FORUMS > Bradford Bulls > Jimmy out? |
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| There are a lot of mitigating factors to consider before one thinks of getting rid of Lowes and plenty of reasons for a change too.
In his favour you can argue the following:
He’s had to mould an almost completely new team with new halfbacks, inexperienced hooker and new fullback – not easy.
We lost our identified halfback Gareth O’Brien before a ball was kicked and had to recruit a last minute stop gap.
Playing in the championship you have a few easy games – it’s no preparation for the middle 8s.
We have a salary cap that’s the equivalent of 8 decent players less than the SL players we’ve come up against.
We’ve lost our most creative and influential player at the most crucial time of the season (Gaskell).
Our only SL quality fullback has been very injury prone.
A lot of players have been exposed as clearly only championship quality
We’ve had to rely on a makeshift halfback pairing at the most crucial time of the year.
Against him you can say:
He’s had plenty of opportunity to mould the squad against lesser quality teams with the aim of peaking at the middle 8s but has seen form plateau as the season has gone on even when key players have been available.
He doesn’t seem to have got the team to play a consistent 80mins apart from 2 or 3 times in the season despite largely inferior opposition and few injuries to key players.
He’s continuously picked players that don’t seem to contribute anything (Lauaki) and ignored players who have done well (Walshaw and Fleming).
He seems to have not bothered with some players without giving them an opportunity (Davies and Peterson) and dropped others completely (Tahraoui, Baille, Ulugia, Shaw, Uaisele) without any explanation.
He’s recruited players that seem to be surplus to requirements such as Mendieka whilst being unable to fill gaps elsewhere.
In my opinion the mitigations outweigh the reasons for getting rid – for now. Deciding to get rid of a coach is a tough call. Cummins was given the boot because he’d lost the dressing room. McNamara was appointed too early in his career and persevered with for too long. The risk is we do that with Lowes at a time when getting back up is incredibly important to the future of the club. One would like to show patience and you need to give a coach the chance to put things in place but with P&R the stakes are now so high you can’t afford to do that as much.
Before getting rid you also have to ask can the club afford it? Also who could you attract that would be better? Morrison is another great ex player but is no more experienced a coach than Lowes. Brian Smith is vastly experienced but could we afford him? Would he leave Wakefield? Is he really that good anymore? Wakefield have blown very hot and cold. Also would he stay around for long enough if we got him? Would Potter come back? Could we afford Noble? Would he want the job?
Who else is out there with the proven pedigree or would we be looking at another young coach with unproven ability.
I’d be keen to stick with Lowes for now and hope we address the weaknesses in the squad for 2016. If by some miracle we do go up we’d need to bring in 8 or 9 quality players or we’d be coming straight back down. The deficiencies in the squad for SL are glaringly obvious and we’d get absolutely murdered if we tried to compete with the squad we have.
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Pollsters doing Excellent job - say recent polls.: |
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| The salary cap only applies to players who have played a competitive game for us in the season I think. There will be several players who have been here all through pre-season, maybe a friendly as well, but they don't actually count on the cap.
If they set foot on the pitch in a competitive game, their entire salary for the season would immediately count on the cap.
Which is why I think we are obviously spending the cap limit (£1m), but I think our playing staff wages (at least until loans started happening) is probably more - ie £1.1m. I think this explains what has happened to Davies, Petersen, Conroy & Brook.
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| Quote: Highlander "I think this explains what has happened to Davies, Petersen, Conroy & Brook.'"
Not Conroy, who has played competitively (sub away at Batley), but perhaps Bates.
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973_1515165968.gif Last edited by Ferocious Aardvark on stardate Jun 26, 3013 11:27 am, edited 48,562,867,458,300,023 times in total:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_973.gif |
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| Quote: Highlander "The salary cap only applies to players who have played a competitive game for us in the season I think. There will be several players who have been here all through pre-season, maybe a friendly as well, but they don't actually count on the cap.
If they set foot on the pitch in a competitive game, their entire salary for the season would immediately count on the cap.
Which is why I think we are obviously spending the cap limit (£1m), but I think our playing staff wages (at least until loans started happening) is probably more - ie £1.1m. I think this explains what has happened to Davies, Petersen, Conroy & Brook.'"
That can't be right. Why would we ever sign a raft of players on the basis that we do have to pay their wages, but they can never set foot in a competitive game?
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Pollsters doing Excellent job - say recent polls.: |
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| Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "That can't be right. Why would we ever sign a raft of players on the basis that we do have to pay their wages, but they can never set foot in a competitive game?
Bates/Brooks didn't develop as planned? Davies/Petersen training stats didn't match their youtube highlights reel? quota?
You get 3 or 4 months with them before the first competitive game of the season.
An early injury then squad reassessment means you're suddenly surplus to requirements?
If for example you're on £40k for the season, but 6months have passed and you've not played, then the opportunity arises for the coach to sign 2 players about April/May time, both on £20k for the next 6months.
The £40k player is effectively benched, taken off the 25man squad that the RFL hold and unless he gets a loan arranged, is going to be paid without playing.
Or maybe I'm just overanalysing this....
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1271.jpg Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
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| Quote: Highlander "The salary cap only applies to players who have played a competitive game for us in the season I think. There will be several players who have been here all through pre-season, maybe a friendly as well, but they don't actually count on the cap.
If they set foot on the pitch in a competitive game, their entire salary for the season would immediately count on the cap.
Which is why I think we are obviously spending the cap limit (£1m), but I think our playing staff wages (at least until loans started happening) is probably more - ie £1.1m. I think this explains what has happened to Davies, Petersen, Conroy & Brook.'"
It used to be that the cap applied just to the top 25 earners, not sure about now though as that was in SL. I've never heard of it not applying to blokes who don't play, and to be honest it sounds a bit too sensible for the RFL.
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