Well being in SL in 2023 could possibly only in our own hands for up to the next14 days.
Points difference means 2 defeats could see us rooted at the foot of the league.
Setting sights on beating Toulouse at home, could be our only hope from falling through the trap door for the first time in our history….and the only original pre SL team not too.

I'm trying to think of a similar situation in everyday life.

I've worked in businesses before where's there's been some long termers in a team and a new manager starts. They begin to influence and change aspects of it. Couple of the old timers start to leave, the ones left grumble because they dont like the change "that's now how it used to be done". This feeds into some of the medium termers in a "if he's not happy it must be " kind of way.

Senior management have to hope that this is the end of the old way and the start of the new dawn. I think with so many OOC players for Powell to come in to, they know of a 3-5 year plan. Our board aren't thickos, they are mostly astute businessmen.

Powell could be a dud, that's true, but this change is needed, whether it was Powell or Wane or Bennett, they've inherited a fixer upper, but there's seemingly dry rot that the initial survey didn't pick up!

I should add it might have actually been picked up and Powell may well have a contract that stipulates that if he gets sacked within first X months he gets a big payout, owing to the fact there's a culture and squad overhaul needed

If he gets sacked, he’ll get a big windfall anyway, whatever the the worth of remaining contract is.

If things don't improve between now and the end of the season I reckon we will be in serious danger of it happening, whether we think we "are too good to go down" or not!

I cant get my head around this “let’s see in 12 months” mentality. We’re going to be seeking major investment from sponsors, season ticket holders and corporate partners. Alongside trying to appeal to players to come to the club (aside from throwing money at them). It’s pathetic. If we were going in the right direction, I’d be half tempted to agree but we’re a basket case.

We need to start looking like a club that isn’t in absolute flipping free fall. Who’s going to renew season tickets to watch that? Who is going to chose us over a proper club if the money is equivalent? We’ll be paying over the odds or shopping in the Ooops section.

The whole thing stinks. The youth have been dropped, the whole squad is underperforming and the only senior player to bear the brunt is a bloody winger!!

The scramble to bring in two props, one of them a 35 year old loanee is admission of failure of the pre-seasons recruitment campaign.

From top to bottom, this has gone wrong. The ship is rudderless. If the rumours are true (Carney all but confirmed it last night) that Cooper has been let go, we will have gone from having a powder puff pack with only 2 decent props, the having a powder puff pack without any in the space of Powell’s premiership. If players are disconnected, get them bloody on side and work with them. If they are genuinely bad apples, STOP BEING A COWARD AND DONT PICK THEM WEEK AFTER WEEK! Can’t have it both ways.

Utterly mindless. Devoid of ideas. The only shining light of last night was the Leeming was good, Jesus wept

I know the signs were there in the Salford preseason friendly but who honestly believed this is where we’d be?The whole club from top to bottom has become as Matt Turner said in his Guardian piece toxic.Had high hopes for Powell but a massive fail for me as either his methods aren’t working or the team just don’t want him here.Oh and I’d have Price back in a heartbeat.

I don't think we are "too good to go down" I just don't think we are the worst team in the league - I cannot see Toulouse winning 3 more games than us in the second half of the season.

Yes it may be that Powell is "emperors clothes" or it may be he is fighting a good fight against the culture of mediocracy and petulant players and we need to have faith until they are gone.

We are not winning anything this season anyway even if we abandon Powell and let Currie, King, Cooper and Philbin choose their best mate as coach.

Have you forgotten 3 play off exits at home at the first hurdle 2019, 2020, 2021 - beaten by colossal teams such as Cas, Hull and Hull KR? Or it that what passes as success?

I think the idea is we are going through this pain now so we can be real contenders in the future. I don't believe Powell is a bad coach, but I do believe we have culture problems and players that think they are better than they are. Players that perhaps had got comfortable running their side businesses with playing pro rugby an after thought.

They don’t have to ‘win 3 more games that’s us’..
They don’t even have to win one or draw one more than us, they could relegate us on points difference alone.

Spot on

I tried to say this but took 4 paragraphs and still didn't manage it!!

Eh? They could have a better points difference than everyone in the league by winning four games 120 nil and then losing all the others by one point. They'd still be relegated if they had fewer points than everyone else.

I feel your passion and you make some very good points but to counter some of them

Recruitment - the squad had been sliding for years, Powell made the mistake of trusting the "challenge accepted" nonsense from Philbin on the packs capability. He had tried to remedy this for next season and this.

Youth - Ashton and Wrench are now starters. Thewlis has missed out because Powell is trying to find a halfback partnership that works.

You are spot on though - he needs to start dropping players. Currie, Philbin, King for starters.

I know we currently stink but succumbing to player power to oust a coach is unthinkable in repercussions. It's not as if they are top world class players we need to keep happy.

The more pertinent question is, if the board really believe that we are going to get relegated. Powell isn't totally bomb proof as he is answerable but not to anyone on here.

There's mounting discontent amongst the fanbase, due to the dreadful performances (Saints aside) where we've shipped 40 points in three games. Dwindling crowds won't help Powell's cause, and it appears that his revolution has not even got out of the starting gate.

Compare his lack of impact on performances to that of Rohan Smith. I know 3 games that Smith has been in charge is a very small sample to compare, but the positive impact he's had to the negative one so far from Powell is clear to see. If we don't improve by the end of July and are in the relegation mix, then Powell's position is under threat.

I was pessimistic because of the state of our pack. I remember in the off season I was saying things like we will probably find that we go backwards relative to where we were under the Price era and most people on here thought I was unduly pessimistic and were saying none of the top teams have a better squad than us etc. I thought we'd finish around 6th or 7th.

The reports from the preseason friendly were a warning sign and the other thing that set alarm bells running for me was seeing Barrie McDermott and Shaun Wane say "I think Daryl Powell has got a huge challenge on his hands" at the time the season started. Those guys will talk to people and be hearing the gossip around the SL scene and I wondered if that meant there were problems in the camp beyond just having a weak pack. I think we were lucky with that win against Leeds in round 1 and without that we'd be on 8 points and in a lot of trouble.