If someone makes a daft OP, they get a daft thread

You're right, this is a daft thread. To which you've heavily contributed. Are you willing to take your share of the blame? I doubt it.

Guilty.



Anyway in the unlikely event you want to find us later we will be in the hotel bar. I will be the one with the glass half full and Gary...

....Probably spilled his when he read the latest Agar "stating the bleeding obvious cr*p" in the HDM!

No idea. He was hardly the only player to suffer from the 'FC injury curse' and I'm not sure we're any closer to figuring out why now than we were then. We've had injury issues under three different conditioners and four coaches.

Fortunately I was at a seminar in Manchester all day yesterday so I missed that. I went to the JJB last night though, so I'm actually in a pretty good mood having seen some proper rugby being played for the first time in god knows how long. It's amazing what a bit of decent coaching can do....

I sometimes wondered if it had anything to do with the firmness of the KC pitch but Wigan and Huddersfield never seemed to suffer like we did

Not to mention two squads packed full of international standard players.

You mean like the one Cullen had in his last 2 or 3 years at Wire and couldn't get anywhere near winning anything? Besides, one of Wire's standout performers for me last night was Blythe, and then you've got the likes of Briers and Westwood who Smith has transformed at a relatively late stage in their careers into twice the players that they used to be.

Obviously Wigan and Wire's squads do look dodgy in terms of salary cap, but it's really not worth bringing up unless they ever get found guilty of a breach.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that the coach doesn't make a difference. Easier to make that difference when you have better players to work with though.


It's worth bringing up because until we find a way to assemble a squad of similar quality we are not going to truly compete. A better coach will narrow the gap but not close it IMO.

That's a fair point, but Leeds seem to manage it and nobody has ever accused them of breaching the cap AFAIK.

IIRC Kevin Sinfield said once that many of the Leeds squad acknowledged that they could earn more at other clubs but were happy to be part of a successful club.

Indeed, it was in his on-pitch interview after their last GF win.

Leeds spent years trying to buy success and failing before they worked out the right balance of junior development and spending the cap wisely on class in the positions where they didn't have home-grown players of the right standard. Their model is different to Warrington's and, to an extent, Wigan's. There is also the factor stated by Sinfield working in their favour. We have to work out our own system, and since we don't have a rich backer it will have to look more like the Leeds model than Warrington's.

So far we've failed dismally to do so, and just changing the coach won't fix that. Although it could be a step in the right direction with the correct replacement in charge.

theres all the proof you need why were crap.........................fitness and conditioning...

Can't argue with any of that!

Or maybe we could actually develop some of our own players and add some top quality overseas ones who aren't at the end of their careers, and not waste money on past it cast offs from the top clubs.

Fact is we do not get good value out of the salary cap because we have no one in the club who has any contacts or profile in the world of RL therefore end up paying over the odds for players.

Also, if we actually had a chance of winning anything then players would play for us for less than they can get elsewhere (as is already happening with players who turned us down even though we offered more £££'s)

I've often wondered about the relationship between Kath & Richo. I can't help but have this sneaking feeling that they were both glad when he went home and once McCrae left, that was our last conduit to value-for-money Oz talent.

More or less what I said in my follow-up post - the Leeds model.

And the leeds model differs from the wigan and wire models how exactly?

I spoke recently to an ex employee of the club, he clearly indicated, the squad lack stamina,
They dont do enough running in pre-season training, previously under Billy Mallinson, they used to pound the famous hills of Brantingham.

This would explain losing games in the last 10 minutes.

We weren't fit enough under Mallo either towards the end of his time here. And running up hills isn't the only way to build stamina. I do think that our current conditioner isn't up to the job, mind. Hudds were pleased to get rid of him and their fitness improved practically overnight as a result.

Quote ="Kosh"We weren't fit enough under Mallo either towards the end of his time here. And running up hills isn't the only way to build stamina. I do think that our current conditioner isn't up to the job, mind. Hudds were pleased to get rid of him and their fitness improved practically overnight as a result.'" Huddersfield also brought in a new fitness trainer from Australia. www.giantsrl.com/news/article/22

Quote ="Kosh"We weren't fit enough under Mallo either towards the end of his time here. And running up hills isn't the only way to build stamina. I do think that our current conditioner isn't up to the job, mind. Hudds were pleased to get rid of him and their fitness improved practically overnight as a result.'" Huddersfield also brought in a new fitness trainer from Australia. www.giantsrl.com/news/article/22

brian smith inherited an under performing team in his time here and turned them into contenders,but he was a proper coach.

He also spent a lot of cash on players.