Beware Halifax

[url=http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/local/Cullen-is-a-factor-says.5071145.jpNew coach, new Widnes?[/url

...............having said that:

[url=http://viewtopic.php?t=399417&start=210New coach, same old Wire[/url

I think the problems at Warrington will take much longer to correct then the ones at Widnes (if there ever really were any in the first place).

Seconded - We have seen today that a new coach doesn't have an immediate effect on a team too!

Cullen's inept coaching has caused immense damage at Warrington, a slippery long painful spiral to oblivion which was evident for a long period of time. Even big money signings failed to stop the rot. I have mentioned Rahihi (spelling probably wrong) and Morley as good players turned bad. But how could I forget Matt King?

Put it this way, if Halifax had announced the capture of "Super League coach" Paul Cullen I'd be very very concerned. Why Widnes fans are getting giddy about Cullen I find somewhat bemusing.

I'm gonna stick my neck out here and say Cullen won't last the season. I'll dig this thread out come September and either be gloating "I told you so", or I'll have the stinky fans laughing and throwing eggs.

To be honest most people could coach Widnes into this years top 2 or 3 and they will have to seriously underperform to see him fired quickly. The standard of the division (and a crop of promising looking youngsters) will see that he has a decent time in charge.

Don't underestimate the strength of NL1, espanyolswan. There are several "banana skins" in this division with a few very very tricky away trips. I'm not counting our chickens by any stretch, not because I doubt the ability of our great team and coach, but we should be showing the rest of the division (with the exception of Batley maybe) the utmost respect. It's a case of how tolerant the Widnes fans will be, following potential "shock" defeats at the likes of Featherstone and Barrow, as to how quickly they fall out with Super League Cullen.

Thats what I thought about Warrington when I have seen their squad the past couple or seasons or so.

Fair point but Tolouse in mid Summer once they have got used to the pace of the league won't be a cake walk for anyone and yes underdogs will beat the favourites but I think the likes of Widnes, Fax and Leigh will not lose many at home (and if they do it will be to each other) and the odd loss in Featherstone, Barrow or Whitehaven will be accepted by all but the most gun hoe boards (and to all intents and perposed probably should not be classed as shocks).
.

I know some of you guys on here hate me because I'm always right, but it looks like I'll be right again. The stinkies were visibly worse in their cup game against a injury ravaged Fax compared to our league meeting. And that home defeat against leigh is trully appalling. And now we have that Viking wothisname bugging us cos he's all frustrated. Cullin is a [icrap[/i (in italics littlerich!!!) coach and he'll be out before the end of the season. Am I right? I'm not wrong!

Interesting Tony! A couple more months of what Widnes have been turning out and you maybe correct.

Cullen is not the best coach and if he coaches like he talks on Sky then players will be wondering what the hell he is on about! However the players he has inherited are not the best to be fair. TKL/Dirty Sod is usually injured once a month if not more. Smith at Hooker is not the player he was and there is no back up really to spell him like Fax do with their hookers. Webster is playing behind an often small beaten pack and is struggling to capture the form he once had at HKR. They have no general to really lead them around the park at HB. Wildbore and Doran are penalty machines and always will be. The prop situation is a real concern and cant see them beating either barrow or Haven in Cumbria with such a pack!

I do not think Cullen will go this year as its not a Squad he has had a say in. however should they make a poor start next Season then the pressure will be really on as Widnes MUST win a Trophy to enter the SL race-as i understand it!

Beg to disagree with you there, Der Kaiser. He's got "more than useful" players at his disposal. I suppose if you care to go down our players line by line we could criticise their weaknesses. Widnes have very good players .... badly coached.

O/T - Actually, for future reference - you have to have part of the word in italics - not the whole word. The autofilter must allow the word "crap" through. Sometimes it's funny reading the alternatives - here's an example:

Tony, you're such a ing of a .

Oo-er I want to [ishag[/i u too littleone!

That's not quite what i wrote or meant but is a perfect example of how inappropriate the autofilter is



Back on topic..................

Sack Cullen !!!!

Quote ="Tony Fax"Cullen's inept coaching has caused immense damage at Warrington, a slippery long painful spiral to oblivion which was evident for a long period of time. Even big money signings failed to stop the rot. I have mentioned Rahihi (spelling probably wrong) and Morley as good players turned bad. But how could I forget Matt King? Put it this way, if Halifax had announced the capture of "Super League coach" Paul Cullen I'd be very very concerned. Why Widnes fans are getting giddy about Cullen I find somewhat bemusing. I'm gonna stick my neck out here and say Cullen won't last the season. I'll dig this thread out come September and either be gloating "I told you so", or I'll have the stinky fans laughing and throwing eggs.'" I read the Widnes Fans Forum from time to time to see what they're on about, Seems Cullen stood in the North Stand for the Halifax vs Widnes cup game and got a load of abuse then- ga.oh-servers.com/forum/index.ph ... 269.0.html This also appeared after the cup game - ga.oh-servers.com/forum/index.ph ... 277.0.html I don't know why some fans are welcoming him with Open Arms, If Steve McNamara got sacked from Bradford this week, then in a years time Calland left Fax and Steve Mac came to The Shay, I wouldn't be best pleased.

Quote ="Tony Fax"Cullen's inept coaching has caused immense damage at Warrington, a slippery long painful spiral to oblivion which was evident for a long period of time. Even big money signings failed to stop the rot. I have mentioned Rahihi (spelling probably wrong) and Morley as good players turned bad. But how could I forget Matt King? Put it this way, if Halifax had announced the capture of "Super League coach" Paul Cullen I'd be very very concerned. Why Widnes fans are getting giddy about Cullen I find somewhat bemusing. I'm gonna stick my neck out here and say Cullen won't last the season. I'll dig this thread out come September and either be gloating "I told you so", or I'll have the stinky fans laughing and throwing eggs.'" I read the Widnes Fans Forum from time to time to see what they're on about, Seems Cullen stood in the North Stand for the Halifax vs Widnes cup game and got a load of abuse then- ga.oh-servers.com/forum/index.ph ... 269.0.html This also appeared after the cup game - ga.oh-servers.com/forum/index.ph ... 277.0.html I don't know why some fans are welcoming him with Open Arms, If Steve McNamara got sacked from Bradford this week, then in a years time Calland left Fax and Steve Mac came to The Shay, I wouldn't be best pleased.

I personally do not see the players they have as that good. I do not rate Gannon, TKL, Thackray, Doran, Wildbore as some of the best players in this League although not rubbish neither. Some are past the sell by date and others just seem not to have the right attitude to push on and be stars ever in this League. I rate the likes of Mcgilvray (Batley), Mcnally (Haven), Harrison (Barrow) as well as obviously Gleeson, Penky, Noone (Barrow) who have played at SL level and likely would feature at a lower SL club.

Widnes do have a problem with the coaching and also the team spirit is very poor as they do not seem to pull together. Money can only get you so far. Haven are always tough to beat often due to the team spirit they have and that most have been there for a while and know each other. Barrow are the same. Sure they have spent money but you can see the team spirit they have as well.

I cant see Widnes winning anything this year as they lack quality in the pack especially. The Props are just average players. That means the likes of Smith, Webster who have a bit of quality behind them are going to struggle. I would hazard a guess that gaskill and Flynn do more work than some of the forwards in some games despizte being wingers. I feel Widnes do not have the composure or quality in the Squad to win a final. Also they seem to lack the spirit to hang on in a close game-The Leigh game for example and look void of leadership when something is needed to win them a game.Maybe I am wrong and if so good but thats just my observation so far.

I totally agree with you. If only more fans would speak the truth like this,instead of believing the hype and bull. I posted on the Widnes board prior to the Widnes Leigh encounter, that there would be very little between the two teams. I have seen them both play several times this season and on current form, Leigh are the better side. All this about them coming good etc is rubbish IMO. The reason that Widnes are losing plenty of games and struggling in several others,is that they are not that good. They are not a bad side , but are no better than numerous other teams in the division. As I have posted previously on your board, teams such as Widnes have now played a lot of games this season(14 or 15 I think). If they were going to start really standing out, it would have happened by now. Last season, Leigh beat them in three of their four meetings, you did not lose to them in three encounters, Celtic hammered them at home and beat them by two points away from home, they won very narrowly at home and away to Batley and away to Sheffield, were beaten at Whitehaven were thrashed at Featherstone and lost away to Barrow in the then NRC. Amazingly, however, some supporters and pundits still insisted that they were a class team. Last season , they lived off the excuse of having had a nine point deduction. I recognised at the time that they were an average side and that is being proven again this year. I must stress that they are not a bad side, but they are totally over hyped for some reason. You only have to assess their players objectively, to realize why they are not having much success. Other teams in this league contain some far better players than there are at Widnes eg. Penkywicz, Groom, Higson, Hill, McNally, Black, McGilvray, Donlan, Ropati, Mennel etc. There is a lot of talent spread across the league. Lots of games should be tightly contested. It should not really be a shock when any team loses away from home in this league. I have seen all the teams play in the league and there is very little between most of them. Let's enjoy that fact and stop hyping up average teams and players just because they play for a more glamorous club.

Using the -9 as an excuse? are you for real?


We had to build a squad from complete scratch that year and still made the play offs. This year has been disappointing thus far and we have a chairman who will clear out any dead wood. I suspect we will be a far better team come the end of the season.

Probably the reason is because they are full time. At the end of the day it showed when Martin Hall came to our club we still carried on picking up quality players who prefered to be part time as they had jobs they did not want to give up. Well people say Widnes has money but they do not get Super League salary cap and so they must be left surely with recruiting the sort of players who cannot do anything else but play rugby but are not good enough any more for Super League and are not the best in this league either.

The simple fact is we need to reach a final in the next 2 years and that's us done. If we maintain our crowds and off the field structure then we should be in super league by 2012. If we fail this year then i expect another flurry of signings next year from which Cullen will hand pick and hopefully get it right. Every team also has injuries to contend with but we have had a regular 6 out all year which hasnt helped our cause, quite a few are now returning and i expect a different Widnes side in another month.

Sorry mods as I know this is going off topic but Viking Man I`m sure somone told me you had traveled to the Self Assisted Suicide Clinic in Austria.What hapened I am glad to see you changed your mind the boards just would`nt be the same without you.?

The fact you had had a nine point deduction,does not change the fact that you struggled against all the teams I stated. You were not a bad side last year and you are not this season, but believe me, as a supporter who watches a lot of teams in this division, you are no better than a lot of other teams. I understand that you have a rich history and nobody loved watching your side more than me in the late eighties and early nineties, when you had Tait, Dowd, Currier, Wright, Offiah, Myler, Hulme, Sorensen, Mackenzie, Grima,Koloto,Eyres, Hulme etc. I understand that you are a glamorous club and that you are full time etc and it must be frustrating being a Widnes fan right now, but I just don't personally feel that many people are realistic about your team right now. It is not underachieving. It is doing what I expect of it, based on your players. You will have good and bad days this season, just like many other clubs. I am an impartial observer who has watched a hell of a lot of rugby over the last thirty years or so. I have seen some very good Widnes teams and I think you are a good club, but your team this year really is not that good(or bad). You have to realize that all teams throughout the league have had plenty of injuries this season. It is unlikely that there will ever be a point in the season when Widnes have all their men fit. That is the nature of the sport. You cannot continually make excuses like this. All clubs must deal with injuries on a weekly basis.

At what point of the 'building a squad from scratch' did you not get?


You are correct in saying there are a lot of good teams in this division and right at this moment Halifax are the team to beat along with Barrow. The rest including us are chasing. Leigh IMO are a mid table team and we at the moment are vastly underachieveing, perhaps team spirit is an issue or perhaps we have the new coach syndrome were it will take a good few weeks for things to settle down. We have good players at our disposal who should be doing better than they are and i am as frustrated as hell as to why we are not clicking. I do however have faith that it will come right, that doesnt mean we are going to to blow everyone away it just means that we will be right by the end of the season IMO.