We may have spent an entire season never passing the ball right under Royce, but that was still a darn sight better than never passing the ball [iat all[/i this. The more I think about it, the more p***ed off the last 4 completely wasted years bogged down with sub-standard coaching make me - we've just completely wasted a squad that should have won at least a couple of trophies in that time without breaking a sweat. Just imagine what Smith or Maggie could have done with them...

Good job given where we were when he took over. Happy that he isn't getting the job full time though.

I pretty much agree with Mugwump's original point.

Rush's remit was to get us out of the horrible mess that Simmons left us in and steady the ship. In that sense, he did a pretty good job. We were 10th in the league after a quarter of the season with 3 games against Wigan, 2 against Leeds and 2 against Warrington to play. To finish 3rd was very good.

On the negative side he sacrificed style which led to some horrible games to watch and his treatment of some of the younger players left alot to be desired. Hopefully Gaskell will get more of an opportunity under Brown, because he brings better balance to the halves than Hohaia does.

He did what was required.

The issue is the fans. Fans where expecting us to fall into an ever bigger hole when Royce left, this did not happen. Then fans where saying we would only make the top 8 or 6 at a push. It did not happen. Suddenly we were in the top 4 and within 3 points of Warrington and fans sights were aimed on top 2 only to be dashed by a great wire display. Once again the doom mongers held sway. Then we beat Wigan and Wire back to back and the hope rises that we will make the final.

In the end I think he did better than expected when he took over.
But once we where on steady ground people were disappointed that we could not go further and develop faster. It's always the way with fans never satisfied.

Some of the weekly mags have noted the performance of Rush, and they have even mentioned he could have been on the short list for coach of the year if the got the team to the Grand Final.

The question is if he did which hat would he be wearing. The "acting head coach one" or the "chief executive one".

Aye, along with The Ape, Tony Smith, Mick Potter, Richard Agar and Brian McDermott! I've never read a single criticism of any coach in either of the weekly RL papers and so it really isn't of any significance that they were suggesting Rush for coach of the year (although it was pending us winning the Grand Final of course).

Seems that most agree, he did a good job.

The weekly papers suggested all of those coaches could be coach of the year candidates.

He did what he was asked to do, steady the ship. Asking him to win the grand final from the position he took over is a bit harsh.
However i still have issues with him not using Gaskell. The boy is an obvious talent and one we were in desperate need of

To me the season was over, dead and buried the instant that Royce was forced out a quarter of the way in. We never stood a realistic chance of winning anything without a proper coach in situ. To me we then either needed to a) get a short-term appointment in a la Anderson or Noble (painful as that may have been) or find a bundle of cash to spring Brown early or b) accept our season was fatally compromised and use the last 20 games to prepare for next year, give some kids a run out and try out some different tactics and attacking schemes to see how they went. Instead we did the worst possible thing of plodding on, expecting a non-coach to give us a shot at the title, with the exact same 17 senior players playing the exact same 6 man rugby every week, leaving most of our youngsters to rot in the stands and the ones that were on the pitch shivering on the touchlines waiting for a rare sight of the ball. There is no escaping the fact that this season has been a complete and utter waste of time, talent, potential and resources at all levels of the club.

There are a lot of interesting views on this post. However a couple of things are clear
1. When Mike Rush took over, the club were rudderless, motivation was low and the majority of fans were in full 'whinge' mode.
2. A lot of the young players seemed unsure of their ability, status in the club and role on the pitch.
3. There was no one coming to the fore as a natural leader on the pitch, some good mature players but no dominant leader.
4. The club perspective seemed to be let's get this season out of the way and concentrate on the next one.

In view of that Mike did a decent job, but he isn't a coach, neither is Keiron, yet!
We acheived third, and, I believe if we had carried on with the expansive football we played in the first half of the semi, would have been looking for tickets for the Grand Final. However there in lies the problem, the game plan was changed by an inexperienced coach and it failed. Mike has never stated his need to be a coach and whatever role he now goes back too, he will give 110% for St Helens (although I'm not sure about Chief Exec!).

Agree with most of whats been said but nobodys mentioned bringing in Josh Jones this season and what a find he is?
Don't think he'd have got his chance under Royce

Jones probably would have got splinters in his @rse being the 17th man if Royce had stayed.