That post is the most honest and accurate I've seen on this forum.
The fact is a coach should improve player performance- which player can we honestly say has improved in the time SP has been head coach? I agree a lot of the players have gone backwards - Philbin being a prime example while many have platoed or even gone backwards - Austin particularly.
If a coach like , for example, Justin Holbrook had been appointed ( I know he wasn't available just using him as an example) what would the difference in player performance have been? Look at what Holbrook did at Saints to some players that in the Cunningham era were plodder- Dominic Peyroux an example. No he didn't become a worldbeater but he improved as a player. Luke Thomson another that had a huge improvement.
Fact is SP has got the plaudits for coaching his team to some big wins despite the odds - semi final at Saints 2018 for me the biggest. But was this down to his coaching or did the players over achieve that day? Similar to C Cup 2019. I really like the recognition and honesty of the last post saying Saints had a try appeal ruled out with non referral to video ref.
Simple fact is SP was a poor appointment and wasted years have resulted in player development suffering and consistency lacking. Darryl Powell era things can only get better!

Say what you like about Price, but he’s been let down by a core group of players who also let Tony Smith down and helped see him out of the door. When Price took over there should’ve been a big overhaul in the playing group from top to bottom, there’s an attitude amongst this group of players and it’s been evident long before Price took over.

The clear out that’s taking place now isn’t anywhere near as big as it ought to be. You could easily add a few more to the list.

The club rewards mediocrity and has done for far too long now. Changes need to be made from the top if we’re to progress further and take that next step.

I'll never forget one of Price's first interviews on Sky after a defeat and he said, when questioned (along the lines of): 'I don't know really what went wrong there, I'll have to watch the match back'. From that moment, large alarm bells were ringing. Since then, he's rarely demonstrated any skills expected of a reasonably competent SL manager.

Agree with so much of what's been said already, especially regarding player improvement or lack off - often a guage by which to judge the ability of a coach.

Aside from the awful spectacle, 5 drives and a kick doesn't play to our advantage when we have an average size pack at best. But sadly, I don't think he's ever been capable of anymore as he's never demonstrated anything more than sterile, aimless, basic game tactics which manifest in our performances and his post game interviews. The board should have acted way earlier as this 3 years has been an absolute waste.

I'm still pi$$ed of with most of those players who've pretty much been on a 3 years vacation under Price, but have my sympathies for Hill, a few mistakes aside, deserved so much better - we'll miss him big-time next year.

But the future is much brighter for me. With Powell we have the total antithesis to Price - great brand of rugby, track record of improving players and track record of improving every club he's managed. In Holmes and Matautia, he knows what we need more of - players who'll do an honest shift and more - the cake before the icing is applied with the likes of Williams etc. We do need at least one heavyweight forward to replace Hill and Murdock Massila from last year, but Powell knows what he's doing.

Looking forward to next year. And on a positive, we've still retained the knockout hoodoo over saints!

It was KFP who went to Australia to recruit a Coach, and he chose Steve Price, so he had the authority to hire.

Looking forward to Powell but he hasn't won anything and won't unless we beef up our forwards.

5/10 for me…..that’s for the 5 decent performances in the last 4 years. Just a poor manager. I remember going to the season launch dinner for his first season in 2018 and being totally underwhelmed with how he spoke and WHAT he spoke. He seemed so shy, nervous and introverted that I thought “jeez how is he going to motivate this lot?”. Looks like I was right. Imagine a half time rousing speech from him? No, nor can I.

Lovely bloke, probably a good assistant but no way a head coach. That’s on kiss cam Karl too, both for the initial hire and the extension. Poor.

2/10. Don't let that CF win fool you, if that match had been replayed 10 times in that period we'd have been lucky to register another win.

Price was a weak, shallow coach. Despite changes in personnel, the same flaws haunted us through his tenure:

Turgid, negative tactics
Sterile, safe team selections ( J Clark, J Hughes )
Shoehorning players into the team ( Austin )
Inability to break opposition down
No plan B

Any highlights in his reign were despite him, not due to him.

Powell has a track record of getting close and not winning, I bet he wins a CC with Warrington (getting over his hurdle as a coach and winning something) but will probably fail to win a grand final and overturn Warrington's hoodoo.

Steve starts with a 7 for guiding us to our finest and greatest modern era victory against the Stains at Wembley,
Throw in another one for our grand final appearance and another one for having the guts to take us on knowing the frailties of our management and playing squad nucleus.

9/10 for me, hope we see him back at the HJ soon.

Legend


Footnote: RIP Alistair Brindle and Micky Peers, two fine Wires

1st year i thought we're on to a winner.....then it just went down hill from there.
Crap positional choices, no game plans, no plan B's, picking bench players and not playing them, lack of faith in the kids the majority of the time. The list goes on and on.
Price as a person is a genuine nice guy so i won't slate him personally, but as a coach he was clueless for the most part and as a coach i'm glad he's going, but as a person i wish him the best and hope he does well.
Now Powell is no nonsense, won't take crap or diva behaviour, knows how to up the players games and will instil toughness and grit. Plays players in the positions they are supposed to be in and will give the kids a proper chance.
Genuinely really excited for next year

I’ve been labelled as a bitter Smith fanatic and a doom monger re: Price since the minute his appointment was announced. I was hugely underwhelmed, given his poor record as a head coach, at him being the man who could go beyond where Smith could take us. (For clarity, there was a wide spread theory that Smith had taken us as far as he could, which I understood, but my point at the time was that we should only replace him if there is someone available who is better.)

Price couldn’t take us further, there was nothing to suggest that he could on his application. If we were looking for grand final wins as an assistant, there are plenty of those as even some with an affinity with the club (Matt King for example). But the executive appointed Price, and haven’t really been held to account by the board for that appointment, which in summary has been pathetic.

The same executive have assessed that Powell is the person to not only succeed Price, but ultimately surpass Smith. That is the task, to actually win the Grand Final. Anything less must been seen as abject failure, given the budget/facilities/squad pedigree. I can’t really understand how they have reached that opinion, given that he has missed the playoffs almost routinely, and when he has got to big games, they have been dispatched comfortably.

It’s not clear what the criteria is to be considered suitable for this role, but I would argue that it is a different person recruiting the coaches than it is convincing Johns, Morley and Matt King to join the club. There isn’t the same drive or ambition.

Bennett is going into another grand final next week, leaving the job next week. Bellamy, at the time, was off contract and was the current champion coach. Shaun Wane, for all to see, is ready to come towards a club scene again. These people, like them or not (and I don’t, on the whole) are WINNERS. You can’t buy a win, but - see Jordan Abdull’s interview re: Price - some people can demand better from a group of men.

Powell may work out, may. But whether he does or he doesn’t, the recruiters need to work as hard on getting the coach in as they did at getting Williams in and under the cap. And, more importantly, the board need to hold these people to account, and stop treating the fans with contempt.

Wasn't one of steve price's things he said on day 1 is he wants to play some kids and blood pur future into wire.