Good thread this

Oh yes I'm only a spectator after all

Thanks for most of the comments. Was reading an article by a secret RU player, he said that when even most, if not all, of the long serving RU players hear a new NZ or Aussie accent they sit up a little, and have that bit of fear of him for a while; I don't think that is the case in RL, in fact I think what's in most RL players' un-concious now when they hear an Aussie accent come and coach over here is, 'oh, another Aussie reject trying to get a few quid out of RL.'

In any case I've always liked the way R Agar has come accross in the media, obviously I don't know him personally, I would say that he speaks like a proper coach. I don't think Agar is the right personality to manage England, S Wane is almost perfect for that IMO.

I don't think the players even notice an accent in that regard. In fact Furner came over with credit in the bank as he has been in the Headingly dressing room as a player and aquitted himself to a very good standard. Although I don't know as I'm not in the dressing room I honestly don't think that was a factor

When he was HC at Canberra, I read he used to get the players in the ring with him, to actually have a proper boxing match. I doubt if Bennett, Bellamy or Maguire have done that in their coaching careers.

Anyway, it seems that players nowadays want an intelligent head coach, Tommy Raudonikis and George Piggins wouldn't get a head coach role in the NRL today I don't think, I mean if they were 40 years younger, granted they would almost certainly be different people if they were born quite a few years later.

Furner is a great assistant but he will never be a successful head coach. The best coaches/leaders are great man managers convincing people to implement a strategy that is probably prepared by assistants. It is the HC role to choose the best strategy and get the troops to buy in. Furner is great at the strategy, terrible at the rest