Applegarth follows a near on 60 year tradition of coaches who most fans were glad to see the back of.

Trying to think of ones who bucked that trend I came up with Ray Batten for certain and possibly Andy Kelly who was stitched up by Ted and Pearman. I have a slight feeling that when Len Casey left to return to Hull we might have been sorrowful too?

Andy Kelly is the one that instantly comes to mind for me, I think Andy would have built a solid team.

A number of fans always call for Kear but we had some bleak days with him.

I know he was an assistant but I believe Michael Monaghan was quality. He’s the Newcastle knights NSW cup team head coach now. Was Des Haslers assistant at manly after us.

Talking of Andy Kelly, he has just been inducted into the Trinity Hall of Fame

No coaches as such, no one left to go on to better things due to outstanding performance. Conditioners though, Geoff Evans was one that got away. Ultimately he, along with McNally, contributed to best season I have ever seen. The Hull FC play off game alone is testament to his influence, to go down to 11 men but still have the fitness to win that game was something else. The intensity too was beyond anything I've seen since from this club.

Brian Smith came in half way through season ,got us fitter ,changed the team and saved us from relegation, same as J Keer who came in for last 6 games and saved us from relegation .We all no what happend to the team when he left the last time

I'm more interested in what we could have done had they remained here.
Batten built a cracking side that looked destined for great things imho. Big loss when he was forced out.

Casey is a bit more hazey in my mind but I think we were heading in right direction when he bailed.

Did you not have a little bit of regret when they left?

Ken Trail

Won more under him the all the rest put together

What was the general consensus when David Topliss left? I'm too young to remember, no idea if he left or was sacked?

He'd have been quite young at the time too, strange he didn't go to another club.

Before my time.

As a player it was a dark day when he left.
When he came as a coach we were struggling and he got us back to a really entertaining team. Ultimately it drifted away because of lack of investment.
Once he'd gone we dropped down a division before Kelly got us back.

It's rarely only the coach though obviously we've had some out of their depth but money makes a big difference to the coach's success.

We have some decent coaches over the years but the majority have had to work with one hand tied behind their backs through lack of funding and never really pushed the bigger clubs on a regular basis only sporadic victories here and there .Top 5/6 for a fleeting time then players get poached and we end up propping the division up once again . Long journey ahead but the building blocks are finally in place ,and I hope I’m around long enough to see us going toe to toe with the best of super league

A big problem for coaches (much like owners) is they stay too long in the job and end up burning their own legacy

I that covers Trail, Topliss and Kear.