5/10 for me…..that’s for the 5 decent performances in the last 4 years. Just a poor manager. I remember going to the season launch dinner for his first season in 2018 and being totally underwhelmed with how he spoke and WHAT he spoke. He seemed so shy, nervous and introverted that I thought “jeez how is he going to motivate this lot?”. Looks like I was right. Imagine a half time rousing speech from him? No, nor can I.
Lovely bloke, probably a good assistant but no way a head coach. That’s on kiss cam Karl too, both for the initial hire and the extension. Poor.
2/10. Don't let that CF win fool you, if that match had been replayed 10 times in that period we'd have been lucky to register another win.
Price was a weak, shallow coach. Despite changes in personnel, the same flaws haunted us through his tenure:
Turgid, negative tactics Sterile, safe team selections ( J Clark, J Hughes ) Shoehorning players into the team ( Austin ) Inability to break opposition down No plan B
Any highlights in his reign were despite him, not due to him.
I'll never forget one of Price's first interviews on Sky after a defeat and he said, when questioned (along the lines of): 'I don't know really what went wrong there, I'll have to watch the match back'. From that moment, large alarm bells were ringing. Since then, he's rarely demonstrated any skills expected of a reasonably competent SL manager.
I'm always wary when people amalgamate a coaches ability with what they say in interviews/ public or their demeanour in public. It means nothing. In the example above, it's likely Price knew exactly what went wrong, maybe due to the nature of this didn't want to specify publicly and deflected instead.
Clearly, Price hasn't worked out, but this isn't reflected in a post-match interview. Tony Smith used to give some frustrating interviews at Leeds but was a very good coach. Interviews mean nothing.
I can't wait for Powell though.
'' I knew early on when he was moaning about injuries and refereeing in interviews he wasn't up to it'.
Looking forward to Powell but he hasn't won anything and won't unless we beef up our forwards.
Powell has a track record of getting close and not winning, I bet he wins a CC with Warrington (getting over his hurdle as a coach and winning something) but will probably fail to win a grand final and overturn Warrington's hoodoo.
Steve starts with a 7 for guiding us to our finest and greatest modern era victory against the Stains at Wembley, Throw in another one for our grand final appearance and another one for having the guts to take us on knowing the frailties of our management and playing squad nucleus.
9/10 for me, hope we see him back at the HJ soon.
Legend
Footnote: RIP Alistair Brindle and Micky Peers, two fine Wires
Steve starts with a 7 for guiding us to our finest and greatest modern era victory against the Stains at Wembley, Throw in another one for our grand final appearance and another one for having the guts to take us on knowing the frailties of our management and playing squad nucleus.
9/10 for me, hope we see him back at the HJ soon.
Legend
Footnote: RIP Alistair Brindle and Micky Peers, two fine Wires
1st year i thought we're on to a winner.....then it just went down hill from there. Crap positional choices, no game plans, no plan B's, picking bench players and not playing them, lack of faith in the kids the majority of the time. The list goes on and on. Price as a person is a genuine nice guy so i won't slate him personally, but as a coach he was clueless for the most part and as a coach i'm glad he's going, but as a person i wish him the best and hope he does well. Now Powell is no nonsense, won't take crap or diva behaviour, knows how to up the players games and will instil toughness and grit. Plays players in the positions they are supposed to be in and will give the kids a proper chance. Genuinely really excited for next year
Now Powell is no nonsense, won't take crap or diva behaviour, knows how to up the players games and will instil toughness and grit. Plays players in the positions they are supposed to be in and will give the kids a proper chance. Genuinely really excited for next year
I think there's a risk Warrington fans are overplaying Powell's ability as a coach. He's done a reasonable job with Cas, but seems a very feast or famine coach. He can get them up for a game or two, but consistency over the season has never been there thing. They've looked woeful at times recently. His rants and moans and sulks also don't seem to have always kept the dressing room on board either.
I’ve been labelled as a bitter Smith fanatic and a doom monger re: Price since the minute his appointment was announced. I was hugely underwhelmed, given his poor record as a head coach, at him being the man who could go beyond where Smith could take us. (For clarity, there was a wide spread theory that Smith had taken us as far as he could, which I understood, but my point at the time was that we should only replace him if there is someone available who is better.)
Price couldn’t take us further, there was nothing to suggest that he could on his application. If we were looking for grand final wins as an assistant, there are plenty of those as even some with an affinity with the club (Matt King for example). But the executive appointed Price, and haven’t really been held to account by the board for that appointment, which in summary has been pathetic.
The same executive have assessed that Powell is the person to not only succeed Price, but ultimately surpass Smith. That is the task, to actually win the Grand Final. Anything less must been seen as abject failure, given the budget/facilities/squad pedigree. I can’t really understand how they have reached that opinion, given that he has missed the playoffs almost routinely, and when he has got to big games, they have been dispatched comfortably.
It’s not clear what the criteria is to be considered suitable for this role, but I would argue that it is a different person recruiting the coaches than it is convincing Johns, Morley and Matt King to join the club. There isn’t the same drive or ambition.
Bennett is going into another grand final next week, leaving the job next week. Bellamy, at the time, was off contract and was the current champion coach. Shaun Wane, for all to see, is ready to come towards a club scene again. These people, like them or not (and I don’t, on the whole) are WINNERS. You can’t buy a win, but - see Jordan Abdull’s interview re: Price - some people can demand better from a group of men.
Powell may work out, may. But whether he does or he doesn’t, the recruiters need to work as hard on getting the coach in as they did at getting Williams in and under the cap. And, more importantly, the board need to hold these people to account, and stop treating the fans with contempt.