I wonder if Huddersfield will go into a bit of a decline when he goe's?

I imagine Wilkin is already looking forward to Brown's hands on approach.

He's working on Draught 4 as we speak.

Does he know that st Helen's is not in Australia

He'll soon realise when his car gets nicked

Sal - I do wonder whether Smith is going to stick to his '4 years is your lot' maxim at Wire. He's in his 4th year there now. They certainly are finding life a bit tougher going this year, but Smith did say that he felt one of the reasons they got beaten in the play-off game last year was far too many easy wins during the season, and not enough tough games. Given recent results - losses to Sts and Leeds and a narrow win at Wigan, he seems to have got what he wanted. Perhaps he should be careful what he wishes for.

As for Brown, its all a bit odd. For all his protestations and talk of how proud he is to be developing young players (he has a fantastic record at that) he seems to have spent most of the last couple of seasons trying to get away from Hudds. It will certainly be very interesting to see who - if any - players follow him. If I were Hudds, I'd be looking for a high profile replacement to try to minimise the number of players leaving. Tio be fair to them, it would be a real shame if they lose players and the obvious spirit they have as a result of so many of them coming up through the ranks together.

They've already announced Paul Anderson has the job. It was part of Brown's succession plan.

As you mention Brown has spent a lot of the time over recent seasons trying to get a job in the NRL. That clearly hasn't worked for him yet. Huddersfield clearly grew impatient with him over that and it was mutually when he signed his last contract extension that he'd leave and return to Australia. Having not found a job, it seems faced with unemployment, he's chosen to take a pay rise from Saints instead.

In terms of their situations it reminds me a lot of Mick Potter's arrival at Saints. He was at Catalans for a couple of years but was after an NRL head coach role. When none became available he took the job at Saints in an attempt to raise his profile, always intending to leave as soon as an NRL job came up. He was reluctant to take the Saints job and it appears Brown is too. It'll be interesting to see how Saints manage it, as if he states he's looking for an NRL job and causes uncertainty it'll be very disappointing.

I'm hoping his desire to return to the NRL has now turned to bitterness towards it and that his family have now settled in the UK, otherwise it's going to be another short term appointment.

Forgot about the Anderson announcement.

It sounds as though Brown's reconciled to the fact that he's not going to walk into an NRL gig, although I suspect his contract will have an escape clause in the event a head coach role comes up. Having said that, I expect the best he can probably hope for is to start as assistant and work his way up.

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/12/04/03/RUGBYL_St_Helens_Nightlead.html&BID=480[/url

good move for saints great coach will make them a better force or maybe the grass may not be greener on the otherside we will have to wait and see!!

Nothing in any of that to support Saddened's assertion that Brown didn't really want to join Saints.