gonna be honest, i'm not seeing the mark gleeson thing.

Agreed about Higham. I always rated him at Saints when he rotated with Cunningham in pre Roby days. His stint at Wigan i recall was when they were having a few poor seasons? so may have brought his stock down a bit. Was disappointed when he left us for Leigh.

In terms of coaching - Tony Barrow.

No prior coaching experience.

Took over from Reg Bowden side as a caretaker 6th March 1986 (Bowden was sacked with us in 6th place in the league P17 W11 L6)

Won the premiership after 2 months in charge 18th May 1986 as massive underdogs.

On Jan 4th 1987 had taken us to the top of the league, and we end the season with a creditable 3rd place with Phil Blake scoring 22 tries and a 15 game unbeaten run.

Barrow was sacked after losing away at Castleford 23rd October 1988 in 7th place (P8 W3 L4) replaced by Johnson. We ended the season in 11th.

We were very demanding of coaches in those years it seems.

I remember a lot of people wanted Steve Price to be sacked at the end of the 2019 season. If he had been he could be in this category also - took us to 2 finals in his first year, won the Challenge Cup in his second and delivered two major big game victories over Saints!

Steve Price never failed to surprise. Particularly at the end of 2019, 2020 and 2021.

I don't think anyone was surprised by the end of 2020 or 2021...