You have to give Blease and Arthur time here... there is no way you can judge anything yet.

Correct

Or it's possible you are wrong and had RS remained in charge it would have given is the best chance of the 6 this year, given how far in we are. Then again, I don't believe Harry Potter could conjure a SL title from our team right now so it's a moot point really.

I also clocked (and liked) our forwards taking the yardage carries a little more against KR, and the backs that joined in seemed to do it at more effective times. Which is partly why we were looking better because we were threatening their 50/40m line at the end of sets more. Frawley is way more accurate at that range than from our own half.

Overall I'm confident BA is a more effective coach than RS, but either way our squad needs surgery again it seems.

You're right Jim the evidence base for that outcome has been really strong over the last 18 months...

In terms of the squad, I would say that saints were night and day difference under Cunningham to Holbrook with mostly the same squad. I think the coaching appointment is more key than bringing in a wave on new signings, although a couple of props would be ace!

Whilst the salary cap makes it difficult to bring in whoever we want, it also means the gap between top and bottom probably isn't as vast as we'd all think on the face of it.

It is to be hoped Arthur has gone before pre-season - half this squad wouldn't survive a pre-season under Arthur - simply not fit enough.

I'm not so sure Jim

I think RS is right up there with Brad Arthur...

In other news, water is wet.

I just listened to the RS interview on WYS. Thought it was quite interesting for a few reasons. What is obvious and comes across is that he's a decent bloke, and clearly had the best interests of the club at heart.

One really interesting point he made is that the club wasn't in that bad a position when he came in. As fans, I think we can be quick to over-emphasise the problems within the club from an outside perspective because we don't see the inner workings. If you were to look at the club aside, from the first team performance, (women's team, academy, learning / physical disability teams, MND work etc.) you would say it's in a fantastic place. I saw Danny Houghton recently question why fans thought the club was toxic just because they were losing, and I think we probably have a similar view here.

What's clear is that being a champion team is all about effective use of the salary cap. Wigan are able to spend £300k more than us, because they use it more effectively with dispensation of home grown talent, which has allowed them to supplement this with better overseas players.

I think there were fundamental issues with the RS philosophy. I think he expected every ruck in SL to be super quick, and based his entire game plan around quick ruck speed. When that wasn't the case (which I sympathise with as the ruck is appalling), there was no plan B to fall back on and the players looked completely directionless.

We do need a coach though who is of the same mind, carefully bring through emerging talent, create clear pathways for youth, stop gambling on players who are massively injury prone and only play half a season, and we will see the fruits of that. The question now, is whether BA is the man to do that or not.

Actually, I think some of the things you mention there about structure and pathways is the realm of the SD not the Head Coach. I did wonder if RS would be a better administrator than coach, perhaps.

Smith is probably a decent bloke, but the harsh fact of the matter he is incompetent and has completely devasted the playing side of the club. Look at the amount of poor players in the squad. Most of these players will have to be jettisoned before we can start to rebuild. Compare us with Salford, we took two star players from them, yet by and large they still perform better than us. Problems with the ruck? Any decent coach will recognize and rectify the situation. No doubt the club is well run with women’s team, disabled rugby etc etc, at the end of the day the success of the club boils down to the performance and success of the first team. Check out the league table. Not to mention the fact that we have had to bring in an emergency coach to try and stem the free fall. He will probably leave at the end of the season. At the moment not much seems to be happening regarding recruitment for next season. Apart from the signing of a 37 year old winger. You make a list of what in incoming coach should undertake, I fully agree with that unfortunately all these points Smith spectacular failed on. Hence the complete mess we are in.

Interesting point.