Fair comment.
I’ve nothing against Powell, and I’m happy with his appointment.

My comment was generally about thinking outside the box and I know I’m going off the threads subject but:
What makes St Helens go for Justin Holbrook who in a season and half turns them into grand final winners from what he inherited (coached the Australian kids for a few games) and lays platform for another coach in Kristian Woolfe a coach who had a few games with Tonga take over and his likely to win 3 on the bounce.
If any of them 2 were mentioned when we employed Steve Price, 95% of this forum would of asked who?
The thing is with Saints when they make a mistake (Cunningham), they rectify it quickly. Saints have a great CEO in Mike Rush who the owner trusts to make the right decision.
It was obvious after 2 and bit seasons that Steve Price’s rugby wasn’t going to win us the cup we wanted and his type of rugby had our crowds dwindling but we still persisted for another 2 years.

It’s been said that Price was offered the job as the initial targets didn’t take up the offer or didn’t show interest after the first chat to the CEO.

Couple of points.

1. Holbrook was appointed before Price so we would have known him when Price was employed. (Holbrook was well thought of in Australia. If we had acted quicker at the demise of Smith we could have potentially recruited him).

2. We asked "who?" when we employed Price after the original targets turned us down.

I accept that we are not where we want to be but I think this “culture” thing can be overstated. I’m sure Saints expected to win the 4 GF’s that they lost. In high stake games a single incident can have a massive impact, from an injury, a card, a rush of blood to the head (the Flower incident) or a ball bouncing back off the post. Getting to the final is crucial, what happens next is often the finest of margins.

well, re that, i'm just listening the to podcast with jason clark, its just occurred to me that for all the darts thrown from the usual suspects at middleton/moran, fitz and powelly, no one has had a pop at the welfare manager kylie leuluai, who if you recall we were told was being brought in as a standard and example setter from his time at leeds,

Of course to expect is not to guarantee. We seem to talk about "being there or thereabouts" and "making finals" and "just 1 GF win in my lifetime" etc.

What I mean to say is that any player joining those clubs will know the club has the expectation of winning the GF backed up by a track record of being serial GF winners. I don't think it's the same at Warrington, it cannot be.

Anyhow, I'm now not getting irritated by our lack of achievement, it's more an observation. If we win it - great, if we don't I'll try to enjoy the games.

Easy to lose sight of the fact that basically we all want the best for our club when discussing “the issues”. I know I “sometimes” do!

The one thing that unites us all - we all want to see the Wire win the big one.

We would, but given a choice between winning a challenge cup and a grand final, I’d always say the challenge cup.
It always meant everything to me as a kid.
I would have belly tingles a week before a knockout game, and would be so upset when we got knocked out, I be utterly gutted for about 2 weeks after.
I couldn’t eat properly for days before/on/after 1989!

So W71. I may be out on my own. Don’t get me wrong I’m desperate for a GF, but not at the expense of one of the best days of my life watching Wire at Wembley.

(Yes I know it’s Spurs)

(Cont)….I can remember us getting knocked out be Cas in the CC, then battling them the week after in a non important league game…(pist off wasn’t in it.)

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Always knew you were a Saints fan. 1989 final was between saints & wigan

Like it's footballing equivalent, the FA Cup, the Challenge Cup is a massively devalued competition now.

While the devaluing of the FA Cup is down to a number of things, main one for me being the semi finals being at Wembley, the Challenge Cup's problem is that it is no longer the icing on the cake at the end of a long season - it's just a 4 game knockout tournament crowbarred awkwardly into the season.

While the growth of the Grand Final has been mainly good for the game, it has also been to the detriment of the Challenge Cup - By promoting the play offs as the 'serious' business end of the season, its managed to make the Challenge Cup an almost minor thought is many sport's observers minds.

Was that away in the 80s? I recall that

The Challenge Cup was usurped when we switched to summer rugby sadly. I used to love it, my first time was 1990 vs Wigan. Magical then heart wrenching.