thoroughly deserved imo, very pleased for him, i always admire players who can turn around their careers.

amazed that ian watson hasn't won coach of the year though, even saints fans would probably agree he deserves it

I think saints fans would have been happy to see Watson get it, but people seem to forget the state saints were in when Justin Morgan came and how he turned it around with pretty much the same squad as cunningham had.

If you can't award it to the coach finishing top by a record points margin, then second placed Salford would have been just as good a story.

Just hope Salford fans can see the flip side of the argument too.

Awards are nice but on field success is what matters. Lomax was not even in the running for MOS, which you could say is more surprising.

When did Justin Morgan coach saint Helen’s

Justin Morgan....really ?

fair points, i just think watson has done great in the face of losing his best players most seasons and with a low budget - i believe he had to directly appeal to the fans by letter at the start of the season to back the club financially (might be wrong on this hopefully a salford supporter can clarify) he's also knitted together a team largely composed of players other clubs didnt want

agree with you on lomax by the way

Well done Jacko gutted for Watto but can see why Holbrook got it, be interesting to see if he can turn the fortunes of the gold coast eANS, we will see his pedigree then.


It is called Squad Builder with Silver Gold and Platinum packages.

[iHot on the heels of the ground-breaking signings last month of Aussie stars Jackson Hastings and Joey Lussick, Salford Red Devils are delighted to launch a new donation-based membership scheme that will enable fans to support the Club beyond the usual purchase of a season ticket and provide the Club with the opportunity to strengthen still further before the start of the season.

Following extensive discussions at our Fans’ Focus Groups in September a desire was identified that supporters really wanted to continue to help the club financially where possible.

As the fans are aware the Club operates without a benefactor and is totally dependent on the revenues it generates to recruit and sustain the playing squad. Whilst the Club staff, board and many volunteers continue to work hard on new initiatives the Club hasn’t historically had the biggest supporter base and is restricted to operate within a self-sufficient model. It was essential therefore, that to build a competitive squad the fans could be excited about additional sources of income needed to be established.

As the success of last season’s crowd funding highlighted that our amazing supporters were totally committed to the idea of a community-led Club, the process of putting together a new onger-term initiative to raise money began.

Now, the Club is delighted to launch a new three-tiered membership package with a unique range of benefits for fans who want to ensure the Club is capable of being Competitive. The tiering system is designed to see us recruit a playing squad that can truly match some of the ‘so called’ bigger clubs.

For either a one-off cash donation or an easily-manageable monthly amount supporters will be able to access exclusive discounts and benefits all the time knowing the extra funding is going towards making Salford more competitive and allowing us to make further signings of the calibre of Hastings and Lussick going forward.

Director of Rugby and Operations Ian Blease said“The Club was extremely grateful for the opportunity the fans gave it to bring Joey Lussick to the Club, and saw it as a pilot for this innovation of the Squad Builder. We are now looking at a different level of funding to allow us bring further acquisitions to the Club so that we can progress further as a competitive Super League team in 2019.”[/i

Watson would have been a deserving winner however nobody can complain at Holbrook winning it.

Justin Holbrook is a very good coach. He served his apprenticeship as assistant coach to Trent Robinson, former coach of Catalans Dragons, who, with his third Grand Final victory last night coaching the Sydney Roosters, has now entered the realm of the Super Coach.

Jackson Hastings is the son of Eastern Suburbs/Sydney Roosters icon Kevin Hastings. However interviews he gave a few years ago showed that Jackson is closer to his mother than to his father. Jackson was being groomed by the Sydney Roosters, but was disappointing to the coach, and thus was released to Manly Sea Eagles. However Jackson's personal conflicts with other players at Manly led to his release to Salford. Luckily for Jackson he was able to turn his life around at Salford, leading them to a Grand Final, and himself to a Man of Steel award. Next year he will be a key player for Wigan Warriors, and his current club Salford is likely to tumble down the Super League ladder without him.

I don't think anyone can doubt Hastings selection. I think Salford have a good team and a very good coach and are generally a well-run club, they are not a one man team. That said you'd have to be a fairly dishonest Salford fan not to agree that without Hastings none of what's happening now would be remotely possible. As I say, they are NOT a one man team but they are a team that totally depends on one player to elevate them from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

TBF most teams who do well have one or more of those type of players, hats odd to Salford for finding and keeping theirs just long enough to do something.

Be interesting to see how he goes at Wigan where far more ego exists.

yes they can. more often than not the coach of the year is the team finishing top, whats the point of that. Watson at the start of the season is the coach of a team expected to be battling relegation, they then make the grand final. Holbrook is the coach of the team expected to finish top and make the grand final which they have. clearly Watson deserves the award more than the Holbrook and should have won it easily.
wrong decision by a long way and sounds like very little thought gone into it.

They should've waited until after the GF. What if Salford wins the GF? And Holbrook goes home with only two LLS (a trophy that Saints used to ridicule in the past)?

I think what people are forgetting here is that the Coach of the Year award is voted for exclusively by the coaches of the Super League sides. So blame them if you feel the decision is wrong.

One thing that could perhaps be improved is that the voting was taking at the end of August. Salford's season was probably not quite so epic yet, they were probably about 5th at the time.

Holbrook himself alluded to this in his acceptance speech, saying that the votes were cast a while ago and that he thought the votes would be much different now.

I think if the vote was later then it's Watson that wins it. At the time it did take place, Holbrook was clearly the right choice.

End of discussion really.

It will only be "end of discussion" after we see what happens in the Grand Final at Old Trafford at the very earliest, and not a minute sooner.