He also responded to Eddie's "knocking on the door" appraisal with "I hope it's not the Jobcentre door".

Which did two things for me.
1) Reminded me of Paul Ince's "Bottom Three" 'joke' in his first press conference as Blackburn manager.
And
2) Hinted that he perhaps doesn't expect to have a long term future at the club.

I think Lowes himself isn't stupid enough to believe that this job is a long term one for him, thus his regular use of 'gallows' humour.

I think most people agree, and even he probably would, that a top 3 finish and/or a Cup Final appearance would be the bare minimum to give him a chance of being in his job this time next year.

He's just keeping Tony Smith's seat warm

He could cure cancer and pick up a Nobel peace prize, but he still wouldn't be here.

Do you think that transmits to the players in any way? If it does, is it an issue? Ie, can it have a negative effect.

I think there is an element of it, but at the same time the players should be aware they are effectively on a 12 month trial.

especially since theres a lot of contracts up this year

One of the things I found strange was him admitting that Wire had not had enough pre-season games.

Surely it was his decision not to play senior players v Wigan, and not to have at least one more friendly.

A fact that couldn't be more true. We even had a game against Salford arranged until Hull KR took our place.

He did also say that it was his fault.

He said a couple of weeks back in an interview that he would have liked one more friendly but there had been a cock-up.

There was one apparently with Salford IIRC that was cancelled or never happened.

Domestic rugby and international rugby are two different things.

Noble and Smith were both top notch club coaches, but crap international coaches.