YES!

Could you imagine the buzz if he came back

IIRC When we were bottom in 2006, Shaun stated that had the club contacted him to replace Millward he couldn't have turned us down?

Sean Edwards only ambition in life when he was young was to play for Wigan RL and I’ve never seen such a dominant figure at the club since and that includes Farrell pushing him close.

I’m not stupid and I know he wouldn’t wave a magic wand and change everything over night but people like Edwards are a success not through luck but due to the sheer dedication they show in everything they do. He personifies what it means to work hard for success.

The trophies he won at Wigan haven’t made him the legend that he is today it’s his ultimate dedication, sacrifice and love for the club which makes him Wigan’s number one son. I doubt few players have ever encompassed the Wigan spirit more than Edwards.

I couldn't agree more! He had skill, speed, pride, dedication, determination, discipline, ambition, passion for the club he loves and professionalism of the highest order! Andy Farrell and Kris Radlinski could also be described in the same way. These lads would have died on the pitch for Wigan!

I WOULD PAY DOUBLE THE ENTRANCE FEE TO SEE EDWARDS OR FAZ BACK. AT LEAST RAD IS INVOLVED EVEN IF IT IS ON THE FRINGE!

Yeah, he asked not to be offered the job because he wouldnt be able to say no, despite his personal circumstance. A man with that much passion for the club is what we need.

IL needs to make it happen ASAP, but he wont.

LOL at the schizophrenic screwballs in this and other threads who at the drop of a hat can spew out page after page of cod-critique on Noble's deficiencies whilst claiming, [iwith a straight face[/i, that an ex-player who has [ilittle to no knowledge of SL, contemporary tactics, training methods etc. etc.[/i is THE ONLY rational choice for the Wigan coach's job.

Scott Fitzgerald once said that an artist is someone who can hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain fully functional. You guys are SOME artists. LOL.

Nice ninja edit on the thread you just made on the Saints forum Mugwump.

Takes years of practice, son.

How do you know he has 'little to no knowledge of SL'? I'd be willing to wager he watches more of it than we do. (albeit not live, but still)

Does it matter? A RL coach can go to RU and be a success without any of the background but for somebody to be a successful RL coach they require all the experience in the world and anybody below the international level just isn't good enough.....

Lam - not good enough, assistant Aussie coach, international coach, leading ex-player etc.

Jesus - not good enough, doesn't have an RL background and lacks aggression. However is a miracle worker with a loyal following.

I suspect IL hasn't managed to convince anyone to come to Wigan either because of what he offers or what the perception of the job is. Noble is a second choice, but with no prospect of anyone else that the fans won't hang he gets the job.

It would be amazing if Edwards were ever to take over at Wigan but i can't see it being for an age yet.

If we offered him the job for next year and he even contemplates taking it he'll be offered fortunes by Wasps and Wales to stay in Union and we won't be able to compete.

Shame.

Please do us a favour and keep your biased Saints views to yourself.

Edwards has more knowledge about coaching players and man management in his little finger than 2nd rate Aussies like Potter.

At the end of day any body who can go over to a complete new sport like RU with limited coaching experience in either code and achieve the success he has must have something about them.

The Wigan team is a talented side, imo, that on its day can compete with the anyone. But what I needs is someone who can whip the players in to shape and get the best out of them. No matter what code he’s in Edwards has management skills which will make him a success.

Add to that ‘modern contemporary tactics’ as you put it aren’t as advanced or skill full as the ones from Edwards time anyway. I’m sure he could master the art of scooting for penalties and a few miss passes.

Sean Edwards currently has 3 jobs in RU....head coach of Wasps(?), assistant to Wales and assistant to the Lions.

For a start, do Wigan have the money to buy him out of the 3 contracts, as well as matching his salary for the 3 jobs?

Secondly, can Leneghan produce a conclusive case to convince Edwards to give up these 3 highly paid and high profile jobs?

Thirdly, can he convince him to leave London full time?

I think you would be struggling on at least 2 of the 3.

Why would Edwards do it, when he is forging a massively succesful career in the other sport? Why would he risk his growing reputation on the so called 'poisoned chalice'?

It's a huge huge pipe dream and i think the vast majority know that.

I suppose thats why his name is never really mentioned as a serious contender for the job. Alot of people will say they've love him to be coach here but know that theres no chance of it actually happening.

Edwards would revitalise the entire club in all aspects.

It would be a phenomenal appointment.

So under Edwards our record this season (played 17 won 7) would be far worse!

Roll up! Roll up! See the Grand Mismatch before your very eyes!

On the one side - Mick Potter: Assistant to Matthew Elliot at Bradford, NSW U-17s coach with back-to-back wins over Queensland, four years in the toughest RL competition in the world - the NRL, who took SL's perennial cellar dwellers, Catalans, and lifted them to the Challenge Cup final and SL playoffs - bagging SL's Coach of the Year award in the process.

On the other - Shaun Edwards: Erm .... hmmm ... errr ... Nowt.







Yeah, like Phil Larder. Presumably you'd be over the moon if Wigan were to sign him.



This feels like returning to the days when the full extent of a coach's input was telling players how useless they were and "Get it out wide" was a viable tactic.



Yeah. That's why NONE of the coaches from back then are winning trophies today.

No one is suggesting they should but Larder isn't Edwards. Edwards isn't coming for obvious reasons but to suggest he would not make a go of it if he did is not a rational position to adopt.

Not all ex-players make good coaches but Edwards has shown he has the man-management side of it sorted and its clear the RU players have his respect and want to play for him.

The only area he could be lacking is tactics but then you must assume he ignores the game completely and would not assimilate back into the game quickly. Why you would assume this I have no idea.

Dave

Yeah you’re right Sean Edwards has done nothing in the coaching world has he? Even for a scouser this takes the biscuit as being one of the thickest statements ever made!!!

The skills of man management after all don’t transfer easily between the two codes do they?? Players are that different between the two codes are they like Farrell, Quinnell, Robinson, Paul, Inga, Lydon, Davies, Boston, Harris etc?

Edwards has had far, far more success in his coaching career than Potter could ever dream of and it’s hardly an inspiring C.V being number 2 to Matt Elliot and then winning an u17’s comp is it?? Also since when has winning the SL coach of the year against other top quality coaches like Noble, Anderson, Kear, Matterson, Agar, Mcdermott & Cullen been the bench mark for success? It’s as farcical as an RL international between England and France as it’s hardly going against people like Bennett, Monie, Stewart or Bellamy is it? It holds as much weight and prestige as the MOS award did when Roby recieved it

But lets not let the FACTS gloss over another anti Wigan rant eh?




Phil Larder is a good coach who did well with England in 1995 and far better than other current coaches like Kear, Cullen and Mcrea.



Well seeing BN (the most successful coach of the SL just in case you forgot) can’t even do that I’m sure a player who oozed class and demands respect like Edwards will do just fine coaching in the soooper doooper league.



Edwards is the same age as Potter-Same generation of the game!!!! But I guess he ain’t winning trophies tho so your right?

That's all it would take but it would need a certain kind of person to do this. Somebody who can motivate our players into playing with passion, having pride for their work, being professional on and off the field and commanding the respect of the dressing room is vital for our next coach to succeed.

However we need somebody who also has the tactical know-how as well as this motivational skill to push us forward onto the next level. I feel if we kept Noble and hired a motivator as assistant with a reputation then we might succeed, something I have advocated dozens of times already.

Because there is not much evidence to suggest the transition is an easy one to make. Alan Jones was an excellent RU coach who even managed to turn the All Blacks over when they were at their height. Three years after jumping to league his record stood at lamentable: 12th, 10th and 12th.

Of course, there is the counter argument that Edwards is an experienced league player whereas Jones entered the ARL as a novice to the game. But Edwards has been gone a long time. Things have moved on tremendously. I recall a conversation I had with Daniel Anderson soon after his arrival at Saints in which he said the game has become so technical these days it should qualify as academic study. You don't need to be out of the picture for long before you've been left out of the gallery itself. If Edwards were to return it's very doubtful he could do so without being forced to learn on the job – which that CAN'T be a good thing. And there's the issue of shelf life. Even top coaches (unless your name is Wayne Bennett) find it difficult to remain consistently good for long. Hanley, Millward and Peter Sharp are just some of the more recent high profile elite level coaches whose stock collapsed almost overnight. It’s not difficult to identify at least some of the reasons behind their precipitate demise. Coaching is an incredibly stressful job for a variety of reasons: maintaining good relations with the fans, keeping the board happy, dealing with the press, ministering the interminable and often trivial needs of the players ... and we haven’t even started on winning games. Under such high levels of pressure there is an understandable urge to remain conservative (it’s a biologically hardwired trait). If tactics A, B & C have proved successful in the past, the temptation will be to stick with them in the future – even if it flies in the face of everything your noggin is telling you. The real problems arise when the guy opposite you identifies this conservatism and turns it against you. Take Ian Millward for example. When Millward got the job at Knowsley Road he very quickly switched the point of attack away from the flanks to the centre of the field. At the time some thought it odd because we were very strong in the backs (with two of the best centres in the game in Newlove and Iro) but less so in the forwards. What we did have was speed around the dummy half. Cunningham was in his prime whilst Higham had explosive acceleration in addition to being pretty much unknown to SL coaches. During the off season Millward drilled the players on a completely novel gameplan – one which involved a rapid turnover of the set with an unprecedented amount of dummy-half running (four to five times the league average). In that first season Saints were very difficult to contain. Millward rotated Cunningham and Higham gaining maximum advantage just when the opposition was beginning to wilt. The only team that caused Saints problems was Wigan (Bradford’s big forwards just weren’t fit enough to cope with the intensity). Raper’s tactics were to slow down the PTB as much as possible without being penalised and put bodies in front of Cunningham and Higham (it was good fortune to have players who could execute Raper’s strategy – because many could not). This limited the amount of Saints yardage and took pressure off Wigan’s own try line. The season after more and more teams adopted similar tactics and Saints found it increasingly difficult to achieve the same level of success. And this is where Millward’s conservatism betrayed him because instead of using his undoubted intelligence to come up with a new blueprint for success he chose to stick with what won him the trophies (again, this is a perfectly understandable decision). Saints were fortunate in having the likes of Sculthorpe, Cunningham, Fairleigh, Wellens, Martyn, Long etc., who managed to offset the tactical weakness and secure success. But the methodology and MIllward were holed below the waterline.

There’s nothing new in this. Time at the top is fleeting and all but the greats (or perhaps the luckiest) fall victim to their own conservatism because that devil you know is infinitely less scary than the one you don’t.

For someone returning from RU after a long period out of the game, someone who has no prior (league) coaching mistakes to get out of his system early before he joins a club - whose supporters are convinced they should be challenging (and beating) the best - the obstacles seem insurmountable. Sure Edwards has demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in RU. But that’s RU. Ask any Union player who has returned to the sport after dabbling in league and they all say the same thing – in league there are so many more things to think about. Let’s say Noble is canned at the end of the season and Edwards is drafted in as a replacement. On his very first day he’ll be faced by a mountain of information (tactics, rules, regulations, agents, the media, the opposition, the team, the fans, the medical arrangements, the tea lady, the training facilities, the sponsors etc.) that’s passed him by whilst he’s been in Union. Far more than an Aussie or Kiwi coach who – presumably – has his finger on the pulse of RL training and tactics). Where’s the time for him to iron out all the bugs in his game? Edwards’ shelf life will be up before he’s even got started!

Look, you should never say never. Any coaching appointment is ultimately a calculated gamble. But there are odds and there are odds. Hire a top NRL coach with a proven RL track record and you’re giving yourself the best possible chance to succeed. Throw money around at a Union coach with no history of delivering in league and you could very soon stand accused of at best stupidity or at worst wanton recklessness. You cannot claim to be a rational person whilst harbouring the opinion that a RU coach is more likely to turn Wigan around than someone from a competition which is five to ten years in advance of SL.

Didn't you dig a big enough hole last night?

Obsessed!

We already knew flower. The fact that you're never off here and even your sig is about us are a bit of a give away.
I think it's kind of cute.

Indeed you are. Now toddle off!