There is obviously plenty of debate about our present coach at the moment and a significant wedge of opinion that he needs replacing with a better candidate.

However, just how much of an improvement would a new coach make to our side?

Let's be honest, how many great coaches are there really, especially in the British game?.. was Brian McDermott a great coach, or was he just lucky he had a great team?.. same with Brian Noble?.. Ian Millward?.. Justin Holbrook?.. Nathan Brown?... How many of their GF winning sides would have failed to win their titles without those guys in charge?

My point is, that more often than not, won't the best team win the competition regardless of who's in charge, and this idea that getting rid of Powell will suddenly see us change into a better side, might be a false hope?... Our side might simply not be as good as some might think?

If the coach is that vital to a side's performances over a season, how does that explain the final 3 years under Tony Smith, when our form went up and down like a yo-yo?... Same coach, but massively different results and performances on the pitch?

I know many of you will see this as me trying to defend Powell, but personally I just think that many are overestimating how good our squad is - as I've said a few times, I don't think there's much between the squads of most of the top 8 or 9 and I don't think a change in coach would necessarily make much difference.

Oh I entirely agree that we’ve overestimated the ability of this squad. I highlighted a while ago that Leigh’s is more impressive and it’s turning out to be so. The main weaknesses in the squad, IMO are Ratchford and Matautia. Powell loves those two - that is a problem. One is Captain and the other is being talked out of retirement….I’d hope a different coach would want the pair of them out.

The Clark/Dwyer scenario may not be Powell’s making but that is still not a good thing. Dufty was signed when we had Thewlis more than ready to take over that position (with decentish cover in that area). Dudson is also a downgrade on Mulhern and he’s clearly got man-management issues.

For me he’s just made too many dodgy and stubborn decisions and it’s never looked like a happy camp and that’s all down to the coach. The coach is massively important.

Smith said himself he became disillusioned with the sport. I think that might maybe be a hint at the coaches role.

These last few weeks we've made more mistakes than ever, I'm pretty sure Powell hasn't told the guys to play crap. They're making fundamental errors in catching and tackling.

Unless a coach is going to directly affect playing style (Price vs Smith for example) then their role is arguably to create a harmonious and winning culture. For some reason, Powell seems to have lost that, which might be the reason we're seeing lack of concentration on the field. Do the squad want to play for him? We all know about the "new coach bounce" that happens and that's generally after someone who's not much liked gets the boot and everyone feels better about it.

I've no inside knowledge, I don't know if the players are fully behind Powell or if they're fed up of his favortism towards certain players or if his coaching style is archaic or if he's simply an @rse of a human being.

What I can see at the moment is a bit of a mess of a playing style. A static defensive line and a bunch of individuals that would make a defending team happy to concede a penalty in their own 20m, because they are sure as hell not going to concede a try off it.

Heard it said Danny Orr was the real brains at Castleford when Powell was there.

This is Powell's side, he's moved on his perceived "bad apples" and has the squad that he wanted. If they cannot play as a team, have line speed at a snails pace, lack of attacking and defensive structures, lack leadership on the field and there's no harmony in the dressing room, then that all falls upon the coaches shoulders.

No doubt that its now Powell's side and if they ultimately fail to perform then that will be the sword that he will fall on - that's the way with most coaches in most sports.

However, my point was a simple change in coach won't necessarily change our fortunes, at least not immediately. Its likely another period of transition would have to be started - it's unlikely this group of players will suddenly become world beaters, just because Powell was to leave.

Basically, the best sides always end up winning, whoever is in charge - coaches like Noble and McDermott were made to look good by great sides, but what did they ever do once the great sides were taken from their disposal?

Then we need a coach who will assemble the best side in the comp, on evidence so far you could give Powell unlimited funds and he wouldn’t be able to do that. What we all want is a step in the right direction at the minute that’s not happening and we’re a season and a half in.

Easier said than done though, isn't it, because we are in a competition that's basically a lottery, especially with its salary cap restrictions - the only definite advantage you can gain isn't by who your coach is, but by making sure you have a very well organised academy in place - the only sides who win GF's are those with a regular stream of quality youngsters in place. So maybe the fan's anger shouldn't be aimed at the present coach, but at those in the positions of power who have failed to set up a decent youth set up?

If it was as easy as finding a coach who can assemble a decent squad, then maybe we fetch in Noble, McDermott or even stick with a guy who got Cas a table topping side and GF appearance?

Any coach that improves our non existent line speed will improve our chances of winning games. We gave Huddersfield so much room to play in that we made Theo Fages look like Alfie Langer. I'm not interested in debating what happened at other clubs back in the day, as the issues are the here and now at our club.

Interesting stuff, but you don't need to be Wayne Bennet to coach a side to do rhe basics right, and at the moment we are failing to do that, and getting beaten by teams who are doing no more than that.

The beat coaches get an extra 5% out of the best players and an extra 15% out of the average ones.

I didn't know much about Matty Peet before he took over but he seems to have a group of players who believe in him, and he has got them doing the basics right - no more. They had a poor spell and they seem to have closed ranks and weathered the storm.
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Do you think that Powell is sending the players out to deliberately give opposition players loads of room to play, or, more realistically, do you think he actually is telling them to do these basics correctly, but the players are simply not good, or intelligent, enough to carry out his instruction?.... if, as likely, its the latter, then a change of coach isn't going to suddenly change things, is it?

He recruits, prepares, and selects the team that represents Warrington Wolves RLFC. The responsibility lies with him.

Problem is if DP were in charge of Barrie Mac’s Leeds he would’ve told Sinfield to get lost and brought Peanut in to play 6/13….Ollie Holmes would’ve seen off JJB as well.

Didn't Powell actually bring those guys through at Leeds?

It's Powell's squad, he has the responsibility to get them to perform as well as they can, individually and as a team, and gives the tactics to do so. We'll win nothing with a passive defence, we don't need any coaching badges to see this, it's so obvious. Powell was heralded as a coach that improved players, and make a bunch of journeymen into a competitive team, but were yet to see this happen at Warrington. The answer to your thread title is a resounding yes.

Ok, that's good to know.

So Brian McDermott or Brian Noble were the reason for the success of their GF winning sides then, which is odd, because their records since would suggest otherwise?

Pointless asking a question you already know the answer to. Why bother having a coach then? Do you think City would still win the league with Sam Allardyce in charge? I don’t. Right place right time for some coaches/managers admittedly, but some know when best to leave alone.

The City example is an interesting one. At the moment, there seems to be a growing consensus that Pep is the greatest coach of all time, on the basis that he takes the dominant club in each league he's managed and wins trophies.

In reality, you can't ever judge his real ability until he takes an underachieving and financially restricted club and wins trophies with them. Until then, he will always be behind the achievements of Alex Ferguson, or even Mourinhio.

Of the two mentioned, Sinfield debuted in 1997 and JJB in 1999, before DP coached Leeds in 2001. For balance, Danny McGuire and Rob Burrow did debut under DP at Leeds.

What annoys me is that Thewlis has been moved to the wing to accommodate Dufty, and Riley Dean hasn't had a fair chance to show what he can do. Wrench is only playing centre because of Matautia playing in the halves. Otherwise, he'd also be on the wing, or one of him and Thewlis either on the bench or not even in the 17. DP appears to have no trust in our talent that has come through from our academy, but trusted Holmes (for a season), and Matautia for 2 seasons, when they were quite frankly not good enough.

I've already said that I'm not debating the back in the day of other clubs, it's the issues at our club, today, that are relevant.

Goodness me, we aren't basking them to crack the enigma code or rid the oceans of plastic - we're asking them to move up quickly in a line.

I don't think the likes of Morgan Smithies are going to get headhunted by NASA but they seem able to understand.

Being a coach at the top isn’t necessarily coaching, more about managing and creating a plan.

If you watch the Smith teams of 2011/12, it’s overtly clear that the players were instructed to offload on opportunity. They were directed to pressure the kicker and try and charge down. These are obvious traits instilled by the coaches to get the best out of the players available.

If you look at the South’s team that had the 4 Burgess boys in, they had a completely different approach. There was no such push for offloads, they saw the strengths being big men running hard and playing the ball as fast as possible, no messing around.

Wane’s teams are similar. Boring to a point, as the forwards don’t do much with the ball, but suffocate you in defence. The wingers pick up the slack and do the donkey work coming away from the line. Then it’s all about shape, running the right line and the pivots waiting for the defence to guess wrong, rather than them guess right.

The problem that we’ve seen last season and parts of this, particularly in defence, is that we’re not doing the same thing. Look at Minikin for the first try on Friday. We have the numbers right, but he shoots out for no reason, with the rest holding a straight line. Same with a number of examples early in the season with Matautia and Drinkwater doing polar opposites.

These are things within the gift of a coach. It’s not as simple player doing something wrong as with a dropped ball, they are just doing something different. If everyone did what Minikin did on Friday and shot out of the line and took a man, they wouldn’t score. Human error is unavoidable, but their is evidence to suggest that the players either don’t know the plan, aren’t following the plan or struggle when under fatigue/under pressure to recall that muscle memory to get it right, which boils down to preparedness.

Was thinking this on Sunday when Green was only 18th man and Russell got the bench spot.

Some interesting points raised here.

Why do people think we won 8 on the bounce at the start of the season under Powell?
Fair enough to berate him and the team after the last 2 performances in particular but it does make me wonder why things have changed so much.
I don't think it's down to one single factor such as Makaele leaving.

Reading some old posts, I noticed that one of the things that attracted some people to Powell was he was not afraid to blood youngsters, so were they wrong or has DP changed.

Favourites - this always makes me roll my eyes.
This charge has been laid at every Wire coach (and I suspect every coach of every club) since I started watching - even TS who was one of our most successful coaches ever.
However it does seem that DP thinks the way out of our current predicament is to play seasoned professionals at the expense of 'young blood'. It seems he's not seen enough from Riley to give him a fair crack of the whip. Would we be better with Riley in the halves? I honestly don't know.
Would it be fair to Riley? Not sure, but if he has a Wire future he has to step up at some time.

Going back to the central point - do coaches make a difference - yes they should - and in numerous ways. If you've got a decent team, it's about man management, tactics and trying to improve individual and group performances by that 1-2%.

I’ve come to find slot meters unwavering support of powell hilarious and his post on pep sums up the type of person we’re dealing with