Karl Harrison

Which is effectively the same thing. Any skill will be coached out of the players by sticking to a rigorous game plan. It’s just the basics that need taking care of, such as proper organisation of the defensive line, plenty of varied moves in attack with lots of runners and dummy runners offering options and diversions. Oh and discipline. The rest can be left to the skilful players to do their thing.


They just haven’t had the right coach in place. As soon as they do they might win something. Cullen wasn’t up to it in SL for Warrington, with all the money in the world so, therefore, why bring him in to do the same here?


If push comes to shove I’d rather keep Stanky as coach, rather than bringing in Cullen.


Perhaps and, for what it’s worth, I doubt it could get much worse under Cullen than it’s been under Ste Mac. But that just isn’t a good enough reason to give him the job. I don’t think Scarts is even in RL now in any capacity. Ian Millward would be very good with a flair team but isn’t a good tactician that can organise a defence. John Dixon has done a good job at this level, but he won’t be leaving CC in Super League any time soon. So I agree they are pointless suggestions. If I were to come up with a pointless suggestion I’d say Tony Rea. Now there is a brilliant organiser and tactician.

For me the best possible man available with similar qualities would be Jon Sharp. Whether or not he’d come, I have no idea, but we’ve a better chance of getting him than some of the others mentioned.

It does appear that Hanley seems to be in poll position. He is totally the wrong man imo.

If Webster feels like he can do the job along with playing, he is your man!

I wouldn't wish John Sharp or Karl Harrison on my worst enemy!

Wait and see how well Nathan Brown does with the same set of Huddersfield players that Sharp had before you sell yourselfes on the idea of him as a coach.

to little to ing late

neil kelly, stuart spruce

Can I just say how gutted I am as a Leigh fan, with the squad at his disposal and the money thrown at it, a decent coach will have you walking this league.
Bring back McCormack

I feel a bit sorry for Steve and I'm sure despite some jubilation from frustrated fans we can all thank him for his hard work and wish him the best of luck in the future.

That said, I would be lying if I said I wasn't one of the frustrated ones. Rugby League is a tough game to love these days for a good few reasons and from Widnes' perspective I'm a bit fed up of underachieving. We've really got a chance this season to win the damn thing but we need the right man at the helm. If we want rugby league to survive in this town and continue to work we need a team people can get behind. No amount of empty promises and "final appearances" will do that. We need to start winning real things.

I was quite surprised when we brought Steve back but they were difficult circumstances and tbf I think we did better last season than many thought we would given the insurmountable challenge we faced after the gf. But as the Oldham game brought to light, our team isn't really capable of that extra spark which will break teams and I don't think we will ever really get that with Steve at the helm.

Good luck Steve, good move for Widnes, lets get out there now and show the world of RL what were really made of.

Cullen,Hanley,Harrison. No thanks.

Agreed!

Definite no to Cullen or Harrison. A bit on the fence about Hanley.

Everyone has an opinion and whoever the club appoint some will applaud it and some will totally disagree.



Such is life.

Tony Smith

Which one?

please take jimmy lowes off us.

I'll throw another name in the hat for you guys, Clive Griffiths. One of the highest qualified coaches in the game. Has coached both codes at international level and is local. Now he will actually get you lot to play exciting flowing rugby.

THE HOOF

If you get Cullen, then you'll be royally entertained at least. If nothing else, he turned is into if you like 'the neutrals favourite'. His principals of playing open, attacking rugby etc.

I'm sure he'd jump at the chance to work with Gaskell & Toa again.

I know there's the history of him, but I don't get why Widnes fans wouldn't want him. He's an experienced SL coach who wants his sides to play the right way. He has experience in NL1 too, so you'd have to think he'd go okay.

I'd be mega surprised if he was interested in the job though, I don't mean that against Widnes, more that he's a smart guy, he'd know that with his background, he'd be afforded very little time by the fans etc should results not go his way.

FRANK ENDACOTT

Hanley will skate it - Seriously if you want to play to your strengths and see open Rugby then call for Matt Calland.

What's Bobby Goulding doing these days? Did a cracking job at Rochdale.

he was at my rugby presentation in july but nothing much since
aslonas as the new coach plays good expansive rugby and plays more younger players who actually want to play I don't mind
Paul Cullen would be nice though

Some info on Hanley for you after Tony Benson was appointed at Oldham from the local paper

Oldham’s money man (chairman Bill Quinn) admitted that talks had been held with Ellery Hanley.

However, the former Great Britain legend, who left his Doncaster post following the club’s National League Two play-off final victory over the Roughyeds last month, couldn’t offer the level of focus on the job that both owner Quinn and chief executive Chris Hamilton desired.

“Yes, we did speak to him (Hanley) but unfortunately, due to other commitments, he could not give our club the time needed to fulfil the role of head coach,” said Quinn, in a statement posted on the club’s official website.

“It had nothing to do with money, but we felt as a board that we needed someone who was totally focused to enable us to achieve our goals and targets."

Basically what you get with Hanley is somebody who wants FT wages for PT hours (see above quotes as well). Most of the coaching is done by his assistant and the drills he does do are generally considered to be out of date. However he does have an aura and a reputation that a) helps sign people and b) makes players listen. He did a good job at Donny, but he didn't do it on a shoestring as some people think, shortly before the season started people on the board at Donny thought they could go through the season undefeated - they invested a lot of money and ended the season losing £4k a week.

Goulding's lost the plot at Rochdale and they improved massively when he left under Darren Shaw.

Personally I think if you want good rugby go for Cullen - it's the way he wants to play and he's operated in an NL environment before. You don't need the best coach, just somebody who's going to give the players the freedom to perform - the FT training and your squad should do the rest. Last year at Oldham we had the best squad in NL2 and a technically superb coach in Steve Deakin, unfortunately sometimes people like this are so keen to pinpoint the exact way to break down the opposition they forget about the need to play good rugby as well. In the end it cost us promotion because after beating Donny up all game down the middle in the GF we never varied our play and moved it wide. Players become like robots and lose the ability to think for themselves. If you went down the Sharp or Harrison route I suspect you may end up with something similar to this (and indeed similar to what you've just got rid of).

I reckon there could be strong support for Webby. He was in frame to help out Agar at Hull last season.
A coach in the making!!!
Get his brother over also.....another outstanding young coach currently at Hull KR.

True, but he is ours and I cannot see him leaving the good job he already has at Halifax.

Good job the man was useless...

sorry think he get the hull job if agar does nowt, but that the more he's doing good