Quote ="sally cinnamon"You could probably compare us to the Leeds team that Daryl Powell inherited from Dean Lance in 2001. There were a lot of players who were internationals. Brett Mullins, Tonie Carroll, Iestyn Harris, Ryan Sheridan, Robbie Mears, Jamie Mathiou, Darren Fleary, Andy Hay, Brad Clyde, Anthony Farrell. You could have made an argument then that the issue wasn't the quality of the roster, they just needed the right coach.
But also you could have pointed at a lot of those players and asked were they on the way up or were they plateauing/coasting or in steady decline, like you can with us now.
Those players were all moved on in 2 years under Powell. Probably involved some hard conversations, as Powell had only just retired as a player and he would have fit that category of established players who were treading water, the year before. Some of those would have been his mates. Powell brought in Mark Calderwood, Richie Mathers, Rob Burrow, Danny McGuire, Ryan Bailey, Danny Ward, JJB, Matt Diskin. He also brought in some older players around them who had a good attitude: Gary Connolly, Andrew Dunemann, Willie Poching, Chris McKenna, Matt Adamson, David Furner, Adrian Vowles. It was a total squad overhaul. Those older players coming in, weren't the coasting/declining players that had been moved on, they were a considerable upgrade in attitude and hunger. Some of the guys in the Leeds team he inherited, had been successful a few years earlier in the Graham Murray era, but the game was moving on and Powell recognised that the squad needed a reset.
The squad that Powell handed over to Tony Smith after his 2 and a half years was faster, hungrier and played better rugby than the one he inherited. Now you could say, they didn't win anything when Powell was there - which is a fair point. But also not a bad job given that Powell had just retired as a player and was learning on the job at a big club. The squad culture was changed from one of big names who were underdelivering to one that was ready to win. If Powell does that with us he's done his job. I wouldn't be surprised if over the next few years Powell does a lot of surgery on the squad which will mean some peoples favourites are moved on, but there aren't many in our squad who I think would be a massive loss, other than Clark.'"
So much sense in this from SC. I'm really looking forward to the changes that need to happen and hopefully the success it will bring.
