Given current performances and results is it time for Matt Calland to leave the club?

Vote and discuss

Pointless poll!! As at this moment both apply to him but neither will happen

give someone else a chance, this club should be doing better

It's important to take the view of the public, however from where I sat at the Shay today I don't need to forecast the result. Matts tenure at the shay has become untenable. Great while it lasted but it's over now. I'm sure MC will have a great career going forward, but his work at Fax is done. Let's hope Mike, Mike and Roger for whom I hold the highest regard have the balls to do the right thing.
I'm not going to tell the board who to chose as his successor as I am sure they will do a good job and appoint the right man.
Its not rocket science to deduce that Mr Probiz is not going to want to align his company with a bunch of losers. The supporters are already showing their unhappiness with the awful attendances that's going to continue to fall.
Do it now so at least we can have some kind of excuse when we air our washing in front of the national audience next week.
It really is make or break time.

Roger ? if you mean Roger Harvey he isn`t on the board it`s Mike Riley , Michael Steele , Ian Croad and Tony Abbot. I also have the highest regard for these men and would not like to be on their position that`s for sure.
But the at the end of the day the Club and the players are in the entertainment business and while die hard fans will stick by the Club through the not so good times we are supposed to be trying to build up the crowds for Super League.
Anyone coming down to a game to give it a try will not come again to watch players who only try for half a game.People can spend their money elsewhere to be entertained especialy what`s on offer these days it`s down to Matt and the players to see they want to come back for more. If they don`t want to buy into the "entertainment tag " they`ll have to ship out fast if it were up to me.
I went into the Harveys Suite after the game and was shocked at how few people were in there , I suppose that is down to all the season tickets holders by now having taken advantage of the free meal offer. The mood was awful as you can expect Pete was doing his best as usual but once more no sign of Calland or most of the players he has been with the Club long enough now to know it`s part of the job win or lose to say a few words to sponsors . Every other coach does it why not him and I know he and the players must have been upset well so was everyone else. I think the fans who have stuck by the club all these years need to be made to feel something is going to be done about the situation or I `m afraid we will lose a few more .
I know fans who have followed the club for years who still have not got a Bradford ticket yet because they don`t want to see the Blue and White shirt they have worn for life be humiliated by the ones who have "borrowed it " for a short time.The sponsors and fans need reasureance that he is trying to turn it round , the " he `s shy doesn`t like speaking in public" doesn`t wash with me he does perfectly ok when he has to speak on Sky . The thing is then he has to if Sky tell him they want an interview he has to do it IT`S PART AND PARCEL OF THE JOB it`s called the entertainment industry.
I am not saying he should be sacked but I think the cosy relationship he has had with some players is in part responsible and the cosy relationship that Calland has with the Club is responsible too.

Its a double edged sword for the club now. By the sounds of it MC was one of very few people at the club who took a paycut even though others came out in the paper saying they had. FWIW i thought he should have got a pay rise after last year so if the board do decide to get rid it will leave a very bitter taste for MC because he probably feels he did the club a favour by doing this. He also then finds his playing budget cut but then to compound that fact he makes some of the worse signings for the club that we have seen in recent history, maybe he was under pressure from the board to get some `Halifax` lads in, who knows.

On the flip side he isnt going to resign so the board would have to get rid which would mean paying him off and from what certain players have alluded to then nobody is sure if this is even an option. Would i trust the board to get the right man? I dont really think so to be honest. I dont know much about TA but theres only IC on there who i think has the business nounce to do this right, maybe his hands are tied though. Dont get me wrong i appreciate that people have got to put their hand up to run a rugby club but are they running as tight a ship as they should be?

One things for sure the longer it goes on the more people will vote with their feet and if no action is taken one way or another it may be too late and we will be visiting some different grounds next season and they wont be SL ones.

Having heard Tony Abbott speak, he seems to be fairly intelligent, knows his stuff.

It's not easy for the board right now, there may be people on the forum calling for Calland to go, but at the ground on match days there's no real movement for it, anyone who was in the Southstand Lounge a few years ago when 2 board members came in and the whole place was calling for Farrell to go will know what I mean there.

Something has to happen, but I dont know what, is sacking Calland and bringing in another coach (who's available) going to make any difference to how certain players play?

Calland said it himself, when the team win, they're the heroes, when they lose, he's the villain,

Clear the decks BOD's
As ive said before, we have more coaches than Abbeyways and we have brought in too many bit part players who are simply signing off their careers with a good club.
We could quite easily offload some of them and get a strong coach in.
Steele isn't a risk taker though so i fully expect him to get his way if this is ever discussed round the table, he's turning into Doug Ellis.
It's very sad, were one good coach away from taking off, foundations are in place, come on BOD's lets take it to the next level, lets be ruthless on the pitch, this needs a new man in charge. The place needs freshening up fast before your attendance budgets are in tatters, instead of less than 1500 (This IS Coming unless things change) you should have been looking at 3000+.

p.s enough of this dont panic stuff, the sides in league are coming on fast, we have been treading water with the best squad for years now, 2 Grand finals doesn't tell the whole story does it! Were Halifax RLFC for crying out loud.

To be fair there were more people hanging around after games back then! I now sit in the East Stand just below where Calland stands and there was plenty of discord at the end of the game and mostly aimed at Callands tenure. I wish we could just stabalise and capitalise on our success. We always seem to fall back into a "club in crisis" mode every 3-5 years. Makes it interesting as a fan but makes you look over your shoulder and wonder what catastrophe is around the corner!! It's never dull!! The club now has a feel around the place like during the run up to the end of Faz's stint. We spoke then about being strapped for cash etc but we must act before it's too late and I hope the club do the right thing as the club is hanging over the edge of a presipice right now due to on field failings.

Hasn't anyone else noticed how the atmosphere inside the Shay has steadily become stale over the years, the years of everyone cheering in unison have become distant memories barring Castleford, Grand Finals and a few away games, at the Shay the atmosphere has been poor, watching fax is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get. It takes its toll. Why when so many outsiders would think we should have had some great crowds and sore throats come monday morning have we become so disillusioned. I am not buying into we have no room for manouvre and i'm not buying into hitting form at the end of the year, people are paying good money, players and coaches are being paid money, every game and every time the shirt goes on should mean something special.
Look at how the Widnes and Leigh fans show so much passion and outsing us at home every year? Nobody would have ever done that at Thrum Hall or even a few years ago at the Shay, i remember when the folks of Halifax were so proud of their club and would sing for 10 mins before the kick off and ten mins after and all the way through the game, win lose or draw.
Its not entertaining anymore and the players dont look to be enjoying themselves or showing any pride.

I know some people think its a blip and we will turn the corner but I think today was a benchmark for us and we came up short. Barrow are not a bad team on paper and just shaded the win as they wanted it more than us in the 2nd half but we showed them up at times in the 1st half and should had got to a winning posistion but luck did not go our way. They are a 4th or 5th position in the league team for me so we should have being winning yesterday to put ourseves in contention for the same.
The thing that makes me worried is that I have always felt with Calland that we play an 'off the cuff' game which we did today if you go back to that 1st half, but we never seem to have a platform or gameplan and players knowing what they are doing. Now this worked well when we had a good squad but we don't this year and now Calland is being exposed.
Come on we should never have lost in Toulouse or at Widnes two poor teams but we did, we got tonked at Sheffield and now at home to Barrow when we have conceded another 43 points and have to still go to Fev, Leigh, Batley and Barrow!
so at what point does the Baord think we are in crisis and acts? When we are playing to stave off relegation as remember Toulouse are still exempt and York won again yesterday!
Do something NOW before this season is a fight for survival with dwindling crowds although I must say people are fickle as okay Widnes are going into SL but they have a poor team yet still turn up in good numbers, come on this is when the club needs our support not just when we are winning, get yourselves down the Shay, yer its tough but its a downward spiral if fans walk away..

We always try get the singing going in the south stand but no 1 can ever be bothered joining in which is just so painful. I dreamed of a south stand packed with fax fans bringing down the roof when we was drawn at home to Bradford in the cup but it just seems now that everyone will be just acting like they are turning up on deaf row which is what it exactly will be but maybe we should just make a a lot of noise anyway and show the RFL and the watching public that the fax fans are super League standard even if the team don't even look Championship standard. At the same time you can't just get behind the team when what they produce on the field is not good enough and make them think it is acceptable. Changes are needed quickly.

You don't have to pay him off, get a new coach in and tell MC to stay at home and keep up with his weekly-monthly pay check.

Hasn't he only got til the end of the season on his contract??

Surely it won't cost that much to pay him off and ship him out?

Exactly! its gonna cots more to keep him at this rate, look at how the crowds are dwindling... Some bad business deals have been going on recently, bringing back old players, X Blades, too many coaches, we are BY NO MEANS MAXIMISUNG OUR POTENTIAL on or off the field.

Don't get me wrong, I actually think Matts a good bloke, I've met him numerous times and even bought him a beer and i genuinely think he'll make a great No2 in Rugby, but hes not head coach material, plain and simple. Learning on the job with us has gone as far as it can, he needs to work under someone else to get his stripes. He just seems to have copied the Brian Smith way, only its too risky with poorer players.

By my reckoning we have played 13 competitive games this season plus a full pre season programme and two team building events. We have won just two games against teams playing at the same level as us and struggled frankly against some of the lower league sides. At what point is is supposed to get better?

The truth is that it isn't going to get better because Matt doesn't know what to do. We have been a defensive shambles fro 3 years but now we are being truly exposed for it. This isn't bad players it is poor positioning and reading of the game which comes down to coaching. To have the same failings in a side for several years but with many different players tells you the problem. Yesterday we shipped 3 tries to lose the game all down the same channel. Jones and Holly are both weak defensively and White isn't the greatest either in that department so why the hell were those 3 defending the left flank together. For it to happen once is fair enough but to stand on the gantry and not see th eproblem and move players around to fix it is negligent. Matt's problem is that he doesn't see it.

In attack we are becoming increasingly benign as well. We seem unable to do basic stuff. Forwards are aiming at men not gaps, Jones only runs sideways or diagonally and nobody knows what Holly is going to do because he makes it up as he goes along. When can you last remember our forwards taking up the ball and wearing down the opposition? After two tackles someone feels the need to start spraying the ball around globetrotter style....and then we lose it. The reason we don't kick into the corner from a penalty is that we don't know what to do with it 10 yards out because you can't play "off the cuff" from there.

These are all coaching issues not ability issues. Yes we have lost some players but overall this is a decent squad that is underperforming because it is disorganised and has no discipline.

We are headed for relegation, no question about that. Suspect too many people at the club think it just won't happen and everything will click at some point. Please wake up because it isn't going to suddenley click and before long it will be too late to do anything about it.

I agree with this post 110% I am now too becoming very worried about the unthinkable relegation as teams like York that I thought would keep us up have recruited recently and had 2 wins on the spin. I have heard if we was given the green light for Super League the bored would have £4 million of funds within a hour if this is the case why cant they raise a small percentage of that now and pay off matt, bring in a decent coach and replace the dead wood in the squad? Something needs to be done to stop the rot. Super League we're having a laugh.

I too heard about the £4M remark!! It will cost apparently £100k collectively to both remove and replace Calland!! Money well spent considering the alternatives that we are currently facing!

What a pointless thread this is....
I wasn't going to pass comment on this poll until I read some if the utter garbage & personal insults aimed at individuals on the club's board of directors, absolutely shameful.
I know a couple of these gentleman rather well and totally admire the work they've put into resurecting our club from some of the disasters that have been part of our history in not many years gone by. I wouldn't blame them if they locked their office doors one day and never came back to face this sort of abuse. Tony Gartland & his family didn't have to put up with it and he voted with his feet, I hope this doesn't happen again.

I agree MM. To actually have a vote about whether someone should lose their job is quite shameful. Fair enough, pass comment if you think MC has taken the club as far as he can but to take it one step further and have a poll is in poor taste.

Yeah Gav I agree. OK, I go with the discussions about being in the entertainment business & also about a results based/performance related earnings, but this guy Calland took a pay cut for being the GF champion winner, some people have very short memories when it suits them.

To be fair I don't think there has any personal insults against members of the board, in fact most have said that they have the utmost respect for them, there isn't even personal insults toward Calland, more questioning his coaching ability.

I think perhaps a poll is a bit too far, but come on MM you can't honestly say you are happy with what you are watching week in week out?

Apart from the obvious relegation potential, the other worry is what it is doing to the crowd figures.

As bad as the bulls are playing I fear a cricket score on national TV.

I don't watch "week in, week out" I very rarely go to away games nowadays & missed the Leigh game at home the other week cos I have interest in junior RL which interferes with kick off times on sunday afternoons, I also work shifts so miss occassional evening matches. I also feel we'll get whacked next weekend but bought a ticket anyway. I'd like to know how people can jusdge a coach when they're not present at training sessions, maybe some players have got loose tongues, maybe some of us listen to too many rumours, who knows ?
All I do know is, some of the players aren't putting the effort in, in my opinion. I heard the Fax fans getting onto the ref yesterday but I thought he had a good game & I understand the penalty count went 8-6 in our favour, so hey, guess what, we've got a fairly disciplined side giving away a penalty every 13-14 mins on average compared to Barrow who averaged one evvery 10 mins.
I just feel there's an awful lot of desperation amongst us all at the moment. The B.O.D. Matt & the players will be feeling it but the difference is, they can do something about it, the only thing we as speccies can do is attempt to lift our team. If it wasn't for the Barrow fans making some noise yesterday the south stand would have been like a morgue.

There is a key word in that last paragraph which is making threads like this happen...