So who do you think the new coach will be?
and who do you think will stay? and who would you like to see come in?

I fear that the coach will be John B and the squad will be made up of academy lads and a bunch of lesser lights from this year's squad with maybe a couple of exceptions like Moore and Hallas.

I hope we'll have a proper coach e.g. Toovey for another year with Lee Greenwood as an assistant to take over in 2019 - a bit like a Smith and Elliott handover. I'd hope to keep the following - but I doubt we will.

Pickersgill
Smith
Ryan
Rickett
Oakes
Gibson
Chisholm
Keyes
Aston
Butterworth
Moore
Hallas
Kirk
Magrin
Peltier
Sironen
Wilkinson
Hodgson
Lumb

The simple truth is that clubs need to look to themselves to get crowds in. Sitting back and expecting the away teams to bring in sufficient supporters to fund their clubs is ridiculous, in fact it's beyond ridiculous; as a business plan it's risible.

To be fair, one of JB strengths is that he's fully aware of how to treat the academy lads, so I doubt he's one who would, 'flog them', by putting them into open age, either in greater numbers than is good for them or before they are ready. My main doubt about him as a head coach is that he did it once before (at Fev, I believe?) and he wasn't exactly a rip roaring success. Of course, Daryl Powell wasn't a rip roaring success in his first head coaching job either, so maybe we shouldn't just diss someone on that basis?

To be honest, how we do next season depends on so many things so it's impossible to say how we'll do, but one thing is certain and that is the owners are going to have to get the cheque book out if we're to have any chance - whoever the coach is.

Most are hand to mouth and many are probably operating while insolvent. I suspect they haven't the time or money to do any more marketing than they currently are doing. That said our own efforts are hampered by the spelling and grammar of media releases. That's easily solvable if the owner is bothered.

Perhaps this is where the RFL could help? Perhaps paying for some consultancy to get out to all clubs to improve existing marketing and PR practices?

Mick says that there is def a restructure announcing next week.. who thinks this is the case?
If the championship has voted to keep us I hope we know and are recruiting accordingly.

There's this permanent feeling that you can't quite put your finger on, that the RFL has something planned, and that our owners are aware of it to some degree. Of course I could be utterly wrong but I've had a feeling that the restructuring has been known by our owners for some time, but that it was made clear that our staying in the championship must not be referenced by us for fear of an outcry.

To be fair to John, he replaced Daryl Powell, he was never going to replicate what Daryl did. Look at what he is doing at Cas. The players aren't world beaters or champions. The squad is probably 4th-6th team looking at the players on paper. But Daryl has got them playing unplayable rugby. Give any other coach the Cas team and i don't think they come top IMO Didn't Fev lose to Leigh twice on the bounce which also contributed to his downfall? Leigh only lost once that year i believe. Replacing a super coach and the rise of Leigh probably didn't help. They were third when he was sacked. They've had a few coaches since then and i don't think they have finished any higher.

If John is appointed, i've no idea whether he will be a success or not. We'll get the usual experts who only ever post on here when having a dig at us with stories of "Johns training was players practicing how to try their shoe laces etc" As others have said, Daryl Powell's first coaching job wasn't a success. Chris Chester under performed at Hull KR, but has taken Wakefiled to unprecedented heights. Or he may not be a very good coach and his skills are developing junior players.

That would make sense Pumpy, especially as one of the earlier 'owners' (the gang of three, iirc) made public some decision they claimed had been made in our favour regarding points, funding to be docked or some such. After that they denied it was ever a deal and then, presumably to teach them a lesson, rescinded their, errrm what ever it was(n't) and did us for the full amount. The 'owners' resigned shortly afterwards I think.

I’ve no doubt that John knows more about when players are ready for first team than anyone. I’d have no problem with his judgement on that front. If we have a squad with enough depth then I’m sure nobody would be thrown in at the deep end.

However if John did get the job and didn’t have a squad with enough depth he’d have little choice. It all comes down to whether Chalmers is prepared to ensure we have a squad equipped to cope without getting the kids smashed.



John B wasn’t a success as a head coach at Fev. I don’t know what went on there and he may well have learnt from it. I don’t think Powell is a good comparison since he was at a top club with money to spare and worked with some of the best young players for decades. He even took Leeds to the cup final and they were very close to us at the time and that was when we had the best Bulls side in living memory. He did very well IMO. A better comparison might be Francis Cummins.



I agree, at the end of the day it comes down to how much the owners want to spend. As we’ve seen you can have a good NRL coach but without the players it’s not much use. Same applies if we have a good C1 or Championship coach.

Spot on.

However I think that there's so much up in the air at the moment. From what I hear nobody at the club knows 100% what's going on. Hence no decision from Toovey or any announcements on re-signings. Chalmers doesn't speak publicly anyway.

Some championship clubs are struggling financially or have no home ground or both. Some C1 clubs aren't in much of a better state.

I don't think any decisions will be made until all the Championship and C1 fixtures are done. Even then I can see it being left as it is.

Yes they do need to do more themselves but away support is a vital part of any club.
If you get 1000 away supporters each game - say 11 games you get in roughly £200k+ from them alone.
That is not peanuts. It is a lot of money to a small club. Every supporter counts, even away supporters.
I just don't get why wanting the away support to help fund your season is ridiculous. Surely as a business you need every customer you can get.
This is why having Toronto, London, Toulouse, possibly Catalan and maybe Barrow will be causing great concern to the teams in the Championship. It will matter very little what the club does to get larger numbers of away support from these clubs due to the travelling distance and costs.
Batley and Dewsbury could assign you your very own lap dancer for the whole 80 minutes and the supporters from these clubs still wouldn't travel.
You are right but that would mean that 6 games they need to do better and the other 5 are a lost cause. 6 games only to target in a season. How can a business run like that.
That is why they are wanting more games and us staying up would be a bonus.

How would we go on regarding contracts if we are now relegated and wanted to terminate a contract as it is void due to relegation - and then in November we are saved.
Could we tear up Smiths contract and he goes away and gets a lower paid contract and then we stay up. What would happen then? Could we use "we are relegated" to lose the ones we don't want.
It could be tricky for players who are on a longer contract who leave because we are relegated and then find out we aren't and never really were and they are then worse off.
Someone give Caisley a ring for some legal advice.

As I've said before Bastian was sacked by Fev as he totally destroyed the spirit in the dressing room. His player judgement could also be called into question: he got rid of the (then) best half back in the Championship because he wasn't quick enough for the type of rugby Fev would play and then went on to send out teams to play the most boring rugby seen from a Fev team in many a year, whilst said half back went off to play (and is still playing) in SL.

He let Finn go? Bit of a clanger!