It must be great news to Washy and Whiting.

He never said he'd get rid, he said that he would work out which was there best positions & try to play them there instead of them just being 'utility' players.

Will be the first time in four years.

I know, these two have the biggest utility tags in the squad.

So hopefully they'll get a run in the backrow without having to be moved around.

Who will he bring in as his No2 ? Any news on that?

do you know what the most exciting thing is, he'll not just have a plan, but he'll have a back up plan, and a series of options around each.

I can see it now next season, FC v Wakey at the KC, 10 minutes into the second half and Fubar has used his 10 interchanges, has forgotten it's not 12 anymore, Mr Gentle still has 4 interchanges left!

Forgot about that, aren't we still in need of a conditioner aswell?

Really? Try [url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/balmythis one[/url. Or [url=http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Balmythis[/url. Or there's lots of alternative words for crazily balmy in [url=http://education.yahoo.com/reference/thesaurus/entry/balmy_2this[/url thesaurus.

But, as I said, I bet these are American sites as balmy is the US abomination of the "English barmy" and, as such, has little credence from me.

Andy Last?

I for one hope that there is a place for Lasty in the new set up. The kid has been at the club for years now and has done a great job with the under 20's. Given the chance to work under the guidence of an experienced coaching staff, I believe Lasty would develop into a fine coach.

Yeah, I hope that Andy Last stays because you only hear good things about him. Seems a valuable person to have around.

There have been a lot of good reports about Andy Last but if the new coach wants a clean sweep then so be it.

not doubting his abilities but surely the definition of doing a good job coaching the age groups is how many come through to the first team not if you win the u 20's cup then all the players move on or drift into amateur.

Not too many have come through on andy last's watch for whatever reason.

That's down to Agar not playing them to find out if they're good enough, Last can only prepare them for being good enough for first team

Agreed. Last has clearly helped to make many players amongst the best in their age group. That they haven't kicked on in the first team is IMO down to a combination of not being sent out to gain open age experience and not being given enough first team game time. I highly doubt Last is influential in either of those decisions.

Agreed.

If Andy Last is identified as having good coach potential then I'd like to see the club send him over to Aus for at least one year to learn more about their coaching techniques.

Agreed, I don't want Last near the first team until all traces of his past 4/5 years have gone, he's been part of the stagnation we've witnessed at FC IMHO.

totally agree, Andy is a great lad, but surely he must shoulder a lot of the blame for the total lack of youngsters who have made it through to the first team, think we need a complete root and branch clear out from top to bottom.

I for one think Andy Last has done a good job. He's still young and I believe he has a lot more to offer. His teams have played good rugby over the past few years and have won I believe 2 out of 3 grand finals they've appeared in. He has been responsible for bringing through a number of players to the first team (what happens to them there after is surely the responsibility of the first team coach). I have listed some of the players he's brought through, their are probably some I've missed.

Danny Houghton (1st team regular)
Tom Briscoe (International player)
Danny Washbrook (1st team player)
Tommy Lee (1st team player at Wakefield)
Craig Hall (at Rovers)
Scott Wheeldon (at Rovers)
Graham Horne ( at Hudds, signed for Rovers)
Mike Burnett (on Loan at Quins)
Kirk Dixon (at Cas)

Now all of the above and playing super league rugby to varying standards. It's not a great record I agree but it's not poor either.

Lyme and Crooks are also playing for the England academy.

Does any one know if Peter Gentle is related to the guy who coached Lee Crooks at Western Suberbs in the 80s? It is mentioned in his book.

Ken?

Don't forget it was Bomber who persuaded Andy Last to hang up his boots as a player cos he thought he had great potential as a coach.

I think last has done a decent job, the under 20's always seem to do well, it has took a couple of years don't forget Rovers coming into SL will have effected us, meaning we have to share the best players unlike before and now he has 5/6 players in his team ready for a crack at SL, unfortunately we have had a coach who won't take risks with players and would rather play players out of position, out of form players and use a winger on the bench than play one of the young kids.

I'm sure Gentle will speak to Last and decide if he wants to keep him, I still wouldn't expect Last to be assistant yet, but hopefully a couple of years working with Gentle will really help Last.

I wouldn't be too disappointed if we kept Webster at no 2, if it just a coincidence that with him on team has seen us playing some expensive entertaining rugby rather than the dour stuff we have seen before?