. An experiment, a proving ground.

I hope his mum is still fit, cus, honestly, I can't find another positive about this move. I dunno, maybe bookmark this post until October 2024 and rub it in my face, but I don't see it happening.