The DP quotes are bizarre.

“If you look at Leeds last season, they were struggling and where did they end up?”

Strange comparison to make. What did Leeds actually do to halt this struggle? The coach resigned before he was pushed and they hired a new coach with new ideas, and he took them to the GF. I’m all up for doing that tbh.

Roy Orbison (someone's pop master post just made me want to join in).

This is a notion that the fans negativity is impacting the players performance, being spouted by the guy who sits alone in the coaches box for 15 minutes after a game, going into a huge game (against the team likely to be directly below us in the table) in 8 days.

If we’re looking to spread some positivity and encouragement, get in the sheds and pick that team up, do your flaming job and get them prepared to get out there next week! It’s a Thursday night, school night, moneys tight and he/the club have the cheek to suggest that the fans aren’t doing their bit!

I’m sorry, that is absolutely absurd. Absolutely ridiculous and without putting to fine a point on it, completely taking the pis

Well he had to have a pop at the fans because the other scapegoat Riley Dean is (bizarrely) at Castleford. Maybe we could all stay away next week (I will be) and see who he blames then? Probably the Saints fans for laughing at us.

The trouble is, Leeds are everything that we are not, ruthless, successful etc. Powell knows this to his own cost, as he was "demoted" to make way for Tony Smith. They realised Powell wasn't the answer, and they won a GF within a couple of years.

As I said when we got beat by HKR last year, I'm resigned to Powell being here until the end of his contract. In that time, he'll have upset virtually everyone on his playing roster, bar Mata'utia and Ratchford. Hell have forced out fans' favourites (Cooper and Hill), and ostracised a player (King) who's contract was extended by Powell, before he officially joined the club.

He really is losing all grasp of reality.
Unfortunately, so are our board

Every week I suffer this, I look back at my decision during Covid to not take my money back. I kept it in, almost feeling obliged to in order to keep the club sustainable and to keep it alive.

I’m not going next week. I’ve sunk enough money. And now to be included as a part of the problem just really jolts, coming from what is an obviously crumbling leadership. I don’t want money refunding, I don’t want apologies, I just want someone to bloody care. No doubt the club will be tweeting as if it never happened come Monday.

Tbh, I don't think there is anything Powell can do with the current squad that is going to cause an upturn in fortunes.

Short of refusing to leave the dressing room the players couldn't make their feelings clearer. Thats appalling, but maybe they are even more frustrated with Powell than us.

Williams will come back and we will win a few, lose a few, we might sneak into the top 6 but we are bailing water with a holed bucket on the deck of the titanic here.

There's an age-old tactic of doing what your opponent would not want you to do. So what would Wigan/Saints NOT want Warrington Wolves RLFC to do right now? That would be to sack Powell (and KFP) and install Holbrook/Wane or any other proven coach. What would they want us to do? The answer to that is for us to carry on as we are with Powell/KFP in charge.

This is an excerpt from a poem by Stevie Smith entitled "Not waving but drowning" - seems apt

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

One of the criticisms of Cullen was the peaks and troughs of the season. He would get some really solid results, often against good teams, then expend that mental energy and hit a lull for the lesser teams.

I think we might be seeing the same from Powell. There was a desperation, almost self preservation, at the start of the season. A couple of selfies and contract extensions later that “need” has gone. And I’m not sure we have the skill to play without need. Players like Briers, Langer and Gleeson played for us without “need” but had enough ability to still be 6/7 out of 10 every week. But with players like Matautia, Ratchford, Dudson, (reluctantly) Philbin in the team we simply don’t have that underpinned ability.

At least with Cullen we’d get beat 41-40. Right now it’s dire to watch, worse than Price-ball, just not as effective.

Seems we let some of the wrong players go when our former cast offs are coming back to haunt the Wire.

Let's not try and rewrite history here, lads .. Widdop and Austin were both as big a waste of spaces as any of our present bunch AND they stole 3 years of marquee money while being so...

It's the lack of accountability that I can't stand. I didn't like the early narrative last year of a few bad eggs in the camp being the problem. It's a coaches job to get the best out of what he's got.

And the lack of improvement, infact its actually regression in all areas of our play - wtf do they do in training? How about working on reducing the stupid errors. How about suring things up at the back and completing sets. How about having some kind of ideas in attack. These players of course could do better but they aren't bad players. They look lost, frustrated and devoid of any kind of game plan....and that I'm afraid is 100% down to the coaching set up. And if it's a 3 year plan it's a rubbish plan if years 1 and 2 are absolute gash

They just aren't a very good side, simple as.

While sacking Powell might seem a viable and attractive option right now, what would it actually achieve in reality?

Yes, we'd probably get a 2 or 3 game new coach 'bounce', but once that novelty wears off, we'll still be left with a lot of average Joe's who are no better than many of the sides loitering around the bottom half of the table.