I wasn’t keen on Matautia when his signing was announced, now his little skip fills me with a murderous rage.

That would be on my Christmas wish list, but we didn’t always get what we wished for

That'll be Paul Sculthorpe spotted in Tesco's, with a coaching manual or two under his arm.

10 games, but we'll be kicking ass next year so he'll be safe

I think I'll slit my wrists after reading this lot!
A tough read.

Dont know where to start.

Recruiting players that had long term injuries was questionable and I wasn't over convinced by Holmes and Ma'atutia although the latter for me has been decent (albeit he seems to rely more and more on his strength as opposed to a more classic centre who can beat the opposition with footwork and at least passes to his wing).
I think he looks better at 6 than Ratch.

So when we started losing, confidence lowered. Maybe the players didn't buy into the style of play or weren't able to put in to practice what was requested. Clearly Powells relationship with some of the senior players got worse through the season and Im sure that made things worse.

This all created the biggest issue for me - a lack of mental toughness.
We won the first few games but didnt play well in any of them.

Price couldn't come up with countermeasures for our frailties in previous seasons and came out with the same mantra week after week. (And I really hated how we played under him - with a couple of exceptions).
Powell is in danger of doing the same (some will say he's there already).
This year has gone worse than anyone could have imagjned.

The board have backed him to the hilt this year and for next.
Again though I have real concerns about our recruitment. IMO we didn't need 4 new pack members, and Ratch at 6 is wrong. Arguably we're light on centres but I can see Currie filling in if necessary (and at a push Holmes).

Powell has probably got 2 games at most to 'bed the team in' and at least show the board/fans some structure/organization/heart, and then another 4 before his fate is decided.
In ALL of those games I want to see mental toughness and a real togetherness above all else. (And I dont really mean the back slapping when things go right/wrong - I find that really irritating. Anyone can do that)

Given how he has been backed, the board will want progression to and in the play offs plus a decent cup run.
IMO they wont judge before the first 6 games aee over.

Which players did they recruit with long term injury problems?

The one thing our Board has shown is they lack trigger fingers when it comes to sacking coaches. They tend to keep them too long.

We were treading water for the last 2 years under Cullen, TS and Price and in all three cases it didn't feel like they were pushed out the door, they seemed to be kept on until they recognised themselves it was time to part ways.

So these performance targets and expectations that people are setting out in this thread are probably irrelevant, and even if we are rubbish for the first half of next season he will still have the Board's backing.

Agree with this. It’s not clear what performance indicator’s the board or executive are gauging success on, or how they have conducted the recruitment of coaches. From Smith, we opted for the ultra defensive, but up and coming and then followed that period (which was relatively unsuccessful, granted) with an old head allegedly to bring attacking style and to get the best out of players.

Not sacking Price I can get, the amount of times he papered over cracks was unbelievable, particularly against Saints. There was a threat that he could get the job done in a big game. But when he left, we abandoned the style completely.

The club as a whole lack direction and identity.

It is very baffling that a board of directors would bring in a hatchet man to prune a team so thoroughly with the outcome that results & performances have become so shambolic. People with money invested & hoping to attract customers are giving the impression of wanting to commit financial suicide.
Non compliant players could easily have been weeded out at contract renewal time without alienating the fans & turning the playing squads confidence to ground level.

Powell now back blaming the players and not the fans, this time admitting concern over HIS players. Are some tough enough?Some are going to need lots of help….wonder if Peanut is one of them?

Strange how he gave a two year extension and captaincy to one of the most mentally brittle of our players.

Again it seems as if all the problems are nothing to do with him. He’s a bizarre man, I’m amazed he did well at Cas.

Perhaps the team did well at Cas in spite of the coaching staff.

Agree that a more organic plan of changing the squad could have been applied, as the result is another unbalanced squad, and we've swapped the bad apple culture for a losing culture. As Barbed Wire posted above, where's the identity and direction of the team/club? Also, the plan seems to be make it up as we go along with the numerous mid season changes. We have far from made the most of this transitional year - even wasted it, and financially, the club is facing a very, very tough sell to get tickets and merchandising sold going forward. Supporters are going to be depressed enough about the cost of living and finding another £4k to £5k for gas/electricity, and will take a lot of enticing into the the ground, to watch performances like we've been served up this year. There's a lot of work to be done, and the board should be far from happy.

Every penny counts now and people will have to be really judicious how they spend whats left of their disposable income - if anything - after paying for energy bills. People were already frustrated that watching Wire was poor value for money in the Price era, when we were still mostly winning.

Fans will always show up for games, i here week in week out about fans not going to another game and always turn up.
Next year is definately Powells Squad and they'll fully buy in to his coaching. The divas and bog standard players ( well most) have been moved on and he's signed a big aggressive pack that will be dominant, and we have some pure speed littered around the squad. The Likes of Clark, Dufty, williams, Ashton and currie etc will shift up a gear running off our pack and we'll be class.
We need to keep Wardle and need a new good half ( Brandon Wakeham apparently) and i think we're set for next year.
New year, New squad, New attitude. We'll be flying next year