Was it the 2013 GF when we were up against Wigan at half time? Two old blokes behind were saying that we’d as good as won. I told them not to count their chickens (or something similar) and low and behold, Wigan came out and literally battered us in the second half. Joel Monaghan unconscious (I know that was the end of the first half), Ratchford off with a knackered ankle and Lee Briers having to stitch us together at full back.

I was furious on the day with how Wigan played that 40 minutes and how they were allowed to come and injure us to win.

But they did win. Because their attitude was ‘we are going to take this title at any cost’. And since then, I’ve known that’s what we’ve lacked. We need a coach who will put that into us.

Point taken, but we clearly do have some youngsters in the current crop who look like they are SL quality. They need attention, nurturing, experience and patience.

Yes I agree. Baloo seems to be doing a good job, and this group look a lot better than we have seen in the past. Even so the club need to up the ante in getting hold of high quality 16 yr olds because Wigan and Leeds seem to snap most of them up. And from this years crop, its a bit ironic that Longstaff who looked really good on debut, was taken from Wigan;s academy.

Blimey, we lost 2 games and now these responses. We are nailed on for the play offs. even a chance of the LLS. We've won 9 out of 11. If Austin had gone through that gap we would be getting our popcorn ordered for the final. Get a grip poeople.
Agree on our recruitment though, some terrible signings.

Right on cue, I read a message from a senior representative of the club bemoaning the fact that Salford fans won't be in Wembley to see their team and the club will.miss out on the financial rewards.

Well, boo-hoo.

Their finances are a mess because they signed a bunch of mercenary has beens (sound familiar?) and their crowds are pitiful after years of mis-management. At least they are in the final and with some imagination can still recoup plenty.

I'm a Wire fan first and an RL fan a close second but I was rather hoping the club would be indulging in some insular, painful soul searching today not posting magnolia platitudes.

We are not nailed on for anything
No-one cares about the LLS
Yes but he didn't hit the gap and if that was a GF we'd have lost that too

At risk of being labelled a happy clapper. This feels a little but like a knee jerk reaction, seen as though everyone has been lauding the whole squads performances and attitude for the past month or so. I think we have to let the season run and see what response the team has to this, they will be bitterly disssapounted too. I hope they take this feeling in to the the playoffs and hopefully the final too.

I would have agreed with this not so long ago by the way, I thought price should have gone at the end of both of the past 2 seasons because we were an awful team to watch. He had us playing within ourselves for sure. That's not been the case recently though.

Good thread and I agree wholly with those who question our bizarre policy of seemingly accepting endless mediocrity.

Ultimately, it does beg the question of how long should a coach get in his job?

My own personal view is that, unless it is apparent he is an absolute disaster and the club is heading for the drop, 2 full seasons is a minimum - That is ample time to instill his own 'brand' of rugby on the team and to begin to show signs of actual improvement from when he took over the job.

From 2 years on, his job should be under annual review and if success isn't forthcoming AND it's obvious that onfield performances have stalled or are going backwards, then he should be replaced.

Using my criteria, unless Wire win the SL title this season, Price MUST be replaced for 2021 - Simply sticking with failure and somehow expecting a different outcome is just a recipe for more disappointment.

Haven't got a problem with replacing Price if he doesn't win the GF this season. What I'd like to know is who is actually in charge of recruitment, is it KF, SP, A.N.Other or done by committee?
The prop forward issue has been very frustrating, putting it mildly.

Please forgive my ignorance here, but if Karl Fitzpatrick has indeed got anything to do with our recruitment, then what exactly are his qualifications for doing so?

From memory, he was a bog standard player, he's never been a successful coach, he's got zero connection with our club, he's basically no more qualified for his job than most of us on here, so how, or why, is he in the position he is in?

By the way, this isn't intended to completely slate him, I'm just genuinely curious how he has got the job he has and, if recruitment is at least partly down to him, why we have chose to give him such responsibility when he appears to have little qualification for it.

Insanity

Add to this, the rumour (it MAY be a true story), that the recruitment of Burrell was down to Moran fancying taking a punt on him.
That's right. A concert promoter recruiting an ageing fella from another sport. Our recruitment since 2010, bar the obvious few, is poor, bordering on shambolic

Our next 3 games are Wigan (who won't play as badly again) , Cats ( big pack in autumn conditions) and Leeds (who ALWAYS play end of season rugby well) , finishing the season against Saints. With play off places being done by %age points, I'd say our place in them is anything but "nailed on".

Price MUST earn his money

Cue the board sticking their. Underpants on their heads and a pencil up each nostril

WIBBLE

To be fair to Mr Moran, if I'd put as much cash into the club as he has, then I might want to occasionally play fantasy rugby and fetch in some odd, almost unexplainable signing at random moments ( Johns was another of those and we tend to look back more fondly on that brief moment in our history).

Burrell was indeed an odd signing, but in the grand scheme of things was a no lose situation with regards to salary cap impact. It's the signings of the likes of Latu and Sita that need questioning with more scrutiny - whoever 'scouted' and recommended the likes of those 2 seriously need their position at the club reviewing.

They probably watched the YouTube clips we got shown in the stadium and thought let’s sign them

Wigan will be a tough match. Both teams with equal rest periods looking to put right a semi final loss.

Leeds and Catalans are both 'four pointers', the good news is that Leeds play in the CC final a few days afterwards so they may rest players, but this will be a huge risk for them if they are to make the top four. Depending upon how other results go Catalan could be make or break. It's also scheduled to be played at their place.

Top four is anything but nailed on.

The bizarre thing is, what you suggest is a lot more common than many might think.

It happens a lot in football and probably happens frequently in RL too.

YouTube is an agent's dream. Bang together a 5-10 minute highlights reel and you can make anybody look like a world beating football or rugby player. Find a gullible or desperate club and you suddenly have made yourself a few quid.. why do you think so many ex players become agents? Easy money for very little work...

Was partly why I made the comment, it’s funny how you never see the highlights of when they have had crap games. And before anyone says why would they, ofc I know why.

I would suggest that perhaps having almost unlimited funds is both blessing and a curse. We seem to be almost reckless with our spending, and ithe attitude seems to be if such recklessness means we sign a few duds well ....... we dip back into the monopoly money.

I'm no Liverpool fan but I.compare their measured, prudent, considered transfer dealings (which have delivered sucess and entertainment from a relatively small outlay) with the likes of Chelsea who once again have turned their back on youth and splurged daft money in the pursuit.

We need to try the Liverpool model a bit more; spend every penny like it's our last and excercise some diligence and restraint. The exception to this is the coaching setup - our next marquee signing shouldn't be a player.

Bit of an over-reaction here. We spent far too much time in yesterday's game kidding ourselves that the sun was out, the pitch was bone dry and the stakes were low. That we managed a portion of the match playing the right style for the conditions (just as Leeds did for 80 minutes) shows this was the players, not the coach. I don't fall into the camp that Price should keep his job here automatically for another season. But if he is simply sacked because we fail to win the GF where do we get our next coach? Price himself seems to have, to some degree, got this job because we couldn't find anyone better. Do we want to be in the same boat again?

If we can waste money on a retired Aussie superstar, then I'd suggest that, if we tried hard enough, we could get a better coach than Price in??....

I tend to agree that this board has a tendancy to go over board and fairly quickly. Our poor start it was the Price isn't right. Our winning streak was probably over hyped and the Cup defeat sees us back to our early season pessimism

Champagne to Pomagne in 80 minutes.

Did we make a mess of it yesterday undoubtedly but I think that its fair that the coach and team are judged when our season is over not on a game by game basis

I don't think anyone is suggesting getting rid of Price at this exact moment. However, some are quite rightly suggesting that if at season's end we are trophyless, then it is time to move him on, as 3 years is ample time to have brought SL success and that it would be time to find an alternative.

I keep seeing who would we replace Price with, what about Anderson. When the Giants got shot of him the squad he had was mostly injured if I remember, he seems to be doing well with the youngsters, just a thought.