Why get new players?

Quote: getdownmonkeyman "My criticism of Darbyshire/ the back room staff in particular was they were all from the same stock. They had come from the tutelage of the Johnson and Van de Velde era, whether this was a good or bad thing is open to debate. But where was the differing ideas and techniques going to come from when their education was all from the same sources? As for a player winning things, take a look at the best coachs knocking about; Bennett and Bellamy, hardly star players. Hasler, maybe open to an element of debate In SL; Anderson, Smith and McLennan, hardly littered with medals. I for one am happy that Lowes came in as assistant, for the exact reasons I have stated above, irrelevant of his playing career.

You raise an good point about injuries. Stridgeon stated that training on heavy pitches, ie; Long Lane would increase the chances of injury. I can't quite remember the specific area he highlighted, but it was an instigation of us going to Leigh to train on their 3G pitch.

If Stridgeon wasn't at the top of his profession, then the RFU wouldn't have come knocking for him to become the England fitness coach.

My scepticism of Halmshaw is his experience, conditioning an Academy squad doesn't exactly correlate with going to a first team set up. As has been mentioned many times, the difference in levels on the playing side would verify this. Or are you advocating we should give an important role to someone learing on the job?

I'd like to know how you condition against injuries in an impact sport? Pulls and strains, possibly. Dislocations and ruptures, please explain how you avoid these?'"

Of course I agree with you, the reason we picked up injuries wasn't to do with who the conditioner was, I was just being a smartbooty because thats what people were saying the last few years, blaming the conditioner....yet nobody has given Halmshaw 'credit' for our relatively injury free season which has enabled us at last to use our first teamers rather than relying on promoted academy players.

As for the backroom staff surely the relevant point is who the coach wants. The head coach and assistants have got to be singing from the same hymn sheet, so the head coach needs to have 'his men' onside. I would always give the head coach choice of who he wants to appoint and support that, the flip side is the head coach takes the responsibility for the results, so if they aren't good enough he should go. It's really impossible for anybody outside the camp to know how good an assistant coach/conditioner etc is at his job...commenting on it is just guesswork.