Hope sicknote plays.

and how long he took to stall

Not alot at first I dont think. He made the playoffs in his first full year in charge with some new additions like Brent Grose but I think it was largely the same squad that had avoided relegation the year before.

Welcome back Paul!

Great appointment for us.

Widnes fans have short memories I think forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=356530

Widnes fans have short memories I think forums.rlfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=356530

Cullen took over when they were bottom in May 2002. They finished 2 places off that year, then their record reads:

6th, 8th, 4th, 6th, 7th, 6th.

In that time, they've signed, amongst others, Martin Gleeson for a club record fee reported in the region of £200,000 as well as New Zealand internationals Henry Fa'afili and Logan Swann. Joey Johns played three games for £120,000. Then they signed Andrew Johns, then Adrian Morley, Paul Johnson, and Vinnie Anderson. They've had a multimillionaire backer and a state of the art ground built at Tesco's expense, and have won only one playoff game, never made a semi, let alone a final, not been to Wembley or equivalent since 1990, and only once in 7 years finished in the top five.

Warrington are generally regarded as the great under-achievers of the current era, with Cullen at the helm for longer than any other SL coach yet unable to progress the club further by year seven than he had by the end of year one.

Moreover, my mates at Warrington tell me the coaching staff were extremely divided on his split pivots approach, and that the problems of the club came from certain celebrated senior players and the drinking culture they backed, which the coaching staff were unwilling to bring out in the open for fear of losing the public and, in Cullen's case, the exceptionally lucrative salary he was on.

Cullen is a decent NL1 coach and a decent bloke, but with neither the competence or courage to turn a talented disparate bunch of players into a competitive SL trophy-chasing sides. He might do ok at Widnes, as he did at Whitehaven, but I'd take Kelly (or Tersis or Abram or Benson) over him any day. He's your Darren Shaw. Good luck with that.

How many of the mentioned players were actually his signings? When he took over Warrington they needed re-building which probably took a good number of years until they had a side which could challenge for the top 6. His method of coaching provided them with an attacking style (he expanded the Haliwell Jones to the maximum to enable this), using pivots either side was his way and it did seem to work particulary with Briers. Andrew Johns was a Simon Moran signing and only lasted 3 games. They in many ways like us have lacked a real quality 7 to get them where they want to be and have lacked key personel in certain other positions. Perhaps in his last year he did underachieve but since he has left Warrington look to have got far worse. A drinking culture is a tough one to deal with if so many are at it, I know for a fact that he tried to clamp down on this by visiting various estalishments in Warrington telling them not to serve the players but what can you do? you cant sack half the team.


The decision to appoint Cullen was also not just made by our chairman, he seeked outside advice and spoke to a number of high profie figures in the game and all advised Cullen. Even players he released years back wanted him (Gaskell, Kohe Love, Varkulis). He also has a key media prescense which helps us greatly in keeping our name in the loop. You might be right in what you say and i respect your opinion, but i have faith in him from what i have seen and heard and he gets my backing. If he can get us to super league and into the play offs then he will do for me. We need someone to get us out of this Division and we believe in just over 2 years time this will be Cullen.

Key media presence , aslong as he has a translator with him
Would make an excellent taxi driver as he often goes round the houses or even gets lost , well he gets most people lost trying to fathom out what he's waffling on about PMSL

What does this prove and how do you know?



Then its okay then, everyone can now start to tremble and fear the mighty Widnes

Was you putting him in the frame as your most wanted from those available before he was appointed?

Granted, he has experience, but I wish you all the very best with him

I've spoke to people who are still at Warrington about this appointment who worked with Cullen for 6 years, they've said it's a great appointment for Widnes and think he will do extemely well.

I'll be honest at first I wasn't that pleased but after speaking to the people that know him and have worked with him, I'm very confident he can get this team playing the rugby we think it's capable of.

Webster is ready to walk out after being snubbed for the job, I hear. Graham Appo to Widnes?!

I think its a good appointment for Widnes, although the program may need to have a few thousand pages added to accomodate Cullen's notes!

Would it count under the salary cap if they get Stephen Fry to edit said programme?