Running the club is IL's job. Coaching the team is Noble's and Noble will rightly be judged on his success or failure on that score. So far the facts are we have gone backwards each year under Noble. Verifiable facts not opinion.

Two brief flurries in the playoffs mask two very poor league campaigns and they were a big reason why we only got within 80 minutes of a grand final and not to the final itself. We were spent from having to start from lower down the league. But this has already been said before and I thought was pretty much accepted as the accepted wisdom on his record. It is not what you are cracking it up to be by a long chalk.

When I pay what I do for season tickets two wins and a loss meaning an exit from the play-offs do not make up for the previous league seasons dross performances two years running.

Dave

We have?

Sorry I thought we came 3rd in the competition last year?

What exactly are these facts that you speak of?

3 1/2 years is the time he will have had by the end of this season. That is plenty of time. 3 1/2 years is not an overnight fix and one of Noble's biggest failings is his failure to get what on paper was a decent side to perform in 2007 and 2008. Please none of this "it wasn't his team" rubbish because that is no excuse and never was. God knows where it came from in the first place.

Dave

Ahh. Dave O treating his opinion as fact again.

You don't get it do you Dave O (or maybe you do, but are unwilling to admit it).

Superleague, in it's current form is nothing more than a few teams "Jockying for position" until the end of the season when a cup competition kicks in.

Now you may not like that, but that is the framework in which teams operate.


As many of us have said, form at this part of the season is relatively unimportant. It's form in September/October that matters.


If you don't like the rules, then write to Red Hall, but to criticise a coach for applying himself within those rules (and doing so very well), is illogical.

Frankly it suggests a level of intelligence much lower than I know you possess.

It came from common sense. Exactly the same thing happened over at Man U and no-one would argue Fergusson is a poor coach because he took a while to 'get his team together' before finally going on to win something. Don't forget he was o the verge of being sacked too when fans got impatient! I know hindsight is 20/20 but surely there is a lesson to be learned there given we have finally started to play the type of rugby we have all been crying out for! Let's see how we go from here and just give Nobby and the team our full backing as fans. We have our part to play too. If, as you say, it's a false dawn, then fair enough, but until or if that proves to be the case....

He truely cant win. We are now playing the rugby people want, but the fact is has taken the team time to gel into a new style isn't good enough.

I would love these people who throw around phrases like "sub par" & "unacceptable" to have a go themselves.

Now you are just taking the Micky the club was in a terrible state when he came and it was a 5 year plan that was put in place not a 1 year or even 3 year. Relegation fodder 1st year to 80 mins of the playoffs second and 3 year and i do believe we will make a final if not win something this year. As i see it if you don't like the way the team play for half of the year don't renew your season ticket until the half year deals come out. things needed fixing at the club and we are very close now to all the repair jobs being completed Tunnel vision is no good look at the big picture we are getting there.

You know very well what they are.

There are three records you can judge him by. His record in the playoffs, in the cup and in the league.

We finished the same position in the play offs in 2007 and 2008. So no change but no improvement either.

2008 we exited the cup earlier than in 2007. The means we went backwards in the cup competition. Or do you dispute that?

2008 we recorded fewer league wins than in 2007 so we went backwards yet again. We even ended up with a negative points difference in 2008 which was again worse than 2007. So we went backwards here as well.

So overall in the three competitions we have had no change in one and went backwards in the other two. Now you would have to be a pretty odd person to conclude anything other than we went backwards on that evidence. I am sure however you are poised at your keyboard to argue otherwise.

Dave

1. Playoffs - we came 3rd. With the imbalance in the squad that he inherited, it was probably the best we could have done.


2. Cup - 2 years isn't statistically significant. A sample size of 2 would be laughed out of any serious statistical analysis.

3. League - as I have said, is irrelevant.



Tell me why I am wrong.

Are you seriously suggesting when Noble was employed by Mo and DW they put a 5 year plan in place? If so why no five year contract? It is fanciful to suggest there was a five year plan put in place when Noble was taken on. Or had you forgotten it wasn't IL who employed him? 5.23779296875:5