I honestly don't think he'd have a problem getting a job closer to his new home. He's settled. His eldest is playing down there and his others are going through school.

That being said, if he was willing to spend some time as Wane's assistant then I'd take him in a heartbeat.

I don't have a view on whether or not it would be a good thing to have Andy Farrell back in a coaching role. However for the life of me I cannot understand the antipathy shown towards him by some of the posters on this forum. Here is a man who gave fantastic service to this club in a long and distinguished career during which he achieved legendary status. That he chose to cash in at the end of that career by taking the easy and plentiful money available in R.U. is no reason for animosity to be directed towards him. Funnily enough I never read on here any expressions of horror when, as it has often been promulgated, that Sean Edwards could return not that I have anything against the idea. We should be proud of the achievements of these local born lads and extremely thankful they chose to play the bulk of their career at our club.

Just for completeness, Edwards signed Lee Smith from Leeds to RU. The fact that turned into a bit of a disaster for both parties may help explain why he never poached from RL again.

I think the issue non-Wigan fans - including me - have with Farrell is that he helped lure Burgess to RU whilst he was a guest of the RFL during the RL WC. That to me was putting his self-interest ahead of the game that made him.

In pure rugby terms, I wouldn't consider an RL coach who hadn't been involved in the game for a decade as a likely first team coach, let alone someone who has zero experience in coaching senior RL.

Agree with you about Lee Smith. I always felt that he was a very talented player who should have stuck with Leeds. Maybe he does too. (BTW about halfway through last season he started posting on the Wakey boards, all his posts are about what a great player Lee Smith is

)

Burgess is his own man. People are talking as if going to Union wouldn't have occurred to him unless Faz had poached him.

Rugby League is a far simpler game to coach. Faz knows more about RL than the vast majority. A spell as an assistant and he would be up to speed in no time.

club legend but isnt qualified and has absolutely no business being anywhere near an RL first team

One of the things a new coach has to do is impress the squad so that they will listen to him. Andy Farrell has won literally everything that the game can offer, so no player can disrespect him on the basis of what he achieved as a player.

He coached Saracens, England and the British Lions. Clearly many people in Union feel that he is a good coach. He must have come across a degree of scepticism because of his past.

Are we so myopic that we can't learn from someone with his experience and qualities?

People's objections seem to centre on the fact that he hasn't been in the game for the last nine years. Do we really think he doesn't keep in touch? (And as for qualifications - I understand the only current holders of the level 4 coaching badge, the top RL coaching qualification, are Denis Betts and Richard Agar, good coaches both, but I suspect neither would be welcome here)

If Waney were to go then I for one would be happy to have Faz back. No question.

Interesting split of views. I don't hold with the view that great players always make good coaches. There will be some stats somewhere about successful RL coaches and what success they had as a player. For me, good coaches need man-management skills first. I'd be very surprised if AF fails this, due to the longevity of his career: as a captain and coach. He can surround himself with assistants, in the same way MM did, and come up with team tactics and plays, but his handling of the squad, getting them on board with his philosophy and motivation, is the key.
The game hasn't changed that much to suggest he would be incapable of re-learning it.

I'm responding to Maurice and partly a general response.
I too have an intense dislike for the RFU for their historical and recent behaviour to anything RL however, generally we hold the moral high ground and we should avoid at all costs any intolerance towards the RFU in any guise be it to the game in general or individuals connected with RU. My rationale for this is that it simply is the right thing to do and hopefully it winds up the kick and clap brigade particularly the bigots and zealots from the broadsheets.
Some negative comments on Farrell are because he went to RU and therefore, he should never return. I'm the opposite in that I would welcome him back or for that matter any other player or coach who return to the fold irrespective of their initial reasons for going to RU.
With regards to Farrell if he made it known that he did want to return to RL then I'm certain that there would be no shortage of suitors irrespective of his lack of coaching experience in RL. Farrell is rugby down to his boots and is part of a small clique of people who just seem to have been born to play and coach the game. In the modern game I would put Wellens in the same category - I'm certain Wellens will eventually coach the Saints.
I personally would have Farrell back however, I just don't see how we could accommodate him with SW and I wouldn't want to lose SW therefore, if Farrell did return then it would have to be to one of our rivals which for me wouldn't be a bad thing.

Aboveus - Burgess is clearly 'his own man' but without having someone from the England RU setup in his ear, no doubt about how he could make the RUWC in 2015 his decision to switch would probably have been harder and may not have been made at all.

I appreciate that people are offering praise like this with caveats - like we haven't got a space for him etc. But where is the actual evidence for the above?

He's never coached RL in his life, and in RU - where he had the country's best players at his disposal - he failed miserably. Granted the latter wasn't all his fault, but we can't pretend that he wasn't integral to the most disastrous coaching team England RU have had in God knows how long.

I too have very fond memories of Farrell's days at Wigan. But they're long, long over. And this idea that former great players will automatically make great coaches is surely an idea we dispensed with years ago, especially as he would probably expect big bucks.

Don't want him anywhere near Wigan; or Saracens for that matter. I don't think he has anything new to offer. Great player but let him go coach elsewhere.

New Ireland RU Defence Coach.

Been away too long. He was at the top of the sport but that doesn't mean he knows the sport now. The game is quite different to that Farrell left 10 years ago. I also don't agree that League is simpler or easier to coach than Union. There are plenty of intricacies to coach in League. I think Farrell would be very much out of his depth, as would anyone who'd been out of the game for so long.

To be honest, I doubt a return to RL was even on his radar. He's a fully signed-up Union man these days, probably for the reasons you mention but also because that's where he's now made his home, spiritually as well as physically. What would RL have to offer him anyway? An asst. coaching job at one of the lesser SL clubs? Because that's the most I'd have expected he could get, and it's hardly what he's been used to. For the same reason, I doubt we'll ever see Shaun Edwards return.

Yes he's signed a deal with Ireland RU. till 2019.

Don't kid yourself. Faz would walk into a Head Coaching job in Super League tomorrow if he was interested, and if they could afford him.

All of this "he's been out of the game for too long" nonsense doesn't wash with me. How do any of you know what Faz does or doesn't know about the intricacies of RL? For all you know he may spend his every waking moment watching Premier Sports coverage of the NRL, and talking to his old mates from Wigan.

Consider the irony of some guy who supports Wigan and works full time, who has never played the game professionally, but feels qualified to go online and pontificate upon the prospects of one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.

I mean really, of course we are all entitled to our opinions, but lets remember who we are talking about here. A bit of respect might be in order - not to mention ordinary common sense.

This

Spot on.

I got involved in this argument early on with a challenge to some ludicrous comments made against some one who is essentially a Wigan great. There's been a great deal of disrespect shown towards him because he essentially left the club at the twilight of his career.

How do you know I've never played the game professionally?

And respect has to be earned. Both as a player and as a coach. And these days, the two are very separate things.

and yet on the other thread you're talking down the qualities of easily the most successful club captain in Super League history.

No I'm not. Kevin Sinfield has indeed been a great captain. It is not to denigrate him to say that others are more worthy of the title Sportsperson of the Year. You understand the point surely?

Just a wild guess. The fact that you even write that last sentence suggests not.

Anyone who was that good has INSTANT respect. Of course that may not last if you turn out to be as successful as Garry Schofield, for example. It is much harder for a coach who hasn't played at the top level to gain respect, because many players have a "show me your caps" mentality, so a great player has a head start.

Wild guesses seem to be your forte.

You here admit that being a former top player and a good coach are not necessarily the same thing. Schofield is indeed the perfect example of that. But closer to home we had Andy Gregory and Andy Goodway, while even Ellery Hanley failed to deliver on his early coaching promise. Conversely, two of the best coaches Wigan have had in modern times - Graham Lowe and Michael Maguire - were non-too-memorable as players.

So why would you take a gamble on Farrell?

All I'm saying is that I'd need proof before I gave him the top job. Not hand it to him on the basis of a guess.

As you know I'm happy with Shaun Wane, so I'm not advocating a return for Faz. If we were looking for a head coach I'd be perfectly happy to have him.

Your recollection may be better than mine but didn't Ellery win the thing in his first year with Saints only to then get the push? So he never really got the chance to deliver did he?

Ellery did win in his first year at Saints, and I'm sure could have gone on to be one of the greats. But for various reasons he seems to have fallen out with the St Helens board. And whatever those reasons were, he found no further work in top-level RL and ended up vanishing into obscurity in RU. He returned to Cas years later and then somewhere like Doncaster, but I don't recall either of those appointments lasting very long.

Whether he was ever 'given a chance' is a moot point, but we know from our experience that Ellery wasn't always the easiest person to work with, so he may well have been the agent of his own misfortunes. I'd argue that being a successful coach may require you to be a diplomat and a politician as well as a taskmaster on the training field. But I only mention Ellery to try and illustrate that even the greatest players don't always have the full set of tools to go on to become great coaches too.