Almost every player Wigan had when Noble left and Madge took over improved. He made Wigan into Super League Champions. The same team almost under Noble failed to make any finals. Madge changed the culture of the club and the playing style.

Noble is stuck with the same style as he had at Bradford with us and we never had the size in the pack to dominate teams physically. Madge developed a more NRL style attack which dominated his first season here. If Noble was in charge that side would not have won SL that season or even the Grand Final. He changed players he took Amos Roberts a winger for Noble and made him the most destructive winger i have seen in SL and that includes Sam Tomkins. Amos went from an average winger to the MOS winner is he stayed fit but unfortunately he got a serious injury.

Stuart Fielden in the 2010 season looked an international class prop something he had not been under Noble for us since the season he came to us. Thomas Leuluai became a better player under Madge. To say Noble did a bad job for us is a dis-service to him. But what can not be denied is that Madge was the difference and its felt in the club today. 3 trophies in 4 seasons and 2 LLS. Noble in the same time 0. Yes he took over a relegation side but that side had issues which are documented on here in the past.

Another way of looking at it why all of a sudden are the Rabbithos challenging for the NRL title. 1 word Madge. Noble's side in 2006 was great towards the end. You just realise how bad a coach Ian Milward was for us. We were supposedly favorites that season and he almost go us relegated.

Why are the Rabbitohs challenging? It's because they have the deepest pockets well Russell Crowe does, they've made big signings like Greg Inglis and if you look at South Sydney over recent seasons they've been up there anyway, again to me it looks as if the team has been built and worked on and McGuire has taken over a ready made team again. Plus I think the Sydney Roosters will challenge you on the claim of the Rabbitohs being favourites for the title.

Noble has a blank canvas to work with at Salford he's taking over a bad team but instead of trying to turn that said team into a challenging one he gets the luxury of wiping the slate clean (moving on over 10 players) and bringing in players he wants to mold his own style of team IMO he's in the process of building another Bradford Bulls of the 2000 era, a lot of New Zealanders being signed up and all very big. Add Rangi Chase and Tim Smith for creativity and your onto something, I thing Koukash will give Noble a lot more time than people think he will, people call him the mad doctor but he isn't completely mad, he knows its going to be a good 2 to 3 years before Salford will be up there challenging.

I hope Salford are up there challenging. The more sides that are, the better.

You seem to have the same problem as the DR has Both SL and NRL have a salary Cap so the deepest pockets can not just spend their way to titles. Poorly run clubs in SL will never win anything thats why SL is so poor atm so many poor run sides. After all aren't Melbourne Storm owned by multi millionaires group as well as the Broncos etc. Russell Crowe is a millionaire actor who owns the club with his friend. I rather think that some other clubs have deeper pockets than they do.

Also tell me where have i put down thay South's are the favorites for the NRL i said they are challenging for it.

And they were Challenging for it before Michael McGuire, just like Wigan were Challenging for SL under Noble.

But difference is both sides improved greatly under Maguire.

I can see what you are saying, but for those of us watching week in and week out, MM totally transformed the team. Noble may well have steadied the ship, and help to sort out the behind the scenes organization of the club, which was mess. Noble will bring this to Salford.

I think you might need to manage your expectations of Noble a bit. In 2000 the NRL weren't nearly as dominant over us as they are now, you could sign guys like the Pauls, Vainikolo, Vaikona, Hape and Vagana, plus you could retain guys like Fielden, Peacock and Pryce in their prime (assuming you produce them in the first place). These days the majority of those 8 would be snapped up by the NRL and Bradford would be back to square one trying to sign/produce replacements.

They're doing the right thing for the moment though which is signing in big experienced names that will hopefully bring crowds in and get you to the play offs. Plus Noble has shown in the modern era that he will generally take teams to the play offs (i.e when he took us over when we nearly got relegated, and Crusaders who vastly improved under him, then went rubbish again after he left). Then once you're in the play offs hopefully decent players will be willing to sign up. The way to build a top SL club in coming seasons though will be to focus on your academy so you can produce at least 2 SL level players per season, then make the odd signing on top of that where necessary, rather than using signings as the go-to strategy. I've heard very little from Koukash or Noble with regards to youth development, have they announced anything?

Lets look at the facts.

2010 Souths finished 9th
2011 Souths finished 10th
Maguire arrived
2012 Souths finished 3rd
2013 Souths currently 1st


They werent even making the playoffs so how can you say they were challenging. They bought Inglis in 2011 by the way a year before Madge arrived.

Brian Noble took us from the brink of relegation back into playoff contenders. Truth is though having lost in the semi finals 3 years running he took us as far as he could which is when Maguire came in and took us to that next level.

Brian Noble is a quality coach, Maguire is arguably one of the best.

Thursday's announcements will be interesting

I hope both sides put the young kids out and put on a stormer.

It will then hopefully show the RFL that the future is bright and that the system is s***

apparently Salford are announcing 12 new signings at a press conference at 12-30 today..in about 15 minutes

Hock just been confirmed as one of the 12 by Jack Deaden on Twitter.

Expected that once the Parra news broke.

I hope they've signed some cracking players, I just hope they've done it without ignoring the cap. As I keep saying, the more clubs capable of competing the better.

It'll be interesting to see what the Dr says! I'm looking forward to it. Heck of a lot of talent already with Hock, Chase, Smith, Puletua, Sau etc.