I posted yesterday that to sack Royce would be the wrong decision. Ask yourselves will Mike Rush be better than Royce?

Royce Simmons took you to the Grand Final last year, in a season when you had more injuries than an A & E department on a Saturday night.

Super Mc has made a short sighted knee jerk decision.

Doing nothing was just as risky a decision.

I have said elsewhere, Eamon delivered a top class stadium, the fans have delivered on season ticket purchases, it is on the pitch where the team have failed with the third piece of the jigsaw.

The players we have signed arent bad players, they may not be exactly what we need but the challenge for any coach is to get players playing better than they think they are capable of producing. The current crop aren't even performing anywhere near their capability and a change was the ONLY option. Eamon could hardly sack half a dozen players, his only option is to hold the coaching staff accountable.

The issue is that there are 14,000 people on the terraces that need to be kept happy just to keep the ship afloat financially in the long term. As a club we can't afford to suddenly drop back to 5000 season ticket renewals, that would be a business catastrophe, and unfortunately, it's not the losses that seem to have caused the most upset, it's been the manner of the performances, lack of cohesion, lack of unpredictability in their plays (take your pick!) which is within the remit of the head coach. I'm not saying the players aren't as responsible, they are, but ultimately they looked like a group of players who weren't playing for the coach, of didn't believe in what they were being asked to do.

It will be interesting to see what kind of response we get from the squad this weekend against Leeds, certainly a good game to test players desire. I suspect the squad have been told that they too are under the microscope and are playing for their futures.

This...

Great post.

Couldn't have put it better myself. During the Hull game myself and those around me ended up talking about everything else but what was happening on the pitch, it was dire. It was certainly unlike me, but if the 'die-hards' are doing it, what must the new season ticket holders be thinking?

McManus had to act, and he was left in a pretty impossible position. Keeping/losing those new fans is the difference between a stable future and a bleak one, he delivered his side of the deal and he needed to make an example to show them that what is currently happening is unacceptable.

I feel bad for Royce, but something had to happen and other than firing half the squad which would be ridiculous, McManus has taken the only other realistic option.

All of which is just a tad worrying...if you're a Rhinos fan. I'm just hoping you save the backlash for Wire and Wigan.

I'm actually now feeling more than a little sorry for Simmons.

I wonder how many of the players could look him in the eye for any serious length of time after the match?

Very few I should imagine.

Rush put it well in his post match interview. He said the shock of losing their coach had been the difference. Too right. Great pity Royce and Purtill had to be the sacrificial lambs.

The problem with this paradigm is it excludes the chairman from all culpability insofar as results are concerned. Not an issue if the signings he makes are up to the aspirations of the fans. But if they are not there are only so many coaches to can before the problem itself becomes self-fuelling.

You are being very naive over this you know. They may say nice things in the press about Royce, but that's because he's a nice man and so are they. The truth is that there must have been more going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. The fact that Rush and Cunningham made so many changes show they didn't agree with Royce's team selection. The back on the bench policy has itself been benched and the players played far, far better tonight. If they were in any way sympathetic with Royce's plight, they would have been feeling sorry for themselves today, but they weren't.

If they were feeling sorry for Royce they would have played like that 1,2,3 weeks ago. There was much more than just a reaction to a sacked coach.

TP was running far wider than he has all season and was devastating. We had set plays from scrums, they did not come off but there were plays. We had tactics rather than 5 drives and then see how far Gaskell can get us down field. We had dummy runners, 13 offloads in the first half. I would not be surprised if we did not have 13 offloads, in the whole of the season till today. Lance was in at first receiver alot, directing the play, something we have lacked in spades. There was no back on the bench, so after our 20 blitz, we had players to soak up the pressure from Leeds when they had the ball and then we could bring back on TP to plough more holes. Even Meli on the wing was a nightmare for the opposition to handle and Wheeler looked very comfy inside of him.

We have not become contenders overnight but that team would never have played under Royce as that team would never have been picked, which could have contributed to the problems. Although there was more to it than just that.