Quote: karetaker "Heard my sister is in bed with Flu, seriously this is becoming embarrassing, as Lefty says multinationals have been dealt with quicker. Are we now waiting for the only coach without a job, as Bob the kit an been interviewed yet?'"
The last couple of coaching changes felt like there was a plan. Plange goes, Cullen swiftly appointed. Then Lowes always felt like an interim arrangement after Cullen and once Smith's England contract finished we moved quickly to get him.
This time feels more like when DVDV left. Remember that merry saga!
Frank Endacott was the big name linked - his stock at the time was quite high, having been coach of the year the previous year with Wigan and he had done quite well with NZ. Or it was going to be the upcoming high fliers from the lower division, Mike Ford or Neil Kelly, with Gary Mercer and Billy McGinty's names being bandied around too.
The club teased us by telling us they were going to make an announcement and it "would be fair to say it would be someone the supporters would be happy with"....we all waited excitedly. It was Neil Kelly. Hmm, jury's out, but in fairness he had won the NFP grand final with Dewsbury the year before and was on his way to repeating the feat with Widnes, so at least it looked promising.
Then wasn't there something like the club wanted to bring Kelly straight over to assist DVDV for the rest of the season, and DVDV wasn't happy, so he left and Allan Langer suddenly discovered he had a career ending injury that fortunately healed by next season when he signed for Brisbane again. Mercer, who was playing for us at the time and had been one of our better players that season, also soon disappeared after he didn't get the coaching job and signed for Leeds. And then Kelly did a U-turn and said he was going to stay with Widnes.
We were then coachless and had lost a couple of our best players. Suddenly the media latched on to Shaun Edwards who became the new favourite and there was heated debate on the Wire forum at the time about whether we would benefit from "a pure winner" or whether his Wigan connections were too much to handle. Then a few days after that we heard Edwards wasn't going to relocate up north or whatever reason, and there was still no coach...until finally we got the announcement that it was David Plange with Steve Anderson as 'Performance Director'. That turned out well!
