Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:09 am  

Lord Tony Smith wrote:

The DP quotes are bizarre.

“If you look at Leeds last season, they were struggling and where did they end up?”

Strange comparison to make. What did Leeds actually do to halt this struggle? The coach resigned before he was pushed and they hired a new coach with new ideas, and he took them to the GF. I’m all up for doing that tbh.

The trouble is, Leeds are everything that we are not, ruthless, successful etc. Powell knows this to his own cost, as he was "demoted" to make way for Tony Smith. They realised Powell wasn't the answer, and they won a GF within a couple of years.

As I said when we got beat by HKR last year, I'm resigned to Powell being here until the end of his contract. In that time, he'll have upset virtually everyone on his playing roster, bar Mata'utia and Ratchford. Hell have forced out fans' favourites (Cooper and Hill), and ostracised a player (King) who's contract was extended by Powell, before he officially joined the club.

He really is losing all grasp of reality.
Unfortunately, so are our board

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:40 am  

ratticusfinch wrote:

Well he had to have a pop at the fans because the other scapegoat Riley Dean is (bizarrely) at Castleford. Maybe we could all stay away next week (I will be) and see who he blames then? Probably the Saints fans for laughing at us.

Every week I suffer this, I look back at my decision during Covid to not take my money back. I kept it in, almost feeling obliged to in order to keep the club sustainable and to keep it alive.

I’m not going next week. I’ve sunk enough money. And now to be included as a part of the problem just really jolts, coming from what is an obviously crumbling leadership. I don’t want money refunding, I don’t want apologies, I just want someone to bloody care. No doubt the club will be tweeting as if it never happened come Monday.

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:11 am  

Tbh, I don't think there is anything Powell can do with the current squad that is going to cause an upturn in fortunes.

Short of refusing to leave the dressing room the players couldn't make their feelings clearer. Thats appalling, but maybe they are even more frustrated with Powell than us.

Williams will come back and we will win a few, lose a few, we might sneak into the top 6 but we are bailing water with a holed bucket on the deck of the titanic here.

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:48 am  

There's an age-old tactic of doing what your opponent would not want you to do. So what would Wigan/Saints NOT want Warrington Wolves RLFC to do right now? That would be to sack Powell (and KFP) and install Holbrook/Wane or any other proven coach. What would they want us to do? The answer to that is for us to carry on as we are with Powell/KFP in charge.

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 12:19 pm  

This is an excerpt from a poem by Stevie Smith entitled "Not waving but drowning" - seems apt

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 12:54 pm  

One of the criticisms of Cullen was the peaks and troughs of the season. He would get some really solid results, often against good teams, then expend that mental energy and hit a lull for the lesser teams.

I think we might be seeing the same from Powell. There was a desperation, almost self preservation, at the start of the season. A couple of selfies and contract extensions later that “need” has gone. And I’m not sure we have the skill to play without need. Players like Briers, Langer and Gleeson played for us without “need” but had enough ability to still be 6/7 out of 10 every week. But with players like Matautia, Ratchford, Dudson, (reluctantly) Philbin in the team we simply don’t have that underpinned ability.

At least with Cullen we’d get beat 41-40. Right now it’s dire to watch, worse than Price-ball, just not as effective.

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:01 pm  

Seems we let some of the wrong players go when our former cast offs are coming back to haunt the Wire.

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:21 pm  

ninearches wrote:

Seems we let some of the wrong players go when our former cast offs are coming back to haunt the Wire.

Let's not try and rewrite history here, lads .. Widdop and Austin were both as big a waste of spaces as any of our present bunch AND they stole 3 years of marquee money while being so...

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:32 pm  

Mr Snoodle wrote:

This is an excerpt from a poem by Stevie Smith entitled "Not waving but drowning" - seems apt

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

That reminds me of the cartoon that helped make people to be aware of the coastguard service, with Petunia and Joe sat on the beach watching a bloke out at sea in a sailing "dingy".

Re: Powell OUT : Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:47 pm  

It's the lack of accountability that I can't stand. I didn't like the early narrative last year of a few bad eggs in the camp being the problem. It's a coaches job to get the best out of what he's got.

And the lack of improvement, infact its actually regression in all areas of our play - wtf do they do in training? How about working on reducing the stupid errors. How about suring things up at the back and completing sets. How about having some kind of ideas in attack. These players of course could do better but they aren't bad players. They look lost, frustrated and devoid of any kind of game plan....and that I'm afraid is 100% down to the coaching set up. And if it's a 3 year plan it's a rubbish plan if years 1 and 2 are absolute gash