God help wests with them planks in charge!

Don't be bitter.
Simmonds is an EXCELLENT coach - head coach is indeed a different kettle of fish but he's not taking that job at Wests.
I wasn't Potter's biggest fan at Saints but you only have to see what he did at Catalans and Bradford. And we hardly sunk like a stone under his reign.
'Planks'? Lets see.

Benji Marshal has Simmons to thank for resurrecting his career. Simmons was highly regarded at Wests. He worked very well with the young players, one to one, which of course is why he managed to bring on our young players last season and get a team of u20s to the grand final.

Maybe he'd be better suited working with kids then

At the time of the match only 2 players (Gaskell age 20 and Makinson 19) were the only ones aged 20 and under.Hardly a team of Under 20s.His hand was forced into playing a lot of youngsters by a terrible run of injuries and whilst we did well to get to the Grand Final,some of his decisions during that match cost us dearly.Wests are welcome to him.Nice guy yes,head coach,no.

However, a lot of our u20s players helped get us to the GF in the first place. And Lomax was only just 21. Same with Foster and Dixon, all of whom played in last year's GF.


Indeed. But to do it was an incredible achievement for just that reason. Rush couldn't get us to the GF with the same bunch of senior players playing all season.


Like what? Like losing three players to injury in the space of about 20 minutes? I'd say that is what cost us dearly; that and the unwillingness of some senior players to bend their backs.

But you originally quoted it was a team full of u20s,it quite clearly wasn't.

Rush quite rightly couldn't get us there this season.But Rush never applied for the Head Coach job and never wanted it full time.Perhaps he knew his limitations.

2 massive mistakes he made in that Grand Final for me were
1,After Sinfield had kicked out on the full we should not have taken the goal.Leeds where on the back foot.A good kick to touch and a set of six i'm sure we would have scored again and put the match to bed.Going for the 2 showed weekness.We should have gone for the kill.
2,When Shenton went off,he moved Soliola to right centre.He replaced Soliola in the pack with Dixon off the bench.At this time Graham was prowling the touch line waiting to come back on.Simmons should have put Jammer on at this moment.

Anyway its all history now but just a thought,if Simmons is that good a coach,how come he is potters assistant and not the other way round?

Hope they poach Hohaia or Perry to play for them next year?

Throughout the season it was. I didn't refer to the GF alone; you did that. I said he got us there with a team of u20s, which sometimes that is what we had pretty much.


Rush was our head coach for most of the season. He didn't turn down the offer so presumably everyone thought he was capable of it, most of all him given his repeated boasts about his own achievements throughout the season. Therefore, he is to be judged in exactly the same way as any other head coach we have had. He failed to do what Simmons and Potter had managed to do (but Simmons with so many young players throughout the season).

Daniel Anderson got sacked from Paramatta Eels. Does that mean he was a rubbish coach? Of course not. Simmons probably wanted an assistant role after the way he was treated here. He's not a spring chicken so I'd say he's probably opted just to enjoy his job and let someone else take the poo instead. Wise man if so.[/quot

Well if you enjoyed watching some of the stuff we played under Simmons,good for you.I didnt.Im not going to argue this out with you because unlike you i simply dont have the time to spend on here.Just one last thought though,after the debacle at Bradford,did you honestly see us finishing third and being 80 mins from the Grand Final under Simmons?

They both know they ways to finals more than the plank we had second half of last season

Simple:
Potter>Simmons

Everyone knows that, don't they?

Simmons is obviously a good coach, just not a good head coach. Not everyone has the ability to make the step up effectively.

Good luck to him. If Matty Elliot can still get jobs in the NRL then Potter more than deserves a shot.