It wouldn't be the first rumour we have dismissed in no uncertain terms, only for it to come into fruition. We live in hope!

Has it come to this

Monaghan M. Well Catalans have been ripping up trees, since he's been there.

Briers. Part of the "Coaching" team, that currently involves us playing the likes of London, Fev and Fax. Laughable.

and now Duckie brings up (again) his obsession with Kear, who's not had a head coach job in years.

We've flopped lower than whale pooh.

I've asked about Briers role many times on here but no one wants to answer that, to busy ripping into Smith and Agar and rightly so in my opinion but Briers is just as culpable, loved the guy as a player but I've not seen what he as brought to the coaching table.

I have said many times, good player does not necessarily mean good coach. The best coaches in the League right now went away and did the hard graft, rather than waltz into the job off the back of past glories.

The Briers experiment has been, on the whole, a huge let down.

We lack flair, off the cuff play and 40/20s, things Briers excelled in, with a jersey on. We look rigid, and not very easy on the eye. A HUGE amount of blame lays at the feet of Briers.
Let's look at Patton. He should be blossoming under Briers tutelage. Instead, there are missing persons announcements for him, come game time. The lad isn't improving. He's not an upgrade on O'brien, and that's not difficult.

As karetaker and Ganson's allude to. Briers is more than culpable for our woes. A good player doesn't mean a good coach. England 66, anyone?

Well, there are two possibilities. One, Briers was a fantastic player but has been unable to translate that into coaching acumen and teach the likes of Patton the intricacies of attacking half back play.

Or two, the likes of Patton just aint good enough no matter who teaches them.

Ellery Hanley broke the incredible player / excellent coach conundrum and he's out of a job at the moment. If we recruit him will he turn us into 17 clones of him? If so, someone pick up the phone quick.

Or a third.....
It could be coached out of them?

Well again we don't actually know the coaching structure at the club in terms of who gets to do what, (or not) and who is pulling the strings etc.

Perhaps its something someone could ask at one of these "fan" nights?

Or fourth, he's a good half, playing in a rubbish team

Atm Agar is pulling the strings.

Please, come now, let's allow a little dispassionate truth to shed some light. Where is the slightest hint of evidence that Declan is a good half, is going to be a very good half and merits the time, patience and understanding that his colleagues do not? Tell me, cite some examples.

Unpalatable it may be, certainly unpopular, but the truth is that Ratchford, Brown & Gidley have all individually provided more moments of class, skill and game-breaking acumen than Patton has over the course of the season. None of our halves need to press their tuxs for the RFL awards this year, but Patton has been the worst.

At 23, he has been coached by one of Britain's best halves, played alongside an Australian international, another aussie of mercurial, X-factor genius and a couple of international playmakers, and he appears to have learnt very little.