I said at the very beginning of the season that KC needed a mentor in the same way that Salford is operating. Its a pity our season was not written off much earlier, we could have got Brian Smith here on a "coaching holiday" and sent KC over to OZ to work as a temporary assistant with a NRL club.
Another option was to bring Daniel Anderson over here to work alongside him, KC now appears to be a self appointed coach guru who is trapped in his own dogmatic ideology and won't admit his projects are damaging the club.

A lot of criticism needs to fall on the players as well despite the difficult environment, they are professionals and should be doing the basics right despite the poor form, last night they were just 17 individuals with no team spirit and leadership.

Final question, in the absence of proven coach availability could Wellens do a better job than KC or replace Sean Long.

A well considered post. But I'll disagree on Powell. He had the same issue at Leeds. He was thrown in far to early and then had to go learn his trade the hard way. Cunningham should have had to go and do the same rather than taking on a top job as his first head coach role.

Powell now is a different coach from Powell 15 years ago.

I agree that ideally KC should have had an "old head" to mentor him and provide a shoulder to lean on when things get tough. As it is he has been thrown in at the deep end and been told to sink or swim. His job is being made harder by us fans now getting poles and pushing him under the water trying to drown him.

The RFL own rules are worded so as to make employing oversees mentors difficult.

Here are some key points to consider from the RFLs own documents:

"As a club can only have one head coach any applications for other head coaches will not be endorsed. Endorsements will not be issued for assistant coaches or for player/coaches."

"The candidate has been in post or in an equivalent post for at least three years (where a coach has been out of post for more than 12 months it is exceeding likely that an application would fail"

"The club has provided the RFL panel with a list of British candidates who were considered for the post and gives brief reasons for not appointing from that list"

"The club provides a copy of the press release or other means by which it has notified the UK market that the vacancy exists"

Now Daniel Anderson is a name that crops up, however there is a big problem re this and it is his suspension from the NRL due to shenanigans at Parramatta. This is currently with the Supreme Court in Australia. So until that is sorted one way or the other I doubt Saints could do anything. There is also the very important point that Anderson may not want to come to the UK.

Appointing Brian Smith would be akin to getting Sean McCrae back at the club, at least McCrae won things.

The only person we could go for is Tim Sheens, but he might be happy at Salford.

I can't understand why greenwood didn't start for you, he always looks good when I see him play. Also last time you played us Fages was brilliant, yet last night the ball ended up in Wilkins hands on your last tackles far too often. Even in his favoured position I think he's hugely overrated and potentially (no idea what he earns) a waste of your cap space.

Wilkin shouldn't be anywhere near playing first choice yet he's captain. This simple statement confirms what a mess we're in

Daniel Anderson was successful at Saints in 06 with the best side that we have ever had. He failed to win the GF the following year with anther excellent Saints side. I see no reason to think that he would be successful with the current crop of players, he has been pretty anonymous in all of his other appointments, other than a brief successful spell at Auckland prior to them sacking him.

How have bradford managed to employ rohan smith if these are the rules?

Anderson put defensive structures in place at saints and prior to coming here was renowned for developing young players. Our attack was very much the quality of players we managed to accrue to form a formidable team.

The bedrock of a good successful teams we know is solid defence, in 2006 Anderson finally saw his rewards and I remember quite well in certain defensive sets the opposition actually made negative progress, what's alarming is that Cunningham, Long, Wellens and Sculthorpe knew how these structures worked but we have not appeared to emulate it into the present game.

KC likes his team to win the "middle" which in attack means we don't get the ball away from the ruck area until the 4th tackle, in defence his "middle" is too compact and slow so the opposition quickly go out wide forcing us into a sliding defence and expose one on one situations which we are pretty abysmal at.

Also whoever is our defensive coach (supposingly Sean Long) should have been binned off months ago, KC is nearly always chasing the game with players who don't have the energy because they have been over stretched in defence.

If we are using 10 year old tactics no wonder we get found out.

Working down the middle in heavy traffic, the drop off pass and the kick on the 3rd tackle is the way to go, we just haven't perfected it yet. I wonder if because we have the smallest backline in super league has something to do with it.

For the Wolves, Tony Smith was always an admirer of the old Saints style of open play and somehow has managed to emulate it into the modern game. In fact the tables have turned we are looking like the old warrington side who use to get a couple of hammerings during the season with a few reasonable games to give the fans some hope.

you wish...your not that good.

I think we might be a bit better than Brian Johnsons team and the 80-0 which exterminated him. Then John Dorahy came along and took the team to the bottom end of super league.

+1

In many ways the score flattered Sts.
50/50 calls against wire plus 5/6 times Sandow kicked early in the tackle count.
The score may have reached 50+ without Wire having to change a gear.
Saints have the backs, it's the lack of front row umph that is a issue IMO.

You couldn't be more wrong in terms of where or problems lie.

We regularly make enough metres and get in the righty positions to score points; our pack on the whole is doing its job.
Our main problem is that our back line is woeful at the moment and our tactics dire. A good attacking side would have been 12-0 up with the same amount of possession and territory as we had.

I saw Sts props looking like they were running up against a brick wall. Backs trying to help share the props work but getting nailed and pushed back, all that within the Wire 40.
Farge worked very hard but was under pressure with a poor Wilkin(a forward not a back) who looked every inch due for retirement.
Get Walsh back and the halves issue is solved.
Those outside backs have so much pace Swift and (inj) Makinson would both find a position on the wings at Wire

Like I said nowt up with the backs. It's a shallow pack, the same issue as Wire has had over the last 2/3 seasons. Finally addressed I might say.

Its the other way around saints have the forwards but don't have the backs, an unfit Lomax then we have Percival, Peyroux, Makinson and Walsh missing. It wasn't the front row that lacked umph but the whole team, if Wire played in the 2nd half as they did in the 1st half then +50 pts was on the cards but we weren't any form of threat so Tony Smith put the cue on the rack early.

Let's be honest here, the pack is garbage. It's not big enough, it's not aggressive, it doesn't do the hard yards well, no tackle breakers, not aggressive and none can offload.

Walmsley - good prop but struggling this year. I don't know why he ain't starting when we need him.

Roby - still best 9 in super league but playing behind a beaten pack. He needs us on front foot to make his runs but we are powder puff up front.

Amor - can't knock his effort and heart but he's not the prop we had in his first year. He's got no go forward and can get caught out in defence grabbing. Decent.

Tasi - utter crap. He's soft. He's slow. He's got no heart. Looking to go off at every opportunity. Total waste of a player and cap.

Richards- still only young but going backward. Big big guy but again powder puff with the ball. Make or break next year for him and imo will be at leigh in near future.

Sav - been awful but not happy. Looks like he made mistake staying at Saints. He's one of KC scapegoats. Will go on to be top player at another club. KC Needs to Swallow his pride and pick the kid and let him play regular.

Thompson - good prospect but again doesn't seem to be in KC immediate plans. Defo worth spot before Tasi every day of the week.

Vea- good half season when signed but been poor ever since. Terrible in defence and total liability on the edge. Works hard and puts effort in but he's another dead with the ball and can't break a tackle.

Wilkin- captain fantastic is finished. Needs to be released but isn't. He's another liability on the edge. Gets through work in defence but it's not enough. Another who can't break a tackle.

Greenwood - another of KC scapegoats but our top try scorer. I'm not sure on him as he runs to upright and gets smashed. Great near the line. Needs to play as he scores and this time lacks try scorers so has to play.

LMS- full of effort this year as it's contract year. The two best seasons he's had have been new contract years. He's decent but not good enough.

Knowles - he's a pure athlete! I've followed him through the ranks and has great potential. He's better than Vea and Wilkin now. Why KC played him 9 I'll never know. Hopefully a big future at the club.

We are in dire need of two big hard aggressive props and at least one good tackle breaking backrow.

The old rule is,' the pack wins the game, the backs decide how big.'
If you arn't winning then the pack just isn't good enough.
You will be put to the sword I think in France. The Cats pack is enormous.

KC is under enormous pressure. He isn't in a position to do what I suggest.
Leeds did this last year with Sinfield, pies did it at Wakefield. Paul Cullen did it for Wire when we made out first ever play-offs.....
Rest the the key guys in the team when it means little nothing by getting beat or having no chance of winning if you risked playing them, and save them for a game that is crucial or a sure win.

In other words finishing as near to 5th over the season and beating the likes of Cas Wid wake and KR, is far more a realistic target that risking semi fit players in trying to overcome Catalan.

We rely on pens. If we don't get pens we make no meters.

Catalan pack will destroy ours without a doubt.

Here's a question

If I offered you 5th spot and a dam good thrashing in France, as big or more as Wigan got at Wakefield....would you take it?

Ive just watched the game.

When owens made the break near the end, i laughed and said out loud, no chance.
i dislike this guy so much i was willing saints not to get a try.
Thought i heard some boooos when he got the ball a couple of times

Apart from that, another thrilling display from saints. They are almost as entertaining as watching paint dry.

I think fans are being very very harsh on Owens. Yes he's been poor but so have alot of other players in the squad.

He's still young and in his first season with the club.

True but he is the worst of the lot of them.

He is 22 and has played 69 SL games, so he should not be green. He scored a lot for Widnes but has never looked like doing it for us - no doubt hampered by the general malaise of the team.
Still, I just can't work out what he brings to the team. Also, he seems undroppable no matter how dire he performs.

I think I would have preferred Paddy Flynn.

He has played more SL games than what KC has coached, I get the impression he's very enthusiastic and keen to learn on the training field but come match day he's below average most of the time. This past month it looks as though he has bulked up for some reason, what annoys me most is he switches off when defending and gives up too easy, when the opposition make a scoring break he won.t chase the try scorer to send him out wide he just stops gives up and the try is scored with an easier conversion position.

I think that's simply because he knows he isn't fast enough to catch up with any break. Like our whole backline, he lacks any real speed. We have a threequarters made up entirely of small, not very fast, men.