In all likelihood Powell will coach to our worst ever performance in SL. Actually, to me, it is a moot point whether that is down to the quality of the squad of Powell himself. Maybe you are right in that the difference is that I am not going to accept that finishing (effectively) bottom could be considered in any way a success. The squad needs to improve and despite what you are saying we need a SL standard coach. The evidence that Powell is a SL standard coach is very weak indeed.

Roy - out of interest, how many Quins games have you watched this year?

Anyone know how many times we've been on the box? I think it's just 3 games, including Cardiff.

Out of interest with that squad what do we think Mike Mcguire(Wigan coach) could have achieved?

Scrape into playoffs.

Maybe I didnt make it clear - I'm not saying Powell is a success, I'm saying its no surprise his win rate is even worse than Mac's as he arguably has had a weaker squad to work with.

I was responding to Roy Haggerty who does seem to think Powell is a success and has had mostly positve results

So which of his assessments of Quins players do you disagree with, looks pretty much spot on for me.

Nobody is trying to say that Quins are one of the top sides - hence my statement that I believe the current crop of players are worthy of 8th place, or at least being competitive and challenging for 8th place rather than languishing at the bottom of the table.

Melling, O'Callaghan, Bailey, Krasniqi, Golden and Burnett would get into any of the bottom 6 sides on relative current form. Maybe they wouldn't be star signings, but they would get a game. Like DSWG has mentioned, I wonder how much RH has seen of us this year. There is no way that I would consider Krasniqi a decent player if I hadn't seen his recent performances at The Stoop. Same goes of O'Callaghan.

The fact that is upsetting is that were aren't even competitive amongst the bottom 6 sides, and every week, the result is a forgone conclusion. This is unacceptable.

But if you think that Quins are worthy of 8th place, then you think they're better than 6 other sides. Even though all 6 of those sides put more £££ on the field every week than Quins, you just need to look at the line-ups to see how unlikely that is. Line up the Quins line-up this week against the line-ups of Wakefield, Crusaders, Bradford, Salford, Hull KR and Hull. Now compare them man for man. Those are the teams Quins would have to be consistently better than to get 8th. You could swap Hull for Cas, and the result would still be the same. The only team in the competition whose squad comes close to being as weak as Quins is Wakey.

Even the most lunatic one-eyed Quins fan wouldn't suggest that Quins are putting out a better team than all those sides week on week. If you genuinely are basing your opinion that RP has failed as a coach because Quins didn't finish 8th, then I think you're opinion is unreasonable beyond doubt. If you were to say that you had hoped we'd finish with more wins than Wakey and Crusaders, then fair enough.

One minute you are a St Helens supporter, next you are refering to Harlequins as "we". What is it to be?

My opinion was that we could perhaps scrape into 8th, not that we are worthy of it because of the players down on paper. What is the point of even competiting if you are basing opinions on the names on the team sheet? On paper, Leeds are a far better side than Castleford, yet beat them in extra time. The week after, they put 50 points past them. Are the names on the Leeds team sheet 50 points better than Castlefords?

Are you telling me that it is impossible for a coach to get more out of a player than what they are exhibiting?

No-one hear is saying that the 2011 squad is play-off material, what the consensus seems to be is that there seems to be consistent errors in defence, poor control of the ball and an almost static flat line of attack. All of these standards at times seem more appropriate of teams in Championship One, rather than the Championship. Rob Powell has not properly addressed any of the issues which should have been looked at to keep a weak team competitive and to have a fight at winning every game they play.

I support Quins in every game except the ones against saints. My birthplace is St Helens, but my home, family and 20 years of rugby league have been in London. It's possible to have dual citizenship, you know...

Of course it's not impossible for a coach to get more out of players. As I've said on this thread, there are clearly some coaches who are doing so consistently - Maguire and Smith for instance. Also, in any one game, you can get a result which confounds player value. That's why it's a sport and not a balance sheet. But over the course of a season, the aggregate results will be much closer to the respective value of players. If Quins had finished 8th this year, RP would have consistently managed to get the worst squad in the league to outperform better players and better teams. That would make him some sort of genius. But it never happens. In 30 years of watching RL, I've never seen a bottom club come close to winning the league - the Cup, yes, because of the one-off nature of the games, but never the league. The best squads finish at the top, and the worst at the bottom. Which is why Salford, Cas, Wakey have struggled every year to compete over the season. At the beginning of SL, Broncos had a very strong squad. Then their squad was middling in value, so they bumped around the middle of the table. Now it's the weakest in the league. They're going to finish at or near the bottom. No coach, no matter how experienced, can do anything about that. As I've said at the start, of this thread, Quins were never in competition for 8th. They were in competition for 11th-14th at best.

In your opinion.

Indeed so. But some opinions are worth more than others.

Roy - you didn't answer my question. How many times have you seen Quins play this season, on or off the box?

I agree with your assessment of a lot of our players, but it would be interesting to know if you actually watch our team play.

OTS - Eddie Hemmings got on my wick last night when he kept going on about poor Saint Helens. Yeah, we should feel so sorry for them with only a mere 8 or so internationals in their side!

answer - three games including CArdiff and that's because it is VITAL for SKY TV to have a team in London. Thank God they forgot we existed as it has been dismal this year.

As far as Powell is concerned, we may not have been expected to produce the results with the team we have on paper but as a fan I did expect to see pride, passion, determination and effort each time they stepped on the pitch and I would have forgiven poor results and thought they had done their best. AS we have not seen any commitment I feel cheated and robbed and angy at being down the bottom of the league because we have a team who really don't care, don't put in effort and know the coach has the same ideas as them and totally lacks knowledge and motivation.

How can a coach who is so naive coach the class of player we are to have next year, good players need good coaches and that is something we do not have. If Powell had any pride or dignity he would suggest going back to assistant coach to learn his trade from someone who knows what they are doing and not from the crumbs thrown from McD's table. Powell probably can be a good coach in the future if he gets the advice and training he needs

Majority of our players would do very well in a top five club. Not all together obviously but they are as individuals not bad players. Majority of SL Coaches could get more out of them within certain circumstances. But the whole set up is far too evian than is normal. We are were we deserve to be. And even with suggested replacements will be in exactly the same place unless the set up changes.

Answer is 3 TV + 3 Live = 6. PLus, of course, I've painfully watched every try they've conceded, and the rather fewer they've scored, on the highlights reels.



Sorry, but this is nonsense. The majority of Quins players would only get a contract at a top 5 club as a water carrier. No matter how much I want that not to be true, it is.

I tell you what, I would love to see the reaction of the supporters towards their coach of an established Northern side if they had the win/loss record we have. Hull FC are in the playoffs and their supporters have been demanding that their coach be relieved of his duties for at least 2 years.

There would be riots up north if any side had our playing record for the last six years...............

Im the same but even against Wire I want the Quins to win

I will be wearing a Quins shirt Saturday and a Leeds shirt the week after

Yeah Dave, I wouldn't wear a Quins shirt at the CCF as you might be abused as I was by a so-called Leeds fan last year (he was speechless when I said Ive watched every game at the Stoop and the CCF was only the 2nd game he'd seen Leeds live all year)

That's why I don't like finals. Too many so-called fans crawling out of the woodwork where the hell are these people the rest of the year?

Oh I've wore Quins shirts at all of the finals I have been to in the past few years, never had a problem



I can't wait for the Challenge Cup final personally...

I'm glad for you Dave. I just can't get excited by two of the same old teams contesting and if I'm honest, I don't want to put any of my cash into those two clubs (particularly one of them!)



Anyhoo, maybe there will be fun to be had in watching Brian Mac squirming (as if) in his post match interview...