I think if potter had stayed he would have put us back on top again, he's dome a awesome job this year imho with no centres, sometimes no halfbacks or only one halfback and a very very young backrow.

I just hope potter wins the grand final as he don't deserve to be the only saints coach in the super league era to win nothing.

One things for sure, he leaves us with a great platform to build on with the way he's brought some young lads thru.

The ones who are convinced along with you are probably tired of giving their opinion on anything and having you disagree till your blue in the face

Whilst I respect your opinion, on what grounds are you convinced? I don't know anyone personally or on the terraces who are convinced he should go, in fact quite a few were unhappy he wasn't kept on (especially after the less than big reputation replacement), its only on the internet there seems to be a significant anti potter presence and its more to do with personality than anything else.

Disliking a coaches personality is one thing but those refusing to give them praise or credit for what they have helped the club to achieve despite what they had to deal with is a slightly different thing... would you even congratulate him for helping us win the league?? (Apart from packing his bags for him?).

He has certainly done an incredible job getting us to 2nd with so many injuries and so many youngsters having to sink or swim and done so scoring more tries and points than any other team.

Like him or not, given the transitional period he's overseen we are coming out of it very very well for the future.

We had a similar thing with Brian Noble. Some fans couldn't / wouldn't give him any praise. When a few of us explained that he took over from the anti Christ who had left the club in a total mess, and re-organised us from bottom to top they just ignored it. The first thing he did was to get the Orrell training facility as the best in the League, and then started building from bottoms up with the best academy seen in many years.

We at Wigan are now seeing the fruits of the seeds Noble planted, but there are still some who won't give him any credit. I suspect there are a few saints fan(s) who can't appreciate what Potter has done.

Indeed. Whilst Potter may not be the best coach in the world, we've remained competitve under his leadership, we are producing more young players than ever before and there's more to come aswell. Potter and the rest of the coaching staff have done a good job under difficult circumstances.

We haven't won anything yet and even if we did win the Grand Final - assuming we actually get there - that wouldn't change my opinion of how Saints have performed under him, which is what I have been talking about. That he is a cardboard cutout is unfortunate but that in itself isn't what has convinced me that I'm happy to see him go. It's what Saints have been like under him. And I'm not about to get into that because I really can't be bothered given that it's almost the end of the season and he's almost gone. If you want to know my opinions on that then you can go look at my posts from the last two seasons. It's all there.

Interesting that some of your mates were sorry to see him go only when they discovered we weren't replacing him with a big name coach! At least I have some integrity and was happy to see him go before I knew who the replacement would be!

We have some talented players, that's why. Without a few of them - especially Pryce, Eastmond, Roby, Graham and Wello - there is no way we would have been in 2nd/3rd this season IMO.

Saints don't have devine rights to win the grand final and challenge cup every year!

What do you expect of potter?

Being a good coach is about what the team does on the pitch, not what he looks like sat in the stand, not what he says to the media!

Tony smith is rated as one of the best coaches or even the best coach in super league with the best and most costly squad, yet potter is sitting a place above him and scoring more points and tries than anyone in super league.

This thread does make me smile. As I said before we had a similar thing with Brian Noble, particularly last season. Exactly the same arguments (one out boring rugby etc) Then it was pointed out that Wigans wingers had scored more tries (combined) than any others in Superleage. It still didn't pacify them though. Once the daggers in they love to twist it.

So you would swap Nobby back for McGuire?

And who said they did?


To get the best out of what is a largely talented team, which IMO he hasn't done.


You choose to totaly ignore what I write! It is precisely because of what the team has done on the pitch that I don't rate Potter.


Tony Smith has turned Warrington around. They are defending the Challenge Cup. They have gone from tenth in the league to third/second. We are defending nothing and we have gone from first/second to second/third. I know who I would want as my coach, between Smith and Potter.

To be clear they didn't change their minds when Royce was appointed, they were shocked that Potter was let go when we didn't even have a replacement lined up and were then less than satisfied at the apparent initial calibre of the replacement. Hopefully Royce does improve us but only time will tell, god help him with some if he doesn't.

They were not happy to see Potter not offered a new contract as they were impressed with what had been achieved despite having a smaller, older, less talented squad than the previous two coaches, a crippling injury list and having to integrate 6 or 7 youngsters due to the breaking up of the squad over the last few years, to even keep us challenging for the prizes is pretty impressive.

You didn't answer my question, you admit we have no devine right to win anything and talk about performances but then if that is all you are bothered about you can never have been happy as a Saints fan in the last 20 years, did you have any such vitriol for any previous coaches? When have you been impressed that you couldn't criticise a coach and were happy with Saints?

Your integrity lol! You've stated yourself you've been posting complaints about Potter for 2 years! He had no chance with you, the guy didn't impress you from the start and no matter what happened after that, your mind was made up, you wouldn't admit he has done a good job for Saints as it would be admitting you got it wrong about him as a coach, its not a great attitude to have considering you want to work with 11-16 year olds...

I don't think you are in a position to speak on behalf of all of 'them'. And I was replying to a specific post in which that claim was made.


Our squad is younger than it has been in ages this season; it is no smaller than previous seasons; we have played good rugby and poor rugby regardless of the injuries at any given time (had we not done so but instead played poor rugby whenever we had our highest number of injuries then I would agree with that point); our young players were integrated last season, with the exception of Jamie Foster, and have often been some of our better players; and if you're of a mind to judge a coach or a season on the amount of silverware won (which I am not, as I have said on here many times before) then 'challenging for prizes' is meaningless.


You're talking garbage. Like I said previously, read my posts on here.


Here is the meaning of the word according to the Collins dictionary
n
1. adherence to moral principles; honesty
2. the quality of being unimpaired; soundness
3. unity; wholeness
[from Latin integritās; see integer]

As I've said on the previous pages, I wouldn't change my position even if we won the Grand Final because I still don't believe Potter is right for Saints. That's me being honest and maintaining my stand. That's what integrity is about. I thought you needed the definition, though, as you did not seem to understand what the word meant.


That's a lie. Show me where I have stated that and/or where I was posting complaints about Potter over the last two years? Even during this season I have stated clearly on here that I was 'on the fence', not having made up my mind about him. So you're just talking bollox because you want a dogpile.