I think it must have been very frustrating for Last, the past couple of years, he has worked hard getting 4/5 players ready for SL but our head coach seem to not want to give the players a chance, instead moving players about or playing rubbish like Lauaki every week no matter how bad they was.

And even if he gave a player like Lyne a game he would drop him the next week no matter how he played.

Yes great news and good to see he is coaching the u20's as well

An astute move this. Means a fresh start but also a link to the previous set-up so there can be a smooth transition. Very pleased.

Im thinking we must have a decent wedge of space on the salary cap to get a quality signing now especially if we can get rid of obst as well

Wolfie does know something!

your claim that he,s more interested in business than his rugby is based on what?

I'm not sure I buy that argument, how do we know that he had 4/5 players 'ready for SL'? It's one thing having them looking good at U20s level and turning out decent results, but that's not what Last's main remit was, his job was to produce players for the first team and he didn't do it nearly often enough.

It may be that it was all Agar's fault, and lord knows the idea of him being some kind of youth development guru is a laughable myth, but I personally believe that it was a combination of the two of them. For example, look at the way Lynn tore it up in the U20s but looked like a rabbit in the headlights whenever he played in the first team. I'm certain Agar didn't help at all, but can he really be totally to blame when Lynn will have spent the vast majority of his time working not with him but with Last?

I have the feeling the problem with Last was similar to the theory about why the England football team are so poor; youth coaches focus far too much on getting a winning team at that level, and thus making themselves look good, but it is at the expense of properly equipping their players with the skills they need to succeed at the elite level.

I guess we will never know, hopefully we might have the chance to find out next year if these players are ready or not.

I rate him as a coach and think he'll demand respect from the youngsters, so I think he'll do us well as a coach, but I'm still really disappointed. If he knew this was his last playing season, I wish to god he'd have taken his opportunity away at Leeds in the play offs to cripple that windbag Bailey! I wouldn't even have been upset with the result then!

Pleased with this appointment, Lee should prove a very good coach and will have the respect of all the players. Also hope it's true we are bringing in a second assistant as I like the idea of having two backups to Gentle.

Indeed, it's nice at least to be able to have a bit of faith in the people making the decisions on things like this, even if I do find some of them a bit perplexing.

The example of Lyn is interesting, he rips it up at U20's and excells when playing for his country but struggles when coming into the first team. Now is that Last's failure of Agar's? What more can Last do? He is clearly ready to move up and has the skills but then seems a bit lost. For me it's about the head coach not handling the player right rather than Last.

Does Briscoe's rise to fame have more to do with Last or Agar? I'd say Agar would take more of the praise and therefore should take more of the flak when it does not work out.

I am very happy with Lee being appointed, watching him coach amateur levels and his experience he has a lot to take into our club and at such a high level, he has the respect from the team already so I wish him all the luck! I am looking forward to next season!

Good points, but it depends what your measure of 'ready to move up' is. In the sense that he's excelling at the lower level then yes he is, but I think there are more factors to take into account than that, such as mental preparedness, and Last has to take some responsibility for that kind of thing.



Agar brought Briscoe to the club and deserves credit for that, off the top of my head it's the only thing I can think of that FC fans have to thank him for. Briscoe is so good that he would have come through if I had been coaching him, so I don't think you can use that to measure Last's ability. The better example would be Houghton, but since he's the only other one that's come through to be a regular in recent years then I'd argue he's the exception that proves the rule.

The dreaded right wing position, any winger would struggle playing there with our defence on that side.

Gleeson being there helped massively, Sharp looked a much better player when he played with him, would have loved to see Lyne have a few games with Gleeson.

Should be a key area for the new coach to look at, the whole structure of our right hand defence.

Has to be our next signing. Yes we need a forward or two, but we are desperate for a quality right centre IMO.

But the flip side of that is that we have seen several players get a chance in the side full of confidence at first, only to have it ripped apart when they are then treated poorly and used as scapegoats. Lee, Hall, and Lyne are great examples. Lee and Hall were both in and out of the side and moved around positions, and Lyne was subbed midway through his first game because of a couple of errors when TBH he'd done less wrong than plenty of others the same day. The huge gulf in the way the established and younger/fringe players have been treated over the past 4 years is IMO one of the major reasons why our youth development has gone down the pan, and it's the core factor in the fragile confidence of multiple players over the same period.

Accroding to HDM, he is a 'decorative' player. Christmas come early for Radders! www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html?

Accroding to HDM, he is a 'decorative' player. Christmas come early for Radders! www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... story.html?

I see Andrew Webster is deserting caravan park

Going home to Aus I believe.

James_Smailes James Smailes
Lee Radford's last ever game will be against Bradford on January 29th (I think date is correct) In his words to me "poetic ending".

I agree to an extent, particularly about Hall as I think Agar treated him appallingly. However I've never been convinced that Hall's mentality has been right to make it in SL, and that might be explained to an extent by the preparation he received in his younger days. The same idea can apply to Lynn, yes Agar can't have helped by doing that to him, but on the other hand, if that was all it took to ruin his confidence then what does that say about his mental preparedness in the first place?

According to Chester yeah.

and to be the new assistant coach to peter gentle

not a bad move for lee as he is well respected within the team

I have mixed feelings t.b.h.,but know doubt he will kick ass when needed.