Maybe I should have added or to my post to make my point less subtle.

he should slot straight in as they have lost the last 6 on the bounce.

surely we have better here?


than again in his last playing season he broke his neck twice and was concussed about 6 times, so he either puts his body on the line or had a poor tackling technique, i would prefer to think it was body on the line, which might make a few of ours think.

Before anyone states it:
"Keep the faith"

There does seem to be a dangerous assumption on here that Neil Barker is always right. I may be in a minority but I happen to think the club has handled the situaation they are in pretty well and respected people's rights. (That seems particularly true with our Assistant Coach.)
I await the Official announcement with great interest - though I do keep coming on here to see if anyone can let us know early!!

Looks like the Club want a fix asap, which you can't blame them for. It is worrying that they may sacrifice the right man for the job for someone who can get on board sooner. Slightly underwhelming, but will defer judgement until I see what he can do for us.

David Penna (born 25 July 1972) is an Australian rugby league coach and former player who played for the Parramatta Eels and South Sydney Rabbitohs during his long professional career.

Playing career

Penna made his debut for the Parramatta Eels in 1990. He played 22 games over four seasons, often at centre or five-eighth.

In 1994 he moved to join the South Sydney Rabbitohs and played 56 games for the club over four seasons, usually at centre or fullback.

In 1998 Penna returned to Parramatta where he was usually used at five-eighth before moving into the halfback position in 1999. In 2000 Penna was forced to retire after breaking his neck twice and suffering six concussions in the single season.

Coaching career

Penna turned his attention to coaching. In 2009 he coached an Italian XII and he is currently the head coach of the Manly Sea Eagles Toyota Cup side.

I've spotted a flaw already. If he can't pick the right number of players then we are well and truly goosed....

Don't know - we might actually do better leaving certain players out !

Well Barker has got Penna's age wrong he says 48 in the article

I would like to know the so called big name coach we were supposed to be getting so far everyone named as done nothing in there carrers so far this tells us one thing are club aint attractive enough to top coaches in the game. I would be intrested to know why

You'd be interested to know why we aren't attractive to top coaches?? I think you are being more than a little naive to think we could attract any top coach or player. We don't pay as much as most other SL clubs, we are constantly in the bottom 3 or 4, hardly any fans. I could name an awful lot of reasons but these will do for now!

Well presuming it is Penna then you have to hand it to our club. After the season so far I thought it would be impossible for many regular posters on here to become even more depressed, however, I think the appointment of the coach of the 2nd worst reserve grade side in Australia may just manage to push a few over the edge.

I cannot comment as all I know of Penna is what we all have posted. Maybe he is an expert at transforming messes.

My view (frequently and publicly stated) is we need someone who will urgently take over and radically reform the playing side of the club. That is why I feel we need an Australian as the "British" contenders would not bring fresh ideas that may upset the status quo. We need someone who will challenge and inspire: hopefully the recruitment team will have found this person.

In theory we find out tomorrow.

My concern is that as soon as Penna (or whoever else) takes over, the fans will be on his back as soon as we turn in a poor result/performance.

If it's an unpopular appointment (which it almsot certainly will be, as most of the candidates mentioned on here have been unpopular or unrealistic) fans will be looking for an excuse to slag him from Day 1, which is never going to go anywhere good.

A new coach will need until at least this time next year before they can be fairly judged, which seems to be about 11.5 months longer than the average Salford fan's patience lasts.