Now that quite a bit of time has passed since Paul Cullen left the club, I wonder how most fans look back on his time in charge.
Do you regard him as a coach who took Warrington from being in a shambolic state to being a good, competitive side, and perhaps think of him as the architect of the excellent team that we have now, given that many of the players were signed by him?
Or do you consider him as a limited coach, under whom we would have continued to tread water and failed to win anything?
It would be interesting to know what everyone thinks about it.

a mixture of all of the above.

Saved us from relegation.. took us to the next level above... assembled a great team.. failed to take us to the next level... now coaching in the league below

I agree with Wirefan. Will Widnes keep him if they get a franchise?

not a chance.

Saved us from relegation & built the club up. Took us as far as he could.

I disagree, I believe we will and I think that's the reason Steve O'Connor gave him the job. There weren't many free coaches knocking around and one with 6 years experience in Super League got him the job. We couldn't expect to draw anyone one else better if we do go up.

I think with regards to you under Cullen, Simon Moran has as much to do with you getting better under Cullen as Cullen does.

TBH, if all you want is to be in superleague but not really hoping to win anything, then surley Cullen's the man for the jobicon_wink.gif

Not at all, without derailing the thread (someone mentioned Widnes!) we've got to be realistic. The general opinion of Cullen on here seems to be - got Wire out of the bottom 3/4 in the league, got them in the top half but couldn't kick on. Now if Widnes get a franchaise that's exactly what we need to do in the first 2-3 years. Cas did exactly that with Matterson last year.

AJ you are spot on. Cullen will do a good job. Like all coaches there's a time when change is needed. Without Cullens work and the signings he an Moran put together, Wire would not be the force they are today. By the time the next franchise is issued and Widnes get what they deserve Cullen will build a team worthy of that spot. After a couple of years in SL he will be replaced by a new breed and therefore progress will have been made by all.

Paul Cullen was the only person in the whole borough of Warrington who thought Michael Monaghan was a half back. Mr Smith soon put a stop to that nonsense. He made many mistakes the biggest of which was to employ his old playing mates on the coaching staff. If the rest of the RL world valued him as a coach he would have got a Superleague club appointment. He is now at a level commensurate to his ability. I can no longer stomach the man on Sky TV talking his psycho-babble bullshine. I switch off.

Would that be the likes of Gary Chambers, currently employed by Tony Smith as our u-18s coach?

Des Hasler thought he was ok as a scrum half.

Just because he uses long words and some technical language doesn't make it psycho-babble.

I think it is quite telling that he has yet to return to SL level coaching. I said at the time, and I'll say it again, when he was at Warrington he was coaching at the biggest club he ever would.

We can give him some, but not all, credit for signings. Oh and he saved us from relegation with P6 W2 D0 L4.

Some good comments here.
One thing that always struck me when Cullen was in charge was how he often used to talk about taking the emotion out of games. I can see what he was getting at, but it always seemed strange to me. You would think that someone Warrington born and bred would be able to use emotion in a very positive way, in terms of team motivation. But the spirit on show now, under Tony Smith, appears so much better than in the Cullen era.

Cull appeared to use the emotion of "Wigan Week" to good effect, but the emotion associated with St Helens' matches destroyed us.

Bit of a transitional coach at best to be honest. We've been through the ins and outs of his time so many times, but in short, he could never do anything more than take us to mid-table competitiveness and I agree with Wires74, I don't think he'll ever coach at a club as big as Warrington again.

Very true.

I think Cullen's problem was not knowing how to handle some players. When Smith came in he got rid of Gleeson and imo that sent the message through the squad that woke them up and made them work. The players new from that point that if they didn't try to achieve then he would bring players in that would.

I don't know whether Cullen tried to do the same or not, maybe he did but was not supported by the board.

When Smith came into Warrington I imagine that Cullen would've been watching events closely and may well have learnt a few things that he can use at Widnes. He could well prove to be a success at Widnes if they got a franchise.

People talk about him now like he never played for the club. I am not talking about this thread as it is obviously aimed at his coaching tenure. Just an observation in and around town whenever I hear anyone talking about him. I think it is a shame that people still hold some sort of childish grudge against him.

In 2005 he did coach us to 4th in the league, 1 point behind 3rd.

Admittedly he coached us to much more average positions than that during his time at the club but is this not demonstration enough he could have the ability somewhere to take a team to the 'next level'??

Thought that PC took us as far as he could of. With hindsight he should have
resigned earlier rather than let events carry on during 2008, when it was obvious that
everything was not right at the club.

Wish him all the best at Widnes and that he can take them back into superleague.

Tony Smith has shown was required as I never thought that we have the best defence in super league.

i only started watching 6 years ago so cullen was the only thing i ever knew....

He's a Warrington legend, and always will be.

I'm still a bit bitter about the way he was treated by supporters at the end of his days at Warrington, it was absolutely disgusting.

The bottom line is, he took us as far as he could, and that was still a hell of a long way.

An absolute legend as a player for us.The man oozed primrose and blue and played with a determination and desire that was largely unmatched by his peers.He gave his all for this club,on and off the pitch and i for one will be forever greatfull.
His time as coach had many highs and lows that largely mirrored the state of the club.But as the club has grown it probably just moved forward a pace faster than his coaching abilities allowed.He's a decent coach and good analyst and should be remembered for all the good things he did for us!

Said it loads of times. Coaches do different things in different scenarios. If you looked at Millward as a Wigan coach, you would think he was e. Noble now looks very poor compared to Maguire.

Coaches have different things to deal with. Cullen did a decent job IMO. People forget that when we moved into the HJ, we were still playing under the 50% salary cap rule, meaning we were still spending less than the top clubs. I think he had 2 years (maybe 3) of spending full cap.

As we have seen at Hull, who have been spending full cap longer than us, injuries and circumstance can completely cock you up. Leeds are showing that this year, despite people thinking they have far and away the best squad, and a champion manager.

I think it is a shame that once a manager has a bad run in a job then he is out of work at the top level.

I was really pleased he described Warrington as "well coached" tonight.