I'd love to buy into Barker's personal Salford wet dream but I can't see it. I'd love to be wrong though, Brian and Brian would be a massive ticket for us. Come on, Marwen, get them both in, the rest of RL will pay you a lot more respect than you've been given.

On the photo in the MEN article, did anyone notice the Letters wrote on the ball that Brian Smith is throwing?

It's a sign!

...Ok, I know it's Sydney Roosters before the hasty Keyboarders scrabble to be first to point out my error.

Noble thought you were after the best?

Whatever happens I hope we manage to keep Sean Long as a specialist attacking coach, for the last year or so his obvious influence has been the one bright spot in a sea of mediocrity!
If we do end up à la Barker with a double helping of Brians will there be room for Longy too?

If Noble does get the job he will obviously need good people around him in his backroom team that he can trust. You may think this is crazy idea but I wonder if a big enough offer could be made to entice Karl Harrison back in some kind of coaching capacity role. KH has worked with Noble before and he understands this club and I still believe he has a passion for it.

I know some will say don’t go back but I genuinely think Harrison has a lot to offer, especially working with some higher caliber players going forward.

Said it for a while get Harrison involved in some capacity as defensive coach, think along side Long that's a fair set up.

Don't follow with the Noble and Smith thing as think its too many cooks as one would naturally be assistant to the other and that wouldn't work for me plus you run the risk of losing Long one of our biggest assets.

Smith/Noble head coach.
Long attack coach.
Harrison defense coach.

Can't see him leaving a head coach position to be assistant again. Hes done his time learning his trade, plus hes at his beloved Halifax. One a the biggest mistakes we made under Wilky was getting rid of Karl, the last coach in 20 years to leave a legacy I felt and put a lot of good things in place only for others to knock down. Would like to see a defence coach brought in though to work with longy and overseen by Noble or Smith

Got reservations about Noble, will it be 5 drives and a kick, will Fages, Sneyd, Evalds etc, be relegated to loan or duel reg. Will he do a Veivers and get old so called RELIABLE players in playing boring rugby

The two players who we have, supposingly, agreed terms with but are waiting for the new coach to be in place, before we sign them. This strikes me as a Vievers deal that they don't really want and this is a way out

Money talks Stanley.



The guys coached teams to win 9 major trophies that had some of the most entertaining players of the noughties. The Bulls weren't getting 15,000 - 20,000 crowds by putting the ball up their jumpers.

Bradford won things because they had a huge pack who ran over the top of other teams, Noble always lacked a plan b. Once teams used small nippy players to evade his pack they lost out.

It was right to sack Harrison, as much as I admire him and think he did wonderful things in trying to bring the club kicking in to modern times he lacked the ability to adapt (much like Noble) Once other teams worked out his game plan we struggled and ended up relegated. The game V Catalan was the last straw for me. I always hold him in high regard but he lacked something to be a world class coach.

Stop teasing me with talk of a pack that runs over the top of teams, I don't think I've ever seen one of these at Salford.

Perhaps Noble will be our defence / forwards coach been doing it at wasp's? Long as our backs / attack coach our new ozzie assitant as assistant and brian smith as head coach ?

How many people are in other super league backroom staff? More than ours I suspect

Please,please give us a big strong pack that runs over the other teams!

You're right,Karl went to plan B, a lightweight top of the ground pack that was relegated !

Anyone who was at Catalans that day would agree that he had to go.

Following Karl Harrison's dismissal he even admitted to the media that he understood the decision. It's easy for people to say it was a mistake years later but at the time the vast majority of supporters wanted a change.

More backroom staff could only make things better for us, but I'd be highly doubtful someone would give up a head coach job to play second fiddle. Although you never know I suppose. As for a big pack that runs over opposition, it's what we've needed for the last fifteen years. Don't see that as a bad thing.

Just to point out that the dominant Bradford pack was largely successful due to novelty. They were the first club to adopt a musclebound, run over the top of the opposition approach. Hell, they even had an 18st winger! Since then, many clubs have adopted a similar approach and as such, simply buying or producing bigger, stronger players would fail to achieve the success Noble had previously with Bradford. It's a bit more complicated now.