Me either. So he has to have had a huge shift on attitude towards being second fiddle to make it work. It can’t and won’t work otherwise. My fear is that he may say it has changed but when he gets back into the club and gets the cherry and white juices flowing again he won’t be able to stop it.

I’m half/half. Another part of me thinks we should go completely fresh and have a full 1st team coaching staff clear out and bring in new people with new ideas. I don’t think there is an easy answer here in all honesty. Each has potential significant draw backs and potential significant up lifts too.

wow

Who has said we will finish bottom 4 next year?
We don’t know our squad yet

Exactly. We were within a whisker of winning the GF last year and we’re 7 wins from 8 league games this season without playing well and with significant disruption in our squad due to injuries. We’re not far off at all and a few quality signings and the right coaching appointments for next season could put us in a really strong position for years to come. That’s why our recruitment and retention is so important now.

There have been a couple of posters who one said we would be bottom half, and another who said we'd be bottom 4

Exactly, and yet we have talk about Trent Robinson struggling to come in and do anything (with over excessive defence of Adrian Lam) cries that we have no ambition and panic on a Mr Mainwaring scale.

I’ve been as frustrated as anybody these past two and a half years and certainly this year the glaring gap in quality in the front row is really hurting us and even then we’ve finished 2nd, 1st and now sit 3rd with 7 wins from 8. We’ve done that with a coach who IMO is out of his depth. We lose some quality players for next season but even ‘if’ the recruitment ends up being uninspiring, as long as we get a half decent coach we’ll knock out a top 6 place in our sleep. The league is dreadful at the minute and it’s what makes these past few seasons extra frustrating.

No chance.

Wait a minute, compete with us?

We're losing Hill if rumours are true. That leaves us with Cooper, Philbin, Mulhern, Butler and potentially Bullock who you guys dont want or rate as our props. We are in need of better props.

By all accounts we are having a mass clear out. Akuala, Inglis, Widdop, Austin, Mamo, and Lineham all going if correct. With Matautia, Holmes, Bullock and Williams coming in if rumours are true.

What it shows is, all clubs are unhappy with squads and want more quality. Saints are probably the only ones happy....

I think it is possible we could finish in the bottom half this season if we lose our next two games.
A poor coach, a lightweight workmanlike pack and lack of spontaneous players means every game becomes an arm wrestle where we have as much chance of losing as winning.
If we start poorly again tomorrow we could be in for another long night. Hopefully Hastings Farrell and Bateman will step up and drag us back to some sort of form.

I obviously missed the posts on next year but I’m quietly confident that a new coach and an improved and better balanced squad will be in place for a big push.

It’s interesting to see some of the quotes aimed at Lam are very reminiscent of Shaun Wane.

Yes he had some fantastic successes (which Lam clearly hasn’t had) but they both share criticism of style of play, some baffling losses and failure to provide bodies to give us a better go forward despite both identifying size as an issue.

For what it’s worth I was pleasantly surprised by our style of play under Lam
last year and at the start of this year, however something now doesn’t seem to be clicking and I wouldn’t be against a change.

Personally if what is being reported is true Wane may be coming back in a Director of Rugby role part time I wouldn’t be against it however I think if Lam were to go he would need to be replaced be someone with new ideas.

Having Wane come in to work with Peat and Locky concerns me because they know each other so well and have formed their rugby philosophies together, over years of working together.

I would hope we can bring in a strong strong headed innovative coach not afraid to shake things up.

I posted on Redvee back in October that I had been told by a Wigan employee that Peet was basically being groomed as the next head coach after Lam. Not heard anything to the contrary since.