I know things could do with a shake up, but I am a bit wary when it actually happens, especially at this stage of the season.

Maybe if things do not improve the next shake up will involve the coach?

It's a bit much to start blaming cullen. He has had a terrible run with injuries and we've not had the chance to keep a squad together playing regularly for any length of time this season. It's been one of those seasons. And lest we forget, instead of splashing out on a bunch of ex super league merceneries like we could have, our club has blooded a lot of youngsters and has thought long term, we were unlikely to be first in the table this season and we all knew that before it started.

That said if Haggerty and Pickersgill hadn't been injured and we'd had SMithy available all season who knows where we'd be now?

Don't let one performance against Leigh colour our whole season.

Chris, not for one minute am I blaming Cullen - we can only judge him when he is sending out his best 13. I simply made an observation - something has happened behind the scenes.

Cull 100% needs to stay for stability and a long term plan. He's coached in SL, we can't replace that experience with anybody.

Regarding the players, we need a fit squad to have a run of games, then we can judge this team, we've used over 30 players this year which will now hit almost 35 with the changes, which is crazy but we had no choice.

Captain choice - 100% agree with, I hope Dave Allen stays injury free until now and the end of the season as he makes a massive difference when on the field and works tirelessly, as does Doran.

i suspect you thought of us when you mentioned these "ex super league" players Chris

Not exclusively, no. Your club is certainly guilty of it, as was ours a few years back, but my main point is we could have had a better squad than we do now with our resources. We could've thrown money at proven players and not relied on the likes of Grady and Hulme at any point, but there would be no point of doing that. Our goal is super league - we have to prove that our credentials are not short term or just for show.

I'm not having a go at Fax. If it were up to me next time around, I'd throw two out of super league and stick both of us in. There are too many SL clubs resting on their laurels and crawling along whilst we are stuck here and they don't deserve it.

Fair enough.

Why not?

Good coaching is also about avoiding injuries as well!

Conditioning work, stretching, physio, plyo-metrics etc.. etc...
All these make up the package that the coach needs to organise to help minimise injuries.

A couple of things here... firstly as a Fax fan you are in no position to determine what makes a good coach as your ideas on this change on a minute by minute basis if your opinion(s) of Calland are used as a benchmark.
The Fax Coachometer (which we all know collects the Fax fan's opinions automatically on a second by second basis) snapshot results are presented below and show a fairly stable set of results for this morning.. but this non-typical and normally they are a lot wilder than this..

2010-05-20 08:10:05 - Good
2010-05-20 08:10:09 - Bad
2010-05-20 08:10:24 - Excellent
2010-05-20 08:10:31 - Dreadful
2010-05-20 08:10:47 - Messiah
2010-05-20 08:11:11 - Unqualified

Secondly... looking at the some of the injuries - broken collar bone, damaged neck, broken cheek bone, broken hand, knee injuries, I'm not sure how a coach can prevent these. Admittedly if every player was suffering from strains and hamstring problems etc then fair enough.. but it's unreasonable to not expect a few of these type of injuries either. Unless unbeknownst to me these have been eradicated from the game by simple means and Cullen has ignored these.
Injuries happen. Sometimes you don't have many, sometimes you have a lot, sometimes you have loads. Part and parcel of a contact sport.

Good appointment for Allen but I don't see why we should remove Smith from captin. I know he is injured but, Smith has been a loyal and great servant to the club over the past 4/5 years. Unless Smith is regaining it when he is back from injury. I don't really see a need for Cullen to take this away from him.

Though i'd agree with that in some instances not for ours, which makes it more shocking!

Widnes have had players out with...Eye injury, Broken Jaw, Shoulder injury, Back injury, broken hand, dislocated finger, sternum injury, hamstring injury, knee injury.... (so basically the full body!).

If we had say 5 ligament injuries i'd agree but due to the random nature of ours conditioning is not to blame IMO!

I thought at first it was as interim skipper but tbh the way I read it was Smith out as skipper Allen in as the was no mention of Smith getting it back but was worded 'taken over from Smith'

Hears Smith and Cullen didn't see eye to eye at first but thought that was over something to do with Wesbter and as Smith still here next season thought that had gone.

It certainly seems to suggest that Smith has been replaced... and not by Gannon who is the acting 'on-field' captain?? Congrats to Allen but...

I'm pretty gutted for Smith if the truth be told. Considering the time he's spent at the club under recent circumstances I really would have liked to have seen him as the captain for our return to SL.

I think we have lacked a leader on the pitch at times. Cullen makes it abundantly clear in the article that he is furious with some of the decision making that has gone on recently on the pitch. Gannon now plays 30 - 40 mins, Smith is still some time away from being match fit so it's a smart move definately.

Just can't shake the disappointment for Smithy.

Always rated Smith as a leader and think it's be shown when he isn't out there. Then again can remember a few times in recent seasons things have gone pear shaped in a match and he hasn't been saying a word behind the posts :/ I don't no!

Maybe was a mutual thing? Or Cullen just deciding things need sorting NOW rather than later and wanted a skipper to instill this on the pitch.

Is a blow for Smithy who is as you say a fabulous servant to the Widnes club.

I'd like to think the journo has misinterpreted the situation, and Smith will be back as captain when fit.