Well those who know me and those who have seen my rants on here know which side of the fence i sit on. Some of the main points for me

The standard of rugby is my main bugbear with Agar. Yes it is safety first rugby and that is all well and good at the appropriate times, EG winning 30-0 you then just use the basics and keep a tight grip on the game without trying to force it. It doesn't look pretty but it can get the job done.
That is fine when winning, yet we seem to resort to this tactic when we are losing as well, so many times when you need a spark we just go back to basics.
Also many of the times we play this way we fail to get the basics right and end up handing over possesion too easily.

His motivational skills are poor from what i have witnessed this season, we have had the occasional game when the team have come out motivated and fired up but all too many times they have turned up and gone through the motions. Now you get that with every team, but a good coach will sort it out at half time and get those players working harder and trying to turn the game around. We just don't do it and either the players just don't care or they are not being pushed hard enough to do what they are paid to do. Whatever the problem the coach should be sorting it out. I would personally rather see a couple of U20's brought in to prove a point to a senior player that if they are not committed and giving everything it will not be tolerated.

His tactical skills also seem to be poor, we never seem to aim at a teams particular weakness yet other teams know our weakness lies out wide and the best teams have exploited that to the hilt. His use of substitutions is bizare at times and where he chooses to play players has also been a strange one at times.

I know people claim our lack of stability at halfback has been the main problem for us, yet Saints have been hit hard in that department this season as well but they can still manage to patch things up and score points. We look unable to break defences for the majority of games no matter who is running the show for us in the middle of the park.

I really do not see what he will be changing next season and all i can see is more or the same.

Excellent post!

Compare Agar's pedigree to the coaches of the teams that are hoping to be considered a major threat and it's laughable. It's a wonder to me how the likes of Berrigan, Fitz, etc. can take him seriously, after what they have achieved.
However, to me, it appears that his fundamental flaw is his failure to motivate a team to play. Justin Morgan takes fairly average players and gets the best out of them. Agar takes players and, for whatever reason, they consistently play below their best.
It's very frustrating and the lack of ambition of the club is sad. I wonder how many other ambitious teams will overtake us next season.

So Agar's TOTAL record over the last 3 years total is played 74 Won 33 Lost 41 and Drawn 0, a win ratio of 44% he's won 17 games by 1-10 points, 11 by 11-20 points, 4 games by 21-30 and 0 games by 31+ (I've since found the game against Rochdale Sharp was still in charge) for a total points haul of 1509 and against of 1742 with an average of 20 points per game. [size=85This has now been edited to take out Peter Sharps games at the start of 2008.[/size

I know people don't like 'stats' and will sight things like injuries and squad inheritance but this information is over a 3 year period not 3 weeks (other coaches have had injuries and inherited squads and won trophies), the more I have thought about it the more I cannot beleive (whether they are looking long term or not) that we gave Agar another 2 year deal, I find it hard to beleive we did it because England were sniffing around and if they where we should have let him go.

I for one will not be renewing my pass next year (1st time in 8 years) and I'm sure I'll not be alone, I'm going to pick and choose which games to go to based on performance and if it cost's me an extra £60 because the Rugby suddenly becomes sensational then it's will be a hit I'm more than willing to take, what I'm not gonna do is pay out my hard earned cash to feel the way I do now in a years time!! I truly hope the club are laughing all the way to the bank with all the extra £60's come the end of the season however I some how doubt it!

Points difference -15. That's my biggest worry.

That's his best in three years, Agar has never had a positive points difference while he's been in charge!

Not surprising given we've only scored 40+ four times in his tenure. we haven't won a SL game by over 30 points in three years and we haven't scored 50+ for four and half seasons.

Doesn't it just make you shudder with optamism at what next season will bring?



I'm starting to wonder how anyone can be optomistic about our future while Agar is in charge, people will seriously start to refer to us as the old & daft faithful if we carry on accepting this much longer.

Nar mate, more like Mediocrity FC!

What is even worse about this points difference is when you look at Rovers they had a 68-12 defeat and 54-0 as well as some other convincing defeats yet they still managed to end with a + points difference.

Arthur Bunting based his teams on preventing the other side scoring, he also made sure we had players who, may not have been the best defenders in the game, were capable of scoring points for fun. The difference was, they all played for each other.

Steve Evans & Sammy Lloyd were classic examples of players who could be classed as weak defenders but could turn games in our favour. What we did then was play as a team, we covered the weak spots and capitalised on our strengths.

The game has changed since then, what should not have changed is the team ethos.

Unfortunately, since Agar has been in charge, we've rarely played as a team.

Oh so very true Codead. We don;t have the players to play as a bunch of individuals so the emphasis on TEAMWORK should have been even more apparent with us, shame it wasn't barring a couple of games.

It's the brand of rugby that we play that really gets to me....as many of us have previously said it's just not fun going to watch Hull anymore.

I won't renew my pass for next year (first time since 1997), i have given the club and Agar the benefit of the doubt for 2 years now in the hope things would improve - for me they haven't.

I'll pick and choose my games next year, just can't justify spending season pass money to watch paint dry!!!!

Anyone who thinks Agar is up for the job take a look at Warrington and Wigan - both improved significantly since their coaches were appointed. A club like us should be competing with them, while he is here we will never be anywhere near them!

We will not get any better with this Bozo in charge!

We did in 1979 !!!

www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html Well that's it then , we can all breathe easy after that crushing derby loss. I have said it until I am blue in the keyboard. We need a world class coach. Ruthless , ruthless ..goodness me , is that it ? Where is the coaching manual to make a player ruthless ? there isn't one. Success is built on discipline , fitness , terrific team bonding and a defensive effort to match KR's at the KC (but every week). The board need to be ruthless and appoint the likes of Kearney , Hasler , Bellamy at al

www.thisishullandeastriding.co.u ... ticle.html Well that's it then , we can all breathe easy after that crushing derby loss. I have said it until I am blue in the keyboard. We need a world class coach. Ruthless , ruthless ..goodness me , is that it ? Where is the coaching manual to make a player ruthless ? there isn't one. Success is built on discipline , fitness , terrific team bonding and a defensive effort to match KR's at the KC (but every week). The board need to be ruthless and appoint the likes of Kearney , Hasler , Bellamy at al

OMG....what an absolute ar-e Agar is......we executed our gameplan well......OMFG.....sack the useless pile of crap NOW.

We had a gamplan?

Did you even read it?

He said Rovers executed their gameplan really well

Stuck up for Agar a bit this season and I still think he has done well, a one year deal would have been Ok for me.

Really disapointted with the tatics in the last 15 minutes of the game, needing 2 trys and we still continued to paly one man rugby for the first 4 tackles, the biggest game of the season, nothign to lose, so throw the ball about FFS.

Also still no official word on why Tansey was dropped?

Really missed our best attacking player, could have made a big different IMO.

Maybe no news on Tansey as they have had to arrange a meeting with him regarding his future, hopefully he will be given one last chance.

I agree about the offloading, we were chasing the game so should have been offloading the ball and creating 2nd phase possession but we just kept it tight. Leeds showed how to chase a game. Obviously you don't just chuck it around anywhere and need to complete your sets but surely we could have got our arms free, backed up and created some momentum by keeping the ball alive. Safety first again I am afraid.

Agar has had long enough to build his team and until recently I thought we were heading in the right direction in terms of signings and retention etc. The decision yo give Radford a 2 year deal is just beyond ridiculous as that money is now essentially wasted for the next 2 years. I've never been convinced by Agar as a coach but the recruitment appeared to be a big positive. Unless we bring in some more ball handlers our style of play will never improve, it's all well and good saying Agar plays a style dependant on the players available to him but he has had the chance to change the players available. If we don't see some ball players brought in our attack will be just as poor next year. Even allowing for Long and Horne to have a better run with injuries we won't improve much if at all. Hornes passing is shocking and Fitz shouldn't be used as a ball playing LF as his passing isn't great either.

Nail on the head, thats saved me some typing and thinkg mate

Its the one McRae left on his desk in 04

"Hopefully we'll be more up in that department next year. We will have a better balanced squad and certainly will have more genuine cover in those positions where when we have had knocks this year it has hurt us most."

Have we missed some major announcements?

Where is the balance and more importantly cover going to come from?

Maybe we should wait for the recruitment to be finalised.