Re: Education, Education, Education : Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:10 pm  

The problem is there's a significant drop off in quality when the older props come off. Its not like the early TS era when we had ageing props but the younger guys to rotate in were Cooper or Hill.

Re: Education, Education, Education : Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:02 pm  

We had 4 workhorses of props in the days of Smith, & Cooper was still a promising youngster ,& still we didn't win the big one.

Re: Education, Education, Education : Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:15 pm  

But taking Cooper and Hill out of the pool, of the rest only Mulhearn is currently offering any go-forward.

Philbin has flatlined a little, Butler is a work in progress and Akuola is well, lacking in stamina to be polite.

However, I do think Powell will already be looking at the squad with objective, dispassionate eyes and seeing where the gaps and weaknesses are, and has probably identified far more than us.

Re: Education, Education, Education : Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:49 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

The one cause for hope I have is Powell, if we let him have significant influence over recruitment. I posted once before about the Leeds side he took over from Dean Lance and the moves he made to reshape that squad between 2001 and 2003. It is really instructive if you look at the guys who he moved on and the guys he brought in. Leeds under Lance had a lot of the same type of players that current Wire do. Also his first four years at Cas between 2013 and 2017...

Don't forget Powell won nothing at Leeds, and he's still won nothing significant at Cas (this may change soon if the 'S' choke). It was only really in 2003 under Powell that Leeds looked like they could be contenders, but even then we were way off, and lost 5 times in a season to the Bulls. Powell was okay for us but I don't buy into the conspiracy theory that he built Tony Smith's team. Smith added Bai, Lauitiiti and gave the team the x-factor that had been missing for 32 years.

Don't get me wrong, I think Powell has worked wonders at Cas, and I'd rather he came back to Leeds instead of who we have now. But he wasn't the super coach at Leeds that some make him out to be. If anything he repaired the damage of the Lance years, but as a recruiter the real stand out was Graham Murray (RIP), who preceded Lance.

Re: Education, Education, Education : Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:21 pm  

Exeter Rhino wrote:

Don't forget Powell won nothing at Leeds, and he's still won nothing significant at Cas (this may change soon if the 'S' choke). It was only really in 2003 under Powell that Leeds looked like they could be contenders, but even then we were way off, and lost 5 times in a season to the Bulls. Powell was okay for us but I don't buy into the conspiracy theory that he built Tony Smith's team. Smith added Bai, Lauitiiti and gave the team the x-factor that had been missing for 32 years.

Don't get me wrong, I think Powell has worked wonders at Cas, and I'd rather he came back to Leeds instead of who we have now. But he wasn't the super coach at Leeds that some make him out to be. If anything he repaired the damage of the Lance years, but as a recruiter the real stand out was Graham Murray (RIP), who preceded Lance.

Fair points, I do think that Powell is a better coach now than he was at Leeds though. Got to respect him for stepping down to fev after that dissapontment and continuing his coaching development. FWIW Tony Smith finished the job and others are involved behind the scenes but Powell was definitely a part of that journey.

I think it's a great fit for us really, his attitude towards entertaining rugby is right and his reputation as a coach that hasn't won anything should make his as hungry for success as we are.

Re: Education, Education, Education : Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:31 pm  

CW8 wrote:

Fair points,

As a coach that hasn't won anything should make his as hungry for success as we are.

I think Powell and the Cas team will win this year`s Challenge Cup.

Re: Education, Education, Education : Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:41 pm  

Boss Hog wrote:

I think Powell and the Cas team will win this year`s Challenge Cup.

I certainly hope so. Its an unfair stick to beat him with really with all due respect to cas, what he has done there is great. They have mixed it with the serious winners on lower budget with smaller squads.