not doubting his abilities but surely the definition of doing a good job coaching the age groups is how many come through to the first team not if you win the u 20's cup then all the players move on or drift into amateur.

Not too many have come through on andy last's watch for whatever reason.

That's down to Agar not playing them to find out if they're good enough, Last can only prepare them for being good enough for first team

Agreed. Last has clearly helped to make many players amongst the best in their age group. That they haven't kicked on in the first team is IMO down to a combination of not being sent out to gain open age experience and not being given enough first team game time. I highly doubt Last is influential in either of those decisions.

Agreed.

If Andy Last is identified as having good coach potential then I'd like to see the club send him over to Aus for at least one year to learn more about their coaching techniques.

Agreed, I don't want Last near the first team until all traces of his past 4/5 years have gone, he's been part of the stagnation we've witnessed at FC IMHO.

totally agree, Andy is a great lad, but surely he must shoulder a lot of the blame for the total lack of youngsters who have made it through to the first team, think we need a complete root and branch clear out from top to bottom.

I for one think Andy Last has done a good job. He's still young and I believe he has a lot more to offer. His teams have played good rugby over the past few years and have won I believe 2 out of 3 grand finals they've appeared in. He has been responsible for bringing through a number of players to the first team (what happens to them there after is surely the responsibility of the first team coach). I have listed some of the players he's brought through, their are probably some I've missed.

Danny Houghton (1st team regular)
Tom Briscoe (International player)
Danny Washbrook (1st team player)
Tommy Lee (1st team player at Wakefield)
Craig Hall (at Rovers)
Scott Wheeldon (at Rovers)
Graham Horne ( at Hudds, signed for Rovers)
Mike Burnett (on Loan at Quins)
Kirk Dixon (at Cas)

Now all of the above and playing super league rugby to varying standards. It's not a great record I agree but it's not poor either.

Lyme and Crooks are also playing for the England academy.

Does any one know if Peter Gentle is related to the guy who coached Lee Crooks at Western Suberbs in the 80s? It is mentioned in his book.

Ken?

Don't forget it was Bomber who persuaded Andy Last to hang up his boots as a player cos he thought he had great potential as a coach.

I think last has done a decent job, the under 20's always seem to do well, it has took a couple of years don't forget Rovers coming into SL will have effected us, meaning we have to share the best players unlike before and now he has 5/6 players in his team ready for a crack at SL, unfortunately we have had a coach who won't take risks with players and would rather play players out of position, out of form players and use a winger on the bench than play one of the young kids.

I'm sure Gentle will speak to Last and decide if he wants to keep him, I still wouldn't expect Last to be assistant yet, but hopefully a couple of years working with Gentle will really help Last.

I wouldn't be too disappointed if we kept Webster at no 2, if it just a coincidence that with him on team has seen us playing some expensive entertaining rugby rather than the dour stuff we have seen before?

Could not agree more on your last point....I know one of the Super League refs personally and he's been saying to me these past few months that Webster has had far more influence in the dressing room and on the training pitch than Agar. I would not be too upset if we kept him on but Agar might feel lost without him at Wakefield.

nice article on Gentle on the FC website

[urlhttp://www.hullfc.com/newsarticle.aspx?n=19106[/url

I'm not saying your wrong regarding the Webster influence, but how would a Superleague referee know what goes on in our dressing room/training field?

Has James Child been hiding in a bush at Brantingham, or Ganson disguised as the tea lady at the KC?

.

And potentially libelous

Andy Last has continually but out a competative side at U20's level. If the head coach of the club doesn't have the foresight or balls to give some of the youngsters a chance to progress to the first team squad then there isn't much Last can do, but he certainly shouldn't shoulder any of the blame for that.

Reading about what Gentle has had to say about developing youngsters and giving them a chance I think Last's record will speak volumes and hopefully allow him the oppertunity to work with a coach who is prepared to give youth a chance.

Apparantly some Oz on Wakeys site doesn`t rate him.

Not surprising when you have a coaching guru like agar at the helm now.

pleb thinks he's too old to get his 1st head coach job too

What if he's right though?

I want him to succeed like the rest of us but have a slight fear weve just employed another Peter Sharp.

Or we could have another Maguire on our hands !

He's in for a disappointment then:

Peter Gentle 42
Matt Cameron 42
Kevin Moore 45 (albeit he's had a head coaching job before and been sacked)
Kurt Wrigley 46

There's always a risk. I'd be more worried if we didn't have mcrae on board as I think there's too much work at Hull for one man currently