What if half of the entire department was underperforming, workers that you know have shown a lot of quality in the past? Surely you'd have to wonder whether there was something wrong with the supervisor rather than the workers, especially if that supervisor admits on record to not knowing what his team are doing.

Nope, that's just crazy talk.

Spot on. But lets not blame the players. And for anyone saying Simmons is to blame, did you have access to the team briefs and training sessions?

No I wouldn't because I know people well. I know about gang mentality, for example.

I would meet with everyone individually and establish their perspective. There could be grievances (bruised egos being typical, especially if I was rotating the more attractive responsibilities), external pressures, misunderstandings or lack of communication on both or one side.

But he wasn't rubbish really was he? He got Saints to a GF and a CC semi despite having most of his first team squad unavailable for large parts of the season and he also put a lot of faith in the young players that have done so well in the last 12 months and to be frank they repaid him by playing like they couldn't be d. The recruits he's brought in on big money have also let him down.

Simmons was a well respected player with a good coaching record and he seemed like a good bloke. IMO the players let him down at the end.

You wouldn't even consider it a possibilty?

I would consider ALL possibilities.

Well, you do seem so open to reason.

I am.

The world has yet to hear about the person who gave 100% for every single second of their working life yet we appear to expect RL players to be outside of the norm just because they are paid to play sport. They are human beings exactly the same as you or I with hopes, dreams, habits, behaviours, motivations etc that are similar if not the same.



It doesn't matter whether you think he's rubbish or not. If as you're suggesting (and there is no evidence to support that viewpoint) the players didn't respond to his coaching then you have to consider possible reasons from both sides and not just from the coach's POV. Motivation isn't just geeing the lads up during oranges for ten minutes, it comes down to lots of things and one of these is actual development. I'm not saying this is the case (because there are a thousand other scenarios out there) but using it as a feasible example. I've worked under with bosses who are nice but have no idea what they're doing and what usually happens is that their gets demotivated, dispirited, disillusioned etc. If there's no improvement an organisation will normally make a decision to replace that person. There are times when player power should prevail but sincerely doubt that Saints haven't thought this through thoroughly. If Brown is announced as coach within the next few days (as Andy Wilson appears to be suggesting) then there's a good argument out there to say this was more pre-planned than first appeared.

So it's settled then.

Mike rush joins tony smith, wayne bennet, craig bellamy....and richard agar as an [iuber[/i coach.

He's world class

What [iis it[/i that you want us to say?

There are 2 guarantees to a super league season. The first is that Saints will hand the Rhinos a heavy defeat.

The second is that leeds will beat Saints when it really matters