He obviously has many skills but he is not a Super League coach. But to be fair some of his team should also take a kicking as well. Is the condition of the players as good as it could be to sustaine 80mins of play? I think agar is an excellent assistant coach but given the fact that we are in the final few weeks of this season and he is still talking about the next game and the next. Is it now next season? then when we are not performing in 2013 will it be the next season? Fact is he has not pulled any rabbits out of the hat. John Kear with this current team would have done a lot better.

This.

Agar for me as to get us in or very close to top 8 next season or he should go, he as a chance to put his stamp on the squad,get rid of the slackers and bring in a bit or quality.. time is ticking Mr Agar...

I would give him until next season let him have a proper off season. I am quite worried our team makes the same daft errors week in week out and I didn't agree with Ellis going on loan and Trout preffered to Mariano most of the time. The brand of rugby he is trying to make us play is exciting, but its also frustrating i.e. a lot of fizz but no final product. Kear without doubt would be doing a better job with this current squad ! But I am prepared to give Agar half way through next season if we are not near the 8 I would sack him.

Problem Agar has is that building an attacking structure is fairly easy - If you have enough decent players then under the right condition good attacking RL will take place. As has been the case on occasion this season. Very few players at SL level have any problem joining the fun when the game is in their favour - hell if you can't enjoy that part of the game then you're in the wrong game.

Building a defensive structure which is what gives you the platform for attacking flair RL on a regular basis ala Wigan or Warrington is far harder and takes a lot longer to get right. Look how long it took both those two money bags clubs to get it right. It requires the right players and the right team structure and team spirit. The players who can do both week in week out - the hard yakka?? - as the Aussies call it are far thinner on the ground than your average decent player. Coaches know who they are but buying or keeping them for any length of time for a club like ours is almost impossible. These players are so in demand and so few.

Agar started the season not knowing how many of these players he had. He was fairly certain about Washbrook and Aiton - probably expected more from Southern. The rest he needed to get to know. He should know them by now and in the close season should get rid of a fair few. He will hopefully replace them with better tougher players who will allow us to play more often and not come unstuck if the game gets tight. If he doesn't do this he is a wally.

Kyle Wood is an obvious example. He has a decent but not exceptional attacking game. However he can't tackle and he never will - it's to late now to change him he's 22?. You can carry a genius but he isn't. English coaches need to address the fact that in RL the ability to defend/tackle is the most important core skill and the only one IMHO all players must have without exception - I don't care how big or fast they are.

Agar will have to address this in the close season. If he does we will be a much better team than this year - if he doesn't he will be out of a job. Over to you Richard, next season is the one big chance you have left. I sincerely wish you all the best, we all should.

Building a defensive structure which is what gives you the platform for attacking flair RL on a regular basis ala Wigan or Warrington is far harder and takes a lot longer to get right. Look how long it took both those two money bags clubs to get it right.

Agreed Vasty. Only thing i would pick up on is the above, as a quality coach at Wigan (Mcguire) managed to transform the Wigan defence in pretty much one off season. Yes they had decent players already, but they were decent players performing nowhere near the levels they were capable of, and it took a good coach to change that.

Both Warrington and Wigan didnt get it right until they managed to get a quality coach. Obviously we are not as big a draw as them but im just not sure RA is good enough even for our current level. Having said that, like the majority, i agree he shouldnt really be judged until next season. Hopefully he will prove us all wrong.

I wasn't excited in the slightest when he was announced as head coach, I reckon he's an assistant coach at best. We should have definitely had more wins this year but I don't think the defeats are down to Agar. Player and referee mistakes are to blame for us missing out on at least 6 points.

As many have already mentioned, next season will be the one to judge him on. Elston seemed to be doing all the player recruiting pre-Agar (whether Agar was giving him the nod of approval is unclear) so next season he should have his own team built. That will be when we can start to see where the team is going.

Added to all that, can you imagine what we would have been like if Morrison hadn't been injured pre season.
We would have had an experienced Captain and motivator on the field from the start.
He would have made a massive difference to this side imho.

Good point

I said exactly that to someone last night - Morro was a big presence on the field in both attack and defence and would have made a difference in some of the tighter games we've had this season.

For what its worth Agars super league record with Hull was- won 43,Drawn 1,lost 52 thats 45.3 %

The only reason we signed Aiton was because Morrison had to retire. Would have been nice to have both in the team together

And that is awful with the players he had. I am tired of commenting on Agar. He has no idea, end of story. We looked, for the greater part of most early games this year, a shambles, we still look a shambles and frankly, I can't believe how everyone can't see that. 6 1/2 / 10...you are kidding. We are clueless - and there are some decent players in that squad. For me they just look like a badly drilled bunch of players who don't really believe in what they are doing. Our 6 win haul is below what we should have had by 5 wins for me...the coach is the reason as far as I am concerned. Someone said his contract was 70k a year. HOWWWW the hell did we decide to pay someone with that win ratio at Hull that kind of money? And give him 3 years. I would seriously be looking at negotiating a pay off at the end of the season; this year is nearly as dismal as last year and that is simply nowhere near good enough for the investment made. We need to GET RID!!!! I hate having to say this. I just wanted the whole new era to be possitive, but we look so bad, I just think it has to be said.

Our weekly pathetic defensive display is unacceptable & it sits with the coach.
Yes, once the team runs out he can't do anything, but monday to Saturday at training he can.
And clearly hasn't addressed it. Bizarre interchanges, no ability to do anything to change a game, strange after match comments which always involves some phrase about the positives from the game - even after a shambolic 10-52 defeat.
I for 1 am not impressed

I wonder if people's hold the same view of Agar now as they did only a few weeks ago.

Probably not, but as soon as we next lose they'll be out waving their nooses in the air again.. sigh.

Yes, would be interesting to hear the comments from the more vociferous posters above.

I was never an advocate for Agar's appointment but I always knew it would take time for any coach to build a side from scratch so was prepared to give him time.
Glad its started to come together. More to do but there always will be.

likewise. i really didn't want him, and i felt that his appointment and the interview process was a sham as we all knew that being a pal of james elston's made him hot hot favourite.

stability is the key for any coach, so as soon as he was appointed the key for us was to give him enough time to make his mark. no coach would have done amazing things this year with the ordinary imports that elston brought in and the sheer number of new squad players.

i think he's earned his corn thus far, but i'd like to see us kick on and produce the same intensity for the remaining fixtures as we've done in the last few weeks. i'm not bothered about the results to much and certainly not making the playoffs - i think the top 8 should be the top 5/6, and that no club should be rewarded for finishing in the lower half - realisticaly i'm also not sure that an extra away game at wigan/warrington is much of a reward anyway!

for me, it's all about the performances for the remainder of the season, then the quality of recuitment/retention that we manage in the off season.

i'd like us to retain morrison, i think he has good communication skills and interacts well with the squad. for me, agar has some good ideas and strategies but he comes over as somebody that struggles to share his message.

What makes you say that?

it's been said to me by a couple of people who worked with him at hull. no leaks from belle vue on this one. also, the way he speaks on tv/press conferences; he clearly knows the game backwards and what he wants us to do, but he comes accross as quite a dull and limited communicator generally. i don't look and him and think; he could inspire and talk on the level easily with a load of young daft rugby league players.

I would agree he is not a John Kear type that is very media friendly but I don't think that limits his communication to his players.
I know a few guys who have worked with him previously and they liked him. I've talkedto him myself and he is clearly not the old fashioned ex player who hada go at coaching and din't realise its a different job. He is an intelliegent guy who is developing his career. He isn't the finished article by a long way but I hope he gets there with us.

Funny, as I've spoken with him directly - he comes across as articulate, intelligent and totally obsessive about the game; he has his own theories about why he doesn't feature much in the media and seems pretty happy not to do so.

I've also spoken to several players, all of whom were very positive about him.

Not very scientific I know, but useful for balance?

Yes, and I liked PopTart's post too. I hope he has massive success at Wakefield.

Not true, Aiton was top of Agars list and it had nothing to do with Morrison. Also one a hooker and the others a S/R. If Morrison had a replacement I'd guess it was Southern.

I have to repent here and admit I was wrong about the guy. His faith in the players he kept picking has certainly paid of for him. He put together the foundations of a half decent mid table team, while playing some real attractive rugby. All on a limited budget. With a bit of tinkering here and there I think we could be a team to challenge for the top 7 next year, year on year progression! This is one time I’m very happy to be proved wrong!