Interesting comments from an interview he's done. It appears our first team had more of a clique than the Scarlett Turkey.

Hopefully all that's in the past now, although it appears Josh Griffin and Sau don't appear to being 'forced' to have good team bonding.

Do you have a link to the interview?
Only saw the one about him scaffolding

Funny how cliques don't matter when you're winning !

“We struggled with team bonding at Salford,” he admitted. “We had to force it a bit. There were a few different groups among the players.

“It is hard to get that team spirit going when you have a whole new group of players. When I first joined them there was not one player from the previous year’s team.

Everyone heard about the cliques within the team last year surely? Rangi and Hansen were the "leaders" of the one that included the likes of Paterson, Sa'u, Tasi, Puletua, Locke and then Maitua. Injuries clearly played a part, but it's no coincidence team spirit was at an all time low following the Puletua and Locke issues. With Hansen as captain, he and Rangi thought they were running the show.

I cant imagine it was a good dressing room to be a part of.

Stark difference this season, that's why the choice of Tommy Lee as captain was so good. He's respected by all within the club, is a good, honest bloke and wants Salford to succeed. The less Kiwi's we have the better IMO.

Can't remember the clique that was the Yorkshire bus consisting of Broughton, Boyle, Gibson, Godwin and Williams. Don't remember them causing issues though, some could argue that when our team spirit was at its best. However I'd say under Harrison was better spirit, always fought for each other.

If what you say is true I think it must have turned full circle over the years. I was always lead to believe the Kiwi's in general were a lot less trouble and not as high maintenance, compared to the Australian imports.

I think like everything else, there's good and bad. The less kiwi's of the type we had last season will be a good thing, would be more accurate.

Yep, I'd imagine the issue is more with big-name 'talents' who are mysteriously not wanted by the bigger clubs than with Kiwis.

I think any teams resolve would have been tested with the issues we had last season.
Injury suspension , agents ,walk outs , change of coach etc we went through a patch of games where we threw any half fit player on and only narrowly lost.
Had we won a couple of those and made 8th spot maybe these cracks woukd not have widened.

Teams like wigan , leeds have good team spirit due to a settled side and relative success. Trouble causers are 'moved on' and not left to spoil the barrel.
'Written off' team s like salford have to gamble on some of those talents.
I like the Sheens _Watson strategy this season, BUT.
There has again been a large turnaround in personnel,
Any new found harmony will at some stage be tested, by hard luck, a poor run of form decisions , If we are battling like Rourke's drift mid way this season we can give the dressing room a clean bill of health.

Personally I'd prefer us battling as we were at Agincourt or Poitiers : defeating the theoretically better sides despite dysentery, hunger and numbers and taking no prisoners. Last year was endless Light Brigade charges and thin red line defences. Mind you the new ground in winter does remind me of photos of the Crimea: do you think Putin would want to take it off us?

Excellent post. When things aren't going to plan and the situation gets tough the fingers can start pointing and a blame culture begins. The hardest thing to do is to stick together when a team is being judged negativity. Some of these genetically gifted athletes may easily have the strength to bench press 100+ kilos, but it's also about having the mental strength and discipline when things are going against you.

Love him or hate him... I had a conversation with Neil Barker and he said at the time we were signing all these players that he felt it was going to be an issue in the dressing room. He fully expected a split in the camp.

I doubted what he was saying... thinking that surely these players were way too experienced to allow that to happen. Seems I was wrong.

I'm sure young Neil (AKA Mario) is expressing the same insightful knowledge to his new employer and any potential sponsors. Furthermore if things start going Pete Tong in the 8's again, I'm certain there's a large gulf in wages between a crop of big earners and the other players at Leigh, just like there was at Salford. It could be a problem if some start letting the side down by swimming against the tide. Big financial commitment by Mr Beaumont. I genuinely hope he gets some pleasure out of it after donating a lot of money to RL, like so many dreamers before him.