People seem to be forgetting that anyone however talented and rated has to start somewhere. No bright young coach is going to come in coaching Australia. And there are not many jobs, especially in the UK. And of the jobs in the UK, whilst the Bulls clearly ain't what it was, it is a hugely more interesting and promising gig still than the considerable majority of all other pro- and semi-pro- clubs.

Unless nobody with talent and ambition wants to go into RL coaching any more, we should have no problem at all attracting the best of the current wannabees, and I should imagine plenty of the incumbents of lesser roles at less well known clubs.

He is here to do a job for the bulls, anyone who is judging this guy on anything other than rugby league, are sad, because it’s about the bulls not about his past, everyone has a history, but surely we should be looking forward to the future of the bulls

Not quite true. Respectable finishes in SL during his time there. He also took them to a CC semi-final and a final - albeit with a lot of financial backing from Ken Davy. I can't comment on his brand of rugby - not familiar enough with the sides that he's coached.

As for all the other stuff - they are just rumours. He left the RFL with their best wishes, so however he is alleged to have behaved, it clearly wasn't raised as part of any grievance procedure. And yes, I'm conscious that we aren't talking about the most professional organisation in the world - but nevertheless it seems unfair to cast aspersions without proof.

In fact if previous posters are subtly suggesting that he directly caused someone to commit suicide, then that poster should perhaps rethink his/her post and the admins should also consider the possible consequences of such veiled accusations.

FWIW - as someone who would have liked to have seen someone like Karl Harrison come back into the fold in a coaching capacity, I don't see Jon Sharp as being a million miles away in terms of his experience/approach. So if these rumours are true, I'd be fairly positive

Fa is right in that we should be able to attract one of the latest and brightest potential coaching candidates (people have mentioned Lee greenwood in this regard previously) so if it is going to be JS, and we do appoint an assistant, I'd hope we appoint a young ambitious coach as number 2, so we might get the best of both worlds. Someone experienced and steady to get us toughened up and out of league 1 and nuture our own potential replacement for the future at the same time?

A bit of a simplistic view I think. Nobody wants him to fail.

I believe the assistant has already been agreed at the same time as appointing Jon Sharp

If this is such a done deal, why would the club today announce Leigh Beattie as interim head coach? Surely we would just announce Toovey leaving in one release, then announce JS arriving in another release? No need to announce an interim...

The comparison with Jimmy is an interesting one, to say he was adored is a bit of revisionist history. Yep, the people who shouted loudest would have you believe it was a great appointment, however there were enough people on here - myself included - that pointed out his past record as a head coach wasn't exactly good despite us liking him as a player - the reverse of Sharp in a way.

To put it delicately, just because the RFL have not highlighted that any grievance procedures were brought against him, doesn't mean there weren't, they just werent made public. There is basically no information at all about why he left,which is how rumours start to be fair.

really are turning into the feeder club with our ex coach now too

You'd think. And now the added attraction to being assistant at the Bulls, is being No.2 to a coach of proven SL quality and experience. It's so tempting, I might even apply

Sharp is the type of coach you needed last season! He'll get you playing solid, no nonsense rugby which, unless you're a Toronto, is what is needed to get out of C1. The reason given for him leaving Fev was that the Chairman was bored watching the style of rugby he coached. Whether replacing him with Duffy (whose team certainly threw the ball about when I saw them but didn't exactly break many pots) will prove to be a good decision remains to be seen - the same Chairman 'sacked' Powell because he wasn't good enough not too long ago......

I'd agree with nearly all of this except Sharp is a much better coach than Harrison imo. The majority of Fev fans were very pleased with what he did at the club, especially turning round a team that was underachieving badly. His contract wasn't renewed because Mark Campbell has high expectations and top 2, rather than top 4, was the goal last season; additionally, he (Campbell) felt the brand of rugby wasn't very exciting.

I doubt you're going to see scintillating flowing rugby if Sharp is your new coach, but you're likely to be a very solid and well-motivated team under him, and it would be a mistake to suggest he is unpopular with his players; there were certainly a couple whose face didn't fit with him at Fev, but the experienced and well-respected Andy Ellis stated a few months into Sharp's reign that he had "brought the team together like never before".

I also don't agree with the poster who stated that Sharp is a boring speaker; in his pre-match and post-match interviews at Fev he was articulate and invariably made a lot of sense, which wasn't always the case with his immediate predecessors, notably John Bastian, who might be a wizard at developing youth players but seemed totally out of his depth as a head coach.

I did acknowledge this point in my original post - I accept that the governing body are somewhat lacking in professionalism, but I still think it's one hell of a leap to suggest that the behaviour of Jon Sharp led directly to someone committing suicide. There may have been stuff happening behind closed doors, but the press release at the time of his departure was nothing but positive. In my experience, if someone leaves a business 'under a cloud' the parting messages are somewhat neutral - certainly not the case when JS left the RFL.

If I remember correctly, allegations were made against JS by a particular ex-referee who himself was suspended three times during his career - the final time for behaviour towards female employees. He chose to retire instead.

So you can take the view of 'there's no smoke without fire' or you can accept that in any walk of life some people rub other people up the wrong way. In terms of his RL experience and coaching ability, I reckon JS would be a strong choice for us.