https://twitter.com/WidnesRL/status/1673331860712181760

https://twitter.com/WidnesRL/status/1673331860712181760

If the money is available, got to be worth bringing him in on a consultancy basis

He's probably put himself forward already. He's not shy in circumstances like this.

He’s just what we need!
He’s done it all before!

Absolute no brainer....what are we waiting for ???

Not as a DOR, for me he has to come as Head Coach or not at all.

Why not D.O.R ??

Because he wasn’t happy with it last time!
He came in and shored up Chris Chester’s awful coaching ability but when the team played well it was all well done Chris and little to no recognition for John.

He’s a strong personality and Chester found it hard to compete with that and Johns knowledge, while John was often flabbergasted at the stuff Chester said and did.

Now put JK in the same position with an even worse Coach?

Personality clash perhaps plus Chester's obviously not here any more and Mash surely will have worked with JK whilst coaching the juniors ??

Different times, he's not getting any younger and he's been dropped from Bradford and now Widnes so his stock as a coach isn't quite what it was. To me this way he can still be involved without the day to day hassle. Unless we are going really short time and hope for a repeat of 2006!

Our downward spiral performance wise certainly coincided with him leaving.

Up the Trin

Kear never had anything to do with the Youth System when he was here to prop up Chester, he had his hands full getting the 1st Team sorted

Applegarth needs to go, I don’t get all these fans suggesting other roles for him!
He stepped up and isn’t good enough!
No Coach will tolerate an assistant whose demonstrated the character traits that Applegarth has



JKs at his best when he’s on the training field actually coaching, that’s his element.
Bradford are a basket case and Widnes being poor is down to a number of things not just JK

Okay...fair comment Avenger, but I still think he is the right man for the job

why not,great man manager plus he has a personality,also a great communicator something thats been sadly lacking at trinity for too long

I'm not sure he's up for it, I was with him on the weekend in The Raven. He'd had more than a couple and was deep on the bandit (£640 in for a £100 jackpot? C'mon...) but he didn't sound like he was interested. I guess he may think slightly different when sober but we'll see.

Wouldn't surprise me if the new owners and JK have had some kind of meeting. Let's be honest if the. New owners are not involved why bother.
On the other hand should the sights be set a little higher.

Short term contract can’t do any harm can it ?. But we really need to be looking down under for a quality coach in the long term if the club has any sort of aspirations of getting back up and competitive amongst the elite in our game ,anything less is going to see us as a yo-yo club going forwards

The whole coaching set up needs a review and a sweep. They must happen for 2024.

That doesn’t mean Apelgarth can’t remain in some capacity but he’s not ready for head coach. Though this experience early in his coaching career could serve him well if he steps back to an assistant. It has to be under a coaching set up with some quality and knowledge.

On John Kear. Circumstances from years ago are different and it’s more his knowledge and man management that are of use. This could certainly be used in a director of rugby position. Player negotiations, general running duties and input in player welfare etc and input were needed from a coaching knowledge capacity. He’s got the knowledge for a director of rugby. He needs the drive for that though.

The set up for next season could be along lines of….

Director or rugby (John Kear)
+
Head Coach (needs to be a strong appointment)
+
Assistant coach (maybe Apelgarth) / assistant (Rhys Lovegrove or Gale)

Think it needs a bit of a new direction for 2024 and a full club reset on all fronts for a clean slate.

DoR or neauwt and you should be warned that he took Bradford's fattest player with him to Widnes - a player derided by Bull's fans and laughed off the field when interchanged at LSV whereby he had to parade his unfit gut across the foot of the North Stand.

Bongser remembers a fellow student (he was young a long time ago) being warned to "never go back!"

There ya go, Chatty Bongser does cautionary tales to boot.

So, help yourselves, but said boot in but don't say that you haven't been warned.

He needs binning off 100%. He’s taken the p*** this year.

How has he taken the p?

Out of his depth or a jump too early yes but that more shows he’s not ready rather than has the wrong attitude/aptitude for it in the future.

Genuine question on how he has taken the p so I can understand why you think he needs binning off completely.

Where to start? Thinking he’s the right man for the job after 4 or 5 consecutive nillings, after 15 or 16 consecutive defeats in all comps, the amount of first half nillings, the fact he’d rather bring in other clubs youngsters like that Wigan hooker, not to mention being caught laughing with Gale on TV during another defeat. In any other profession, he would’ve been shown the door with such a poor performance.

Problem si the club is going through a sale, the current owners will not pay him off and the new owners don't have control yet.

That’s not p-ing about though. He has to display confidence no matter what or you and everyone else would be even more critical. The results aren’t good enough but just mean he wasn’t ready for that step up and needs to be an assistant.

The Wigan 9 was brought in I believe when we had a 9 injured and needed a short term solution there and he rated him. Pretty sure Bowes was injured at that point. What other clubs youngsters has he brought in? - counter arguement could be he’s given Bowes, Eseh, Pratt, Law, Butterworth game time this season and brought Croft and Shaw back. That’s backing youth imo it’s just that some of those aren’t quite ready yet.

As for the laughing with Gale. Are you saying you’d rather him not build a rappor with players and have a face like a smacked booty and have no emotion (sure previous coaches like Chester were heavily criticised for this).

So with that said my opinion remains he’s not ready. He’s at the start of his coaching journey and if the club see some future ability in him he will likely stay in the set up. If not he will likely go pastures new.

It’s been a tough experience for Apelgarth and he’s probably not made all the right choices. We pretty much all agree what we’ve seen isn’t good enough. I guess we will see when the season comes to a close for this year what happens with him.

Got to agree ,get rid, a hell of bad decision in team selection this year just get out of the club