Millward did a good job this season and I hope he stays with us that said. We would have been struggling without the dual contract players. Don't see him as a number 2 at Salford though would be a big clash of personalities there.

Maybe it was because the team was undefeated at the half way point in the season, but other teams then sussed them out, by moving the ball wide and exposing glaring weaknesses? Leigh fans would argue that there was no 'Plan B' - leading to embarrassing big home defeats to Halifax, Batley, Dewsbury and Sheffield.

gone too according to friends who know nothing about rugby but were both appalled with his training plan. both very competent weight lifters. one who i'd like back at work. they couldn't believe he was employed by a professional sports club to keep athletes fit.

they both agree about his attitude.

I was watching Haigh with the players last sunday, he reminds of a 1950s drill instructor. No wonder the players aren't motivated, Windsor Davies would be a better option. The more I think about it, the more it seems obvious we need a complete clear out of the backroom staff.

I don't care what anyone says, but the whole time McRae's been at the club we've had talent in the side, not world class all the way through, but enough talent to cause teams problems. We just never ever get the basics right. How can any of the backroom staff look at the team not running onto passes at pace or from depth, either not drifting or drifting very slowly in defence and players constantly dropping of tackles, and be happy. Someone from Haigh to Wilkinson should have picked up on the issue by now.

This is why the fans get so frustrated. You can talk about buying meat from M & S all you like, that just makes me hungry, but when you look at what Wakefield achieve with a similar budget it's plainly obvious our players just aren't getting the coaching they require. In life, and rugby, nobody ever stops learning, all players need instruction and developing. So saying McRae needs a better quality of player to work with is a load rubbish, he needs to accept it's his job to develop the players and start doing that. You can't show me one player in Salford's ranks that has improved since McRae arrived.

the club has been a professional organisation run by amateurs. the techniques used to get the player into shape were ridiculously out dated. No one at the club seemed to have the knowledge drive to change it.

Most of the backroom staff have now gone it would be nice to see the club repeat the show of intention the new signings have displayed and bring in some professional to train them. What we needs are some forward thinking individuals that would leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of preparing our players.

not just ex players that have been brought through the same system.

Such as what?

carrying bags of coal up and down the stands

not far off.

one example give was that the bio mechanics of actually lifting the weights was never touched on so they weren't getting the maximum benefit from each session.

and the 20 minute core strength program was simply not enough, for the game they played.

Was this in the off-season training or during the season? I could understand if it was the latter.

If Andy Haigh has left that gives Salford opportunity to recruit another strength and fitness contitioner with a fresh approach . We've amost a new team , and remaining players with new backroom staff may feel the ' slate has been wiped clean ' for the pre-season. One things for certain team fitness has gone down in my opinion since the Karl Harrison / Eddie McGuinness days , with Dean Thomas - Andy Haigh the younger squad players especially the forwards don't seem to have added the bulk & power you see in other SL teams youth , they seemed plauged with injuries and rarely do I see them running hard into the line. time for a change.

Just to illustrate the differences of opinion in how players feel they should be trained, I remember a few players who were critical of Karl & Eddie's regime. The gym work was based mainly around supersets. Great for our style of play i.e. based on a solid defence, but these players felt physically weaker than they'd prefer. It just goes to show that in terms of training, players will always have a personal preference, whether it's to be big, lean, strong or have great cardio.

Is this the same Wakefield we beat last week? the same Wakefield that finished a massive two points above us in the league? and the same Wakefield that now face a winding up order.Or a different club I've not heard about? Go onto the Wakey board and read what their fans think about the way their club is being run.
IMO McRae has been operating with one hand tied behind his back.Little money to buy any real quality players and an assistant coach in Malc,who in his first season in the coaching role,has had to fit it in around his playing duties.
Next season is the time to judge McRae as the players we have brought in are a step above (on paper) the players we have released.
You say it's McRae's job to develop players,I agree.But each player reaches a level and then cannot improve further.This is why some become internationals,some super league players,some national league and some play amatuer league.A gross simplification I admit,but basically true nevertheless.
Unfortunately,over the past few years at Salford we have had a team, made up in the main,of players of barely super league standard and I would have challenged any coach to make much of an improvement.

What he/she said

we would be better off with brian noble

You must be new to the game Smithy. Never forget his dull tactics.

Noble is the professor of 5 drives and a kick. He gets his players fit and he plans damage limitation. His tactics are very negative.

What we need at Salford is a Coach who can inspire flair and play off the cuff Rugby to bring the crowds back. No more turgid stuff please............. and that applies to SMc as well.

I never mentioned anything on how Wakefield was run as a club, but I did mean the same Wakefield that reached the play offs last season, the same Wakefield that lost TRONC, their best forward, and Brough, their best half back, and the same Wakefield that has stuck 30 plus points on us at their place for the past two seasons.

I agree you can't give any player vision or bottle. On the other hand you can make them stronger, to a certain degree you can make them quicker and you can improve their basic skills. Please don't quote dunneman back at me, but a large part of the reason we did well in 2006 was down to good basic skills and playing at tempo. One of the best Salford games I've ever seen was our home game against Saints that year, because we did the basics right and played with tempo. I know we lost but each half felt like it was 10 minutes long.

This is what John Kear can give a team. He will never take a club all the way to the top, but he will, however, turn a clubs fortunes round and is a very good short term fix. This is, also, what McRae doesn't give Salford. He hasn't proven himself worthy.

the same Wakefield that lost TRONC, their best forward, and Brough, their best half back


why ... signs of financial issues here.



Name a succesful coach who'd come to Salord and play the Saints/Wire way. Kear is correct on two counts.

I was trying to seperate Wakefields on field and off field problems. At the start of this season, with Tronc and Brough, Wakefield were a different propostion. Due to Off field problems, they lost these two players.

Also, I never asked for us to play like Saints. The game I mentioned, Saints won because they had more class, but the fact we competed was testimony to what can be achieved with good coaching, and that season nobody was saying Salford won because the opposition had a bad day. The sign of a good coach is their ability to improve a team and it's players.

I'm not going to knock John Kear on here,plenty on the Wakey board do that.What I will say is that since they lost their two best players they have gone downhill.Your argument is that he should have been able to improve,strengthen and make quicker the players he had left instead of the poor team that turned out at the Willows.I maintain that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Going back over old ground now but IMO our good season in 2006 was based on a good defence and good players. Yes I will quote Dunneman at you because IMO he was very underrated.He had a good defence and led us round the pitch,something we have lacked until Holdsworth started doing it just before his injury.
We also had Malc,probably at the peak of his career,Coley,Robinson,Rutgerson,Hodgson,Moule,Finnigan and Fitzy,who was a good fullback before his bad injury.McRae hasn't had players of this calibre to coach in his time at Salford.
I am not convinced McRae is the answer I just think he should be given a chance with the better players we have signed.

I agreee with most of what you are saying, and the 2006 team was much better than the current one. When you look at the 2009, which I would say is better than 2010, which had Stapleton, Cashmere, Myler, Ratchford, Talau, Henry and Wilshire we had a team with enough talent to suggest we should not have been taking the pastings we were. I can live with us losing, it's the manner in which we lose that annoys me. This said see there was an occasional glimpse of what that team could achieve, McRae just couldn't get it out of them on a regular basis.

It's debatable what the difference was between 2009 and 2010. Finnigan looked like a completely different player in 2010, we lost our strength and conditioning coach, we replaced Dunneman with Dorn and we were extremely unlucky with injuries.

Yes, I do believe losing Dunneman hurt us really badly, but we didn't look as fast, as strong, or like we were capable of playing with any tempo.

Sorry my point was, I don't think McRae has shown enough or tried hard enough to keep his job.

I know what you mean.But he was given a four & half year contract,which is a long time in RL.Perhaps,just perhaps,he was told,"look,there's no money for the 1st couple of years in Super League,your job's safe,just keep us ticking over,and we'll see what we can do for the 3rd year".
We must have been desperate to get him to give him such a long contract,and that's another reason to keep him as it would use up money that could be spent elsewhere to pay him up.

To be fair to JAW and/or whoever negotiated a deal, SMc was by far the most well-recognised and successfully coach we'd appointed in a good, long while and we needed some stability so, at the time, a long term deal seemed like a good idea.

The 2009 team also had littler, sibbit, alker,fitzy, big phil, Highto of the top of my head who were on their last legs thats why we couldnt kick on to 2006 heights they were all still under contract because after our relegation we needed to bounce back up, the landscape had changed dramaticly from 2003 financially so we gave these players big contracts to bounce us back up with a mix of young talented and cheap players, protect our younger players and give them time to develop.

This happened, in many ways you could argue it was the young players that carried us through.....anyway... the old guard were roared off this year rather than paid off sooner with their heads held high and mcrae for the 1st time has a full set of senior players which are his, will buy into his theorys and follow his plan to the letter

Dunnerman was world class for us, Holdswoth is world class, im glad we learned the lesson over dunnerman you build a team round such a talent and you will go far we still have a youthful team you took the 2006 pack as it was then jumped in a time machine and played them this year i recon we'd be playoffs for sure, its not a dig @ the younger players its just that in 2006 the players were @ the right age and were physically and mentally ready to go to the next level.

It will come again sooner than you think.

Anyway all this talk of teams 2003 team was great too, clinch the pinch doing what dunnerman did and the wizard is doing now, sir clifford of beverley, the rugby genius, jason "flowers of salford", littler, alker, david highton, blakeley showing us flashes took us back to the amarillo - the promise land when it reaily was promotion or bust

I think this is a great point. Let's see what 'Smack' does next year with a new team of his own and then judge.....

Let's have a bit of positivity on here.....