Firstly congrats on getting a SL licence, i bet a few beers will be cracked open in Widnes tonight, it will be great to have the derby games back and all the usual banter.

I guess you will have a lot of tough decisions to make between now and the start of the 2012 SL season, a lot of players will obviously leave and possibly some of the coaching staff.

With Denis Betts lacking experience as a head coach do Widnes fans believe he`s the coach to take you forward in SL ? A lot of fairly young british coaches have been failing in SL for whatever the reasons, Paul Cullen did a lot of good work at Warrington, he changed the way we played and he was the person responsible for our attacking attacking style of rugby which we play now and its great to watch, unfortunatley we couldn`t defend in those days under PC and his limitations were exposed in a tough competition.

The likes of Steve McNamara and Richard Agar are 2 other fairly young british coaches that had limited experience as a head coach, one was found wanting and the other is currently struggling.

Look at the difference Tony Smith has made at Warrington, he basically took the same players that the previous coaching setup had struggled with and took them to wembley in 2009 to win the challenge cup and obviously we backed that up in 2010 with a couple of additions to the squad.

I think you need to go for a proven coach with a proven track record and one thats not past his sell by date, Wayne Bennett looks like he`ll be leaving the Dragons at the end of the season so i`m sure he`d take the lifstyle of Widnes ahead of Brisbane.

Anyway, you know more about Widnes than i do and you will know Denis Betts strengths and weakness's and if he`s upto a SL head coaches job.

I think Betts is obviously on trial..... and it doesn't appear to have started very well.... maybe he will turn things around.

having said that, if he doesn't, i dont think SOC will waste anytime in replacing him.

I can see Noble in charge 2012.... that's if the Hull fans don't get their way.

You make a lot of interesting points, and I tend to agree with them and your conclusions. Widnes, for some unknown reason, have never had an Aussie coach. I would hope the club would at least consider it this time.

I don’t want to write off Denis Betts too soon, but the signs are pretty mixed at the moment.

Id like to see Noble given the job with possibly Betts as his assistant

Difficult to judge betts with a squad of players who are basically seeing out their contracts barring a small minority of players who will remain with us. He must have the ability to attract players given his reputation in the game globally. I am still unsure, wouldnt mind that smith bloke from the wire though.

Denis is now in the hot seat and will be given time to prove his worth/abillity, it is still very early in the season, lets see what happens. If it works out, great, if not, SOC will sort it. My own opinion is, Denis will come good and prove SOC and whoever advised him to hire him correct.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out for the coach and the players .

Some of the players will be resigned to the fact that they will be leaving the club at the end of the season and must make a good effort to get a new club.

Betts doesn't have to worry about winning the play offs or cup , but a poor run could see him booted out or dropped to a more secondary role.

Don't Cullen or O'Connor carry any responsibility then?

Terry O'Connor is Director of Player Welfare (whatever that is )

Paul Cullen is Director of Rugby.

I think Betts will be our head coach next season (presuming are season replicates more the first 7 games not the last two). Personally I have been impressed, I know the last two not great but at the end of the day that was 120mins of poor rugby out of the season too date with players we all know can do a lot better as we have seen in Widnes shirts as well as for other sides.

Unless you were maybe going to bring in Wayne Bennett on a two year deal I doubt Betts would just accept being #2 too anyone else so I think it's his to lose no doubt. The SL monkey is off the players back now so it's time for us to really push on. Speaking to Thackeray hours after the announcement and he was saying the same thing, his mind was already on the next game 100%.

As for all comments you read about players leaving so won't try... Salford won the 'treble' in this league after they got the nod!

I think J20 you are right. Denis Betts was very well respected at Gloucester and I think he will do a good job at Widnes given a little more time.

We did have an coach from the Antipodes once --- Happy Frank Endacott -- who did not inspire the club that much.

Widnes have had two bad games which they can now hopefully put behind them, and they can they play the kind of Rugby we know that this squad can. If we can play Gareth Haggerty and Danny Sculthorpe in the same 17 I would be very happy.

And we still have some very good youngsters coming through the ranks and with Mullalley coming back into the squad from his lessons in Australia I can see us being quite good enough to nullify some of the comments from a couple of moronic Wire Drawers.

He wasn’t an Aussie. He was a New Zealander, like Graeme West. We’ve never had an [sizeAustralian[/size coach.

He never said he was

Pepe, why do you not admit that you are trying to wriggle out of saying something stupid. We have never had an Australian coach. Got it?

We have had Antipodean Coaches. Got it.

I don't want any more Antipodean Coaches.

Come to think of it I am not bothered about having an Australian coach, either.

Betts will do for me.

Enjoy the game tomorrow.