I wonder if they offered to put the result through an algorithm to correct the score?

Yes. Remember back in the 2000s, everyone used to say the only reason RL was not bigger was because of poor marketing from the RFL. You could say "the product on the field is fantastic, why are we not introducing it to a wider audience" and everyone would nod in agreement.

Can you imagine trying to convince rugby league fans of that now?

I remember Jon Wilkin getting slated for being the first player within the game to speak out about the game being in decline. People said he was bitter and it was him in decline. He was bang on right.

When looking at our stats I am rather shocked that we are;

4th on clean breaks (only 7 clean breaks behind Wigan who are top)
1st on offloads with 147, no team is anywhere near us on that. Toronto the closest with 115.
4th on metres made.

I'm not too concerned when a team makes mistakes, hopefully they are mistakes when we are pushing for a try rather than silly unforced errors though. Saints are top on errors for example.

Last year and this year we keep giving away too many penalties, and certainly picking up the cards.

I would love us to be constantly playing exciting rugby, and scoring tries like Lineham's but with a short season and it being a top 4 those 2 points are more important than ever.

re. Stats
"4th on clean breaks (only 7 clean breaks behind Wigan who are top)
1st on offloads with 147, no team is anywhere near us on that. Toronto the closest with 115.
4th on metres made."
The stats are a real eye opener. I have always thought that a teams own supporters are usually the most critical of their own team & individuals in it. We bang on about us just how bad we are playing but perhaps we are not so bad. We have very high expectations about how good we ought to be & how we ought to play.
Having said that ... there must be some stats which suggest that we kick it up in the air a lot on the last tackle & how few passes we do when we get within ten yards from the line. It can't just be our own supporters & Phil Clarke who think we are a bit boring.

Well I'd be very worried if he didn't and he was happy with that on Saturday.

Price out please.

After this crazy year it is nice to see signs of normality returning again and having "Price Out" debate on here is one of them.

How about Ian Watson, should we get him in before a top club snaps him up.

I'd take Bubba Watson over Price.

He's pretty much nailed on for whichever of the Wigan/Wire/Saints jobs comes up first, isn't he?

I'd take him right now over Price. Even if Price somehow got a trophy or two this season, with the quality of entertainment on offer, I'd still get shut.

If Stephen Kearney is available, then I'd sound him out too. Bit of kiwi flair might make a change from the dirge we are presently being served up.

I'd take Vincent Price (even him his current state or even Katie) over Steve

When interviewed SP just does not inspire me. Communication skills are a key arrow in ones quiver when managing people. When listening to other coaches being interviewed, for the most part, they demand your attention and often show hints of insight whilst obviously being mindful of who they are talking to and what they are saying. With SP I just do not get any of that.

I think you are giving "other coaches" a bit too much praise. I reckon they all seem pretty mundane after a while ... just like commentators. It is difficult to be original.
After some games there really is something to say but to have a microphone thrust into your face before & after every game is not easy.
Because we watch our own teams so closely we become "less inspired" pretty quickly. I'd guess that many of our supporters didn't think much of Tony Smith or Paul Cullen or even David Plange.

You could be right there Smiffy27. The mysterious 'they' do say "familiarity breeds contempt". Well I certainly don't hold any contempt for SP but just find him and sadly his team or 'our' team a bit boring. My concern is that he is boring the players to death as well..

I'm not a Price apologist but this is not an ordinary season and whilst I agree that our rugby has been stilted for some time but why don't we wait until nearer the end of it before sacking the coach? I think that would be fair.

You'd be up for relieving Price of his duties if we "somehow got a trophy or two this season" How would that work if one of those trophies was a GF win, would your judgement still be based on excitement rather than results, a metric which seemed to work against his predecessor?

I get your frustration but perhaps you think that Warrington should follow the Juventus model, or that this year's GF win is as worthless as an algorithmically set A Level grade

Reality is that clubs cannot afford to sack a coach as quickly as one or two might want. If the criteria for sacking was that some fans want it ... not many coaches would last past the honeymoon period of about three months. Watson seems to remain relatively popular at Salford probably because they half expect to be near the bottom of the league each year ... they have low expectation.
Simply put ... you can't keep sacking your coach ... it costs too much.

As I've said before, Price has his eggs all in one basket, which is that if he doesn't deliver trophies , then he hasn't the consolation of at least providing a half decent watch for the fans.

He actually might get away with it this season if he gets a CC or SL crown, as there are no paying spectators, but in a normal season would he get away with the inevitable drop off in crowds if the decline in quality RL continues as it has for quite a while now?

I know we, as a club, are desperate to get the monkey off our backs with regards to a SL crown, but is having to put up with absolutely awful RL in order to do it, really what we fans want?

We have had 4 coaches in the last 18 years. I'd suggest that we are actually too loyal to them.

I actually think we look less than the sum of our parts at the moment, which is the reverse of what I think a coach should achieve. I wouldn’t sack him now though, may as well let this bizarre season run its course and then take stock.

re. Slot Metre
You are right. 4 coaches in 18 years isn't that many. But at the moment,I reckon, we will have to be careful how we spend our money.
What will be worth watching is what happens at Hull. They have very high expectations.

Dita thanks for the reply I'm by and large in agreement with it. However, it's not what you were advocating in your previous post get rid now at all costs can't be solution in this year of all years can it.

It's a truncated format and will will likely be as the at the top at the finish as it is now with 6 or 7 teams going for 4 play off places. Whilst not excited by the displays I've seen so far i'm hoping that our squad and general play will improve we certainly have the personnel.

I'm not saying that we will win it BUT if this was a Leeds or Wigan of old, some might comment that the sign of a top side is to pick up the points in close fought games whilst not playing particularly well....watch out when they click at the business end of the season

Here's hoping that this applies to us but if it doesn't out of the cup finish 5th then judgments can be made sooner rather than later for me

I think fans get too caught up in this stuff about how a coach comes over to the media. If you're winning, anything a coach says will be hailed as the words of a genius. If you're losing, anything he says will just irritate fans further. If Liverpool had finished 16th in the league, imagine what a prat people would think Klopp was. They would say stop trying to be a philosopher on life and learn to coach football.

I don't think a coach has to be someone who could do a Ted talk to inspire players. We're not talking about managing a sales team that you have to energise at 8am every day. They are managing northern working class lads and aussies who want to be dealt with straight and can see through fakes. Guys like Shaun Wane, Daryl Powell, Brian McDermott, are never going to be charismatic media personalities. What you can sense with them is authenticity. They understand the game and they aren't going to bullpoop a player. They don't have to work to get respect because players will automatically give it to them, and you can imagine that if you're in a dressing room and one of the players starts moaning about one of those coaches the other players will tell them to wind it in.

Fans didn't always like them either. McDermott had a large "McDermott out" campaign amongst Leeds fans every year that they were winning trophies. Over on the Wigan board there was always a lot of debate about Wane, strangely he seems to be more highly rated by Wire fans than Wiganers.

I was looking forward to the media interviews with "Sean Edwards" but it was not to be.
He takes no crap from whoever is dishing out the usual twaddly questions.
Well worth watching.

We won't win anything playing as we do now. Only seriously better performances will take us past Pies/ Saints/Cas/ Catalans and one or two others ( Hudds are still improving). I'm with Rico here insofar as no improvement = no trophies, but grinding out a few wins to build confidence is no bad thing right now. Have you noticed that, when 'set-free' of the game plan by an opportunity from deep ( like Lineham's and Widdop's tries) we can look inspired, skillful and daring? We need to work to release more of that.

We have scored a few from a distance & Widdop/King/Lineham are looking, relatively, exciting. Don't worry I have not gone totally mad.
Widdop's jink off his left foot (for that try) was a cracker.

As you say, we can do it. Let's hope for more of it

There's little value in changing coaches at the present time. Leave it until this season is done and dusted and nothing to play for. Then we'll just have to hope that the next appointee can win stuff while the team play entertaining rugby.