Have always thought coaching is more about personality & getting the best out of your players rather than technical expertise. The players need love /respect you. Our club often gets slated for thinking big but it came off here.

I know we were all a bit peed off that Price couldn't seem to motivate us once we'd signed him up some big-name prima donnas, but you can't argue with what he achieved in the first 18 months. Boring rugby, but he took that bang average 2018 squad to two major finals (Roberts and Brown half-back combination!) and then won the Cup with Hughes and Patton at half-back. I reckon he is the only coach who could pull that off. Maybe Wane and Burgess if given a shot.

He definitely wasn't going to win us the big one, AND give us an entertaining team to bring fans through the door though.

Sam's done well this season and quashed a lot of peoples doubts.
His reputation as a player was second to none. Players can relate to him. They respect him and want to play for him. It will be interesting to see how he - and the team - develop over the next couple of years. One season is promising, three more so.

In the Super League era Tony Smith is the only one I'd say was a top class coach - no matter how much I enjoyed short periods with other coaches (the Cullen Andrew Johns match v Leeds, the Price CC win over Saints etc).

Lowes - a disaster.
Price - BORING
Powell - results speak for themselves, but I do think that he took the hit for many things that were not of his doing or in his control. Don't get me wrong - he must take a fair share of blame but those around him - players, administrators etc - must also do so. We needed a major reset, and we got that but maybe not in the way we expected.

I'm looking forward to next year, but we need to recruit the right players. It's disconcerting how we struggled in the forward battle on a number of ocsssions this year - not least v HKR.

Can’t take it away from Price.

He wasn’t allowed to bring in the players. Fitzpatrick took it upon himself to do that.
Price and Briers making do with the hand dealt to him and gave me to of the best games in the last decade.
Beating Saints at Wembley, and beating Saints away in the SL eliminators..”Lineham,Lineham…LINEHAM!!!”

He should have quit whilst he was ahead mid season 2019. Would have avoided the 3 home playoff flops 2019, 2020, 2021 where he lost his statue rights.

So the “Statue of Limitations “ applies?
I shall get my coat, hat and umbrella…

It's like that line in the Batman movie, you either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.

How differently Cullen would have been remembered if he left at the end of 2005, or if TS left alongside Briers and Morley after 2013...?

In Price's case though things had already started to go sour even by that Challenge Cup final win. His reputation peaked about a third of the way through his second season when Blake Austin was tearing everyone up and was favourite for Man of Steel. But then opponents seemed to work us out. I remember going to Wembley in 2019 with a sense of us sliding downwards and although that single win was the best big game performance I've ever seen from a Wire team, people on here were muttering within weeks that that had just "papered over the cracks" and I reluctantly agreed.

I think after Wembley 2019 the performances were abject & i don't believe it was all at the coaches door. The same gang managed to excel at Wembley.

4

I think back then they were playing when *they* wanted.

At least Sam seems to have stamped that "player power" out.

I think that's the difference between Burgess and Daryl Powell, Powell knew it needed to happen but couldn't sell it in the same way as Burgess. I guess the generational difference and temperament was a barrier.

Looking at the whole picture, you can only look at the progress made and be satisfied that we were in the conversation in both competitions, even more so when you consider the player movements during the year. Kasiano, Dwyer, Dudson, Bullock, Russell all shown the door, without being replaced for long periods and the academy contributing massively. Add players like Thomas, Wrench and Hayes who while they are young, they were part of the plan and in Wrench and Hayes’s case were first choice at one point. All in all, there is huge improvement and you can see there is more in that group.

With all that said, we have to think like champions. We have to think ruthless. We have to unpick why we ended up empty handed, and a part of that is understanding the rationale behind the use of subs. We saw Musgrove play 14 minutes last week, Vaughan with limited minutes again from the bench, changing back from Powell starting to Walker despite that looking like a good, balanced partnership. Did Bateman deliver what we needed?

There are lessons to be learned, and I hope we’re not too busy patting ourselves on the back to be doing a full review and preparing to go further next year. We have to kick the door down next year, Wigan won the lot last year and still went out and recruited, including (albeit a bad call) finding a goal kicker in Keighran. If nothing else, it put the rocket under Smith to develop his kicking. I’m not saying we go and buy, but we need to turn 4 into 6, especially in the games that matter.

Sam has made it that we compete in each game and we have avoided getting beaten by big scores. I think we have only conceded 30+ once and 5 games 20+