It's forwards that Widnes need; a whole new pack in fact.

I like Kevin Brown as a player but it will take a lot more than him to sort that shower out...

i have commented this on the widnes board but what they are missing is a spine in the team that work together, they have a hooker playing halfback and what half backs they have are supporting halfbacks they have no leading halfback. Halfbacks have to mesh together like briers is a leading goes with myler as a supporting, sinfield and maguire etc (hence why they looked a bit better with o'brien in the team as he is a leading style halfback)

also they are lacking an intimidating forward we have morley, leeds have bailey, wigan have hock etc the best they have is cross and he just gives penalties as he cant control his aggression.

brown is a good start as he will bring a bit of leadership but they need a good pack and i hope the rumour of tickle going widnes is true as it will give them a bit of biff upfront.

I think they need a decent Super League coach more than anything.

ps they need to get rid of betts and bring cullen down from his cushy upstairs job

Sign all the players in the world, it matters not if the coaching staff are not of the required standard. As we have proven.

Sign all the players in the world, it matters not if the coaching staff are not of the required standard. As we have proven.

Why Cullen?.....Let's be honest, Betts is their equivalent of Plange, and Cullen would be their version of Cullen.....so why not just skip the under-acheiving period and instead get a top class coach in, a la Tony Smith?

Cullen was useful to us for his first 3 years, his last 3 was a waste of everybody's time.

Cullen is proven coach with sl experience that has connections for signing players

Some of these comments are pretty much what everyone was saying back when we signed Gleeson...

"The Dire will need a lot more than one player to make them competitive for trophies"

"The Dire won't win anything with Cullen in charge, they need a top coach"

Five years later we had a lot more players and Tony Smith as coach and we won the Challenge Cup. But we had to make the first move somewhere and so do Widnes and they've made it.

But realistically....do you expect Widnes as they are now, to be able to attract a top coach? Top coaches have earned the right to pick and choose their jobs and they wouldn't touch Widnes with a bargepole at the moment because it's a fast track to killing off a good coach's reputation - like when Mal Reilly came back from Newcastle Knights having won an Aussie Grand Final and took over Huddersfield....they finished bottom and got an 80 point beating from Leeds and Reilly never coached top flight rugby again.

A coach might be attracted to Widnes if they think they will have the financial muscle to sign a new team and be able to attract decent players so now Brown is there maybe they might be able to turn someone like Brian Noble's head. I agree that Widnes are probably paying over the odds for Brown but I bet we paid over the odds for Gleeson, Reardon and guys like that.

He ISN'T a proven coach.....I agree he may have connections, but once he has the players, he has no record at all of getting the best from them.

A Director of Rugby is as good as Cullen will ever get at Super League level....Let him lure the players to a club, but leave it to a decent coach to work the magic.

We'll be fine. He is just the 1st piece of the jig-saw regarding new signings, with a few players east of the pennines looking to come home the the west, certain goal kicking 2nd row.

Ben "the man mountain" Cross leaving?

He got man of the match for them in the league express report. Presumably for his line break, and then inability lo shake off a defender half his size.

One of Widnes' subs during the game showed that they shouldn't be an SL team, Ben Cross off, Steve Pickersgill on...