I am indeed Mark when i speak to parents and people associated with the club they all speak highly of him as a person but more importantly as a coach. I have been banging this drum for a while. As a club we seem to fall into the habit of giving ex players coaching roles with our kids and they don't have the experience or skill sets when it come to development.
Coaching kids is totally different to the world of playing at the elite level they have just left i just don't think it works at all but thats just my take on what i have seen this past number of years.
Theres a bit of work for Walker to do based on last night but he should be given time after all its about developing future first graders and not about results

Your contradicting fox on this post Seth as he was the one out delivering the stuff you are moaning about at the community clubs as part of his role with the foundation before the club got rid of him thats where his bad reputation came from !!

Like i said ive not worked with steve for years my assessment, again compared with walker was on seeing him as a club coach. The community stuff i refer to is my experience of it in previous years, again not while steves been involved so cant comment.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about MB, understand he is now part of the England set up, so clearly is rated. Let’s hope he can keep progressing within the club and with England.

Not seen anything about England Mark but if thats correct it just reaffirms what i've been saying about the bloke all along!!

Yep he's just got the England staff gig for me he could & should be heading up our Acadamy set up in the near future.

They certainly were doing 2/3 years ago. They’d hold a few sessions at amateur clubs. My disappointment was you’d only see maybe 2 or 3 coaches from that club there. I would have expected every coach to be there from all age groups. Yet only 2/3 would turn up along with the regular faces from other clubs.

That’s exactly what McDermott’s coach education sessions were based around. Enjoyment first and foremost, if they dont enjoy it they won’t learn as much and they won’t come back. And also lots of small sided games essentially rather than drills.

With an England Academy tour to Australia in August I know that the staff are a bit worried about the lack of quality up front compared to 2028 when England had Havard, Wilson & Holroyd.
Who do you people rate as potential England props in this age group, Is Rowley good enough ?

I know Leeds are very high on Nathan Snee but he is a year below Rowley and therefore probably wont be selected for the tour. Rowley is good though.

Not related but the Wigan 13 Harry Rushton looked a player the other night.

Rushtons very good, England will likely move him to prop and play Jacob Gannon at 13, was never overly impressed with Gannon in our Scholarship but he seems very highly rated by the England set up and he's put a lot of size on since he was here.

It’s good that was the case though it doesn’t get through to many junior coaches and even the foundation as some of the videos I’ve seen of their sessions in schools etc are awful.

Rowley stood out the other night so did Gibbons no12 imo.
Wrt Wigan i thought their pack ran us ragged which their HB's & FB ran riot off.

Decent win for 18s 44-10 v Bradford.

Luca Atkinson and Ben Meyhew the pick of the bunch for me today. I really like young Meyhew. Like AJ Wallace too but hes been under used as a sub at the moment but hes a big athletic kid that runs well.

Virus permitting 18s and reserves play in a double header at Widnes next week. 16s play Wednesday night too.

Good stuff. Was hoping for a big result today with the team we had out.

Looking forward to the 16's this season, should be a very good team this year.