We will not be 7th...or should I say, we will not be 7th with Price running the bridge.

I can beat that. Ernie Ashcoft (who?) was the coach when I first started watching the Wire.

Me too. Although I may have been taken earlier, but will never know.

We'll finish top 4.

I always got the impression with Price that he was happy for the team to be allowed to play as long as they can defend. We would have a decent run of form and then have a game or two when we would leak some tries, have some brain explosions and then the games after that was "right, you have shown me you can't defend so we are now gonna go with a Conservative game plan and play percentage rugby"
When that happened the wheels came completely off in 2019 and 2020
At the start of last season even in defeat at Wigan we were offloading for fun and lots of players supporting breaks. After the first lockdown we came out of the blocks fine until a few dodgy results and then the shutters come up.
Even though it was conservative percentage rugby that won the challenge cup in 2019 it is like the players were reluctant to buy into it all the time and there was a conflict of what the coach wanted and what the players wanted to do.
Price has not got a lot to lose now. NRL clubs are not nocking his door down to speak to him and he knows he is off at the end of the year so in theory he could take a step back and just provide overall management, making sure training and prep is all in place and let the assistant coaches earn their money and see what happens.
It might be a better environment knowing that the pressure is off as the future is decided.
On the other hand you could have a complete breakdown of relationship.
We will soon find out

The style of rugby was definitely better under Cullen. We probably took this for granted at the time and were occupied with frustrations over the inconsistency, but Cullen did have a philosophy about playing attacking rugby and everything about the recruitment and wanting the HJ to be a wider pitch etc came from that.

With Johnson it was a bit more mixed. There were a couple of years under Johnson where we were a workmanlike team similar to how we are under Price. But when he got Davies and Bateman; and had the trio of Mackey, Ellis and Shelford, we played some great stuff.

I couldn't see a Johnson or Cullen Wire team winning that Challenge Cup final against Saints though.

Not even with the Saints cup match hoodoo when it comes to the Wire?

You can't beat a good hoodoo

Remember us winning at Saints in the Regal Trophy under Brian Johnson https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/comp ... mmary.html But Saints then weren't the force they are now, they ended 8th that season (with Sheffield Eagles and Halifax above them) and we almost won the title.

Remember us winning at Saints in the Regal Trophy under Brian Johnson https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/comp ... mmary.html But Saints then weren't the force they are now, they ended 8th that season (with Sheffield Eagles and Halifax above them) and we almost won the title.

Perhaps I should be more balanced and reflect the fact that the Saints teams that Cullen faced were better than the ones Price faced, so perhaps Cullen's team could have beaten them.

I think Cullen, while he came at the most crucial time for the club, came at the wrong time for him personally. The culture in the club had been a holiday camp, and in honesty, we recruited players on the back of that.

Players like Sculthorpe, Harris, Penny, Roper etc. in the early 90’s displayed huge promise, but those that got sucked into the culture never kicked on. They were talented enough on their day, but more often than not cut corners. Supplemented by those on the way out of bigger clubs or overseas imports who were joining for a payday with a good social life, we were on a hiding to nothing.

That was embedded from the mid 90’s (probably earlier) through to Tony Smith having ‘that discussion’ with Briers and Gleeson.

Cullen could get a response from a team, and could get the team to score points, although they lacked that resolve and discipline required to stop the scoreboard ticking at the other end. If he would have followed Smith in, he may have been our Shaun Wane. Who, realistically, followed McGuires blueprint with a local accent.

If it takes 6 games...Price won’t see the 7th.

Indeed, anyone who lived in South Warrington at the time was quite familiar with seeing certain players in Stockton Heath's pubs and wine bars - a little too much.