Powell is a joke, and will not fix us. I think its gonna be a case of him taking the whole bike apart to fix the chain and then not knowing how to put it back together. The bike is well and truly in pieces now.

Previously, I'd gone along with the bad apples theory, albeit with a fair dollop of sceptecism.

After today, and given the revolving door that is the dressing room of late, I'm now convinced that Powell is so unpopular and that there is such a chasm between players and staff that the situation is rapidly becoming untenable.

I'm in the Powell camp atm get shut of the so called stars that don't want play for our club...the one gripe I have with Powell tho is play the young lads..Riley dean should be playing regularly so should longstaff..if we get beat so be it..were getting beat with this lot

It is easy to trot this line out when form is poor but there is a serious lack of trust between the players. It is evident in defence when we constantly fail to number up correctly with players picking up the wrong man because they dont trust the man on their inside to do the job.
It is also clear in attack when the bulk of the highlights were purely individual efforts with nobody else around ie
A) Clark's try
B) Ratchfords try
C) Bullocks break
D) Wardles break
Plus many other examples.
When the forwards carry the ball up there is no runner in support to take some of the defenders attention. When catalan or saints forwards take a carry then you have kassiano running alongside Dudson or Walmersley alongside knowles. With us were just over the moon when Cooper Carrie's 3 defenders on his back for 5 metres post contact.
Anybody know what happened to Davis? He came off in the first half but never seen again with D Clark staying on to play loose forward. Very strange because I didnt notice him injured
Salford didnt have bigger forwards or more skilful or faster players but they did play for each other and gave us a lesson again.

Agree. Give Thewlis, Wrench, Dean, Nicholson and Longstaff a place in the 17 for the rest of the season unless injured. I don’t see the point in playing Matt Davis etc. if they’re not going to be here next year. Still plenty of experience in the 17 even with those 5 included.

Who’s left? Those without Powell’s endorsement (signed or resigned) today were Widdop, Mulhearn, Clark, Cooper, Currie & Davis.

Clark was our best today, Cooper is gone but is still being picked, probably still out best prop. Widdop was lively again, not sure he could have prevented any of the points we shipped in. Still, he was rushed back at the expense of Dean. Mulhearn, Davis & Currie, not great but absolutely will not pick Longstaff no matter how well he plays in the reserves, J Clark is the forgotten man, remember Powell resigned him so he could displace and of those bad apples.

This excuse has ran it’s course. He’s had free reign to ship out players all year regardless of stature, and been backed to bring in his own men, 10 in total, 11 if you count Billy 6 weeks.

Could it be, that those “bad apples” are simply annoyed at seeing the club they’ve worked so hard for over the years being stripped down like a retired cruise liner and sold off for scrap on the whim of an under qualified and underachieving coach.

How was Wardle?

Obviously didn't have much to work with but made a nice break which resulted in a try in the second half. Probably too early to judge but I would say no worse than King which is of course damning with faint praise.

Missed a tackle very early on allowing them to make a break, and was stood on his heels when someone walked past him for their 2nd(I think) try.

Well a CEO signs the players and appoints the coaches.

Price and Powell (currently) have been disastrous appointments.

There were 2 seemingly carbon copy tries yesterday from.Salford, under our sticks, 1 out crash balls, and not even at the line crash balls, just walk through a gap kind of tries. We're not scoring those type of tries, under 8's rarely concede those types of tries yet we're making a habit of it.

This wasn't always off the back of broken play, these were drives that every team takes.

Powell may have a vision and a process he wants to build, but if his support staff aren't good enough he'll become a victim of any nepotism he may have taken part in. It's easier to tell people you hardly have a relationship with that they're expendable, different when it's the one's you've brought with you

From a neutral looking in (well as neutral as a wigan fan can be...... but i still want to see a strong Wire in SL) I'm stunned at how Powell has gone about his first year.

Surely the job of a head coach is to get the best of his players even if he hasn't signed them while transitioning and improving. No coach gets to pick his team from a clean sheet, and Warrington weren't that far off...........

Everyone could see you were far too light up front this year - and Powell signed a number of players but did nothing to fix the most glaring issue,

He's not just cracked a few eggs to make an omelette he's killed all the chickens in the coup.

It makes Millwards tenure as a Wigan coach look almost passable - and he inherited a far worse performing squad than Powell did.

I find it amazing so many are still supporting him.

I must say ,for a bad apple ,Cooper gives 100% every week.

So what excuse have the players got for the past 7 odd years including getting knocked out, in the first round, at home in the past 3 years? So after 7 odd years of underperforming, they've suddenly grown a conscience and are now annoyed at the club's predicament?

These same 'annoyed' players are the ones who threw Steve Price under the bus and Tony Smith in his last 2 years.

Although I'm still strongly behind Powell, I do agree with comments that he has perhaps gone in too much like a bull in a China shop.

That said, yesterday's capitulation was down to the players and the players only. They had it in their power to win that game and they chose not to, in front of their home fans who supported them throughout in the most part. Rather than play for the supporters and close out the win, they put themselves first and thought 'why should I put the effort in when I've now been told I can't finish training early'.

Many a rugby league player and pundit will say that defence is more about attitude than anything else, and that's why our defence is poor and why we lost.

The 4 years of Price were awful, it’s widely accepted. But he made the play offs year on year, the team made it to finals and even looked like they might even do something. That complete abject failure of a 4 year tenure is so far away from where we are now. Price came in and started by “fixing up the defence”, we never conceded 40 or more and were difficult to break down, that is a positive of his reign. But he couldn’t make the attack work. Right now, we can’t do anything.

Smith’s last years included Cooper, Currie, Ratchford and Clark. So if you’re suggesting that these are the bad apples that run through the club, then why have they been consistently picked by Smith, Price and Powell? We have Walker desperate for game time, if Clark is a bad apple, let Walker play. Ratchford has been resigned as he is a good influence, as Powell suggests, Currie is consistently picked over Longstaff, if he’s so disruptive then get rid. So that leaves Cooper. Cooper is the bap apple. But still picked over and again.

I can’t fathom this pig-headed approach to Powell. What has he done to earn the right to burn the club to the ground and put it back together? He’s alienated himself from the fans, it appears that he has done that with the players, why does he deserve unwavering support when he can’t get the basics right, can’t drop the ‘bad apples’ or can’t allow the promising juniors to play without hanging them out to dry in press conferences 6 weeks after their last game?