People are asking for Kear back and saying that Smith was too old at 61, but doesn't Kear now have his bus pass?
He was a great servant to the club during some trying times but is he really the man for the job this time around?

I have no idea who to pick or who may have applied, let's hope MC is taking his RL advice from someone with good RL knowledge.

Although can understand where you are coming from with your comments on Kear, I don't agree with you on this one.
I don't think he's yesterday's man at all.

To get Batley, one of the "smallest" clubs in the Championship to top spot, when they are against Bradford, Leigh Fev, Sheffield and Halifax is a stunning effort and it shows that, clearly, he can do a great job and we need someone that can work on a shoestring budget.
Having said that, the spend now, compared to the small pile of bottle tops that he had in his last season with us, will seem like a Euromillions jackpot.
The biggest problem would be whether he wanted to go back to a club that gave him nothing and then took that from him.
It would be a major surprise for such a proud man to go back to that.

Regarding youth policy

Clubs like ours, with little brass to spend are never in a good position to give enough resources to the "junior" sides and this is the quintessential catch 22, because without proper resource, you will never get the best results, in terms of enough quality youngsters.

As said, it would be a surprise if JK has applied but, few would be better at galvanising a group of players and getting some results.

Remember, even in an horrendous season, we didn't finish in the wooden spoon position and at the moment, we look well placed
to get two on the bounce.

I tend to agree that Kear is not the man this time. If it was late in a season as in 2006 and backs to the wall stuff then yes, he'd be a good short term choice. But we are only 6 games in and need a longer term outlook, someone who will put structures in place to build the club going forward, investment allowing, otherwise we will be back in the same position in 12 months time. JK is not that man imho, he is onto a good thing with Batley and his media work and would not come cheap also. He's done his time here, it's time to move on.

Ideally you would look to Australia and someone like a Ivan Clearly or Geoff Toovey but the chances of them going for it are slim to none as they will be first in line should a NRL job come up. And i don't think JD would uproot his family again and leave a job he has just started to join us in the state we are in, it would be a big risk. For me i'd be tempted to go for Glenn Morrison. He has been captain here, was good as the academy coach and assistant to the first team and has done a good job on a limited budget with Dewsbury. If we were worried about a lack of top level coaching experience then maybe an experienced director of rugby could be brought in to help oversee things and help out MC on the rugby side of things in the boardroom, similar to the Ian Watson/Tim Sheens set up at Salford. Brian Noble springs to mind to there are probably other candidates, maybe someone like a Daniel Anderson.

It will be Chris Chester though.

The resources he could have given were time, attention and opportunity - but he failed, and we lost a generation of academy players off the back of it.

Where's sun bed boy when you need him to watch the comings and goings at the club while he's doing donuts in the car park

A mate of mine at work who's sadly a Cas fan suggested Ian Millward with Dean Widders as assistant to wind me up. Though I would not be surprised, it'd be exactly the out of the blue type appointment.