been thinking why we could compete and beat the aussies 30 odd years ago. was it because they have changed there methods since then, or was it a change here. i think probably a bit of both. 30 years ago kids were taught to look after thmselves from an early age and most developed a street wise mentality that gave them a certain toughness. look at the last GB team that beat the aussies and ill gaurantee that all the squad was as hard as nails and as tough as old boot. im not saying todays players arnt tough, but perhaps they dont have that 'nasty toughness' of days gone by.
in the hull area, ill bet the vast majority of players that go on and play pro are from the inner city estates and not the 'posh' areas of the city. in my experience coaching youngsters, the kids from the councel estates and the like have an inbuilt toughness and are far more street wise. unfortunatly these type of kids are getting fewer.
my wife is a primary school teacher and the school policy is to go to a teacher if you are bullied. fighting back is a big no.
maybe im barking up the wrong tree, but i think that these kind of values go on to mould people for life.
just my thoughts

hanley coach with radlinski and sculthorpe assistant's

Half tongue-in-cheek this answer but... the Aussies have changed the rules in the areas where we used to beat them - particularly competitive scrums. We always had the best hookers and they often could not win the ball off us and you can't win without the ball. Now you don't even have to be a forward to pack down.... etc... etc.... etc...

The other thing that changed their fortunes was taking advantage of the kick chase. It took the Brits about 8 years to figure out what the Aussies were doing. Before then, if a full back kicked a long kick you would often end up with a full-back kicking duel. If the rule was that you could not be in advance of the kicker (which is kind of how we used to interpret the rule) then the game would be a lot different.

ooh ooh yes and then there's the handing over the ball after x plays. Again, the Aussies could never get the ball off our pack once we had it...

I'm having this discussion with myself lol. I don't know which game was better the old or new but there were definitely some very dour encounters in the game before the current 5 drives and a kick version that we watch at all levels of the game - which includes the Aussie NZ game that many were raving about being the best they'd seen on British soil btw.

Think you are spot on with that Andy

Personally I'd love them to find a foreign coach with no previous/current coaching links to any SL club, nor a past playing history with one. Might be an impossibility, but it's the only way I can think of to eradicate the boys club selection policy without bringing in a selection panel like the Aussies do (which I've given up hope on). There's still far too much familiarity and/or using the England coaching position for their own ends that goes on IMO.

They are talking to one right now.

only wayne bennett stands any chance of making us into winners imo other then that we can wait another 37 years.

I dont really see how any international coach can teach our players the basic core skills they should already be able to do by now. Its possible he could come up with a gameplan to win the one-off games here and there but until we start to focus on the core skills we will never be a match for the aussies.

Didn't tim sheens mention something along them lines regards ellis when he first went to west's.