I have heard his name mentioned in some fairly knowledgeable circles this evening. I agree with you that he's done pretty well with a limited squad so he may be one of the better options. There are others in the frame though I believe.

I agree and what I like about him is that he can probably be described as having over achieved over a sustained period of time. The hesitation I have is not with him but with our organisation. At Widnes Steve O'Connor is pretty hands off, as Lenagan and Radlinski appear to be at Wigan, thus leaving the coach to do what he is paid to do.

McManus and Rush are the opposite. Would that work for Betts? I am not so sure.

Betts has done a very understated job at Widnes with having seemingly only a fiver to spend in all of his time there,one i think Widnes fans will only realise how good he is once he's gone.

I thoght at the time, and still do, that Betts was hard done to by us. Considering the injury list we had during his brief spell, his win/loss ratio was pretty good. Especially when you consider what happened under his successor! It was a pity, perhaps, that he was thrown in a little before he was ready because of Mike Gregory's illness, but he was following a similar development path to Shaun Wane back then, starting with the junior sides and working his way up.

Betts got chucked in the deep end and was far too inexperienced at the time. I think at whatever time Wane moves upstairs he would be a very good next coach for us.

I can't recall Hanley being mentioned for literally years as a potential Wigan coach. Edwards yes but that is because he's a coach at the top level albeit in RU. Could he return to league and do the job is a valid question. Personally I don't think he himself would assume he could do it without being an assistant for at least a couple of seasons.

As to Betts for Saints that would be a bad move for him. He's done well at Widnes but I think he'd be better off taking a step back and going to a side as an assistant where the demand for improvement is not immediate such as Wigan with a view to taking over as head coach eventually. A spell in Oz would not do him any harm either. Saints need someone like Noble to calm things down short term (and then not making the mistake of keeping him on two years too long...).