An interesting 20 minute TotalRL interview with Darryl Powell has popped up on YouTube:

[urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arYHx_kFW2Y&t=89s[/url

Really good watch that. Nice to see some questions that were a bit different from the norm.

As a player, a prime Darryl Powell would have been a quality edition to any squad, back in his day.

Nice interview. It's interesting that he talks about wanting us to be more ruthless and really go for the kill in games, because we have tailed off a few times this season when having a big lead. Leeds - 30-0 up at half time, then two tries apiece in the second half. Huddersfield and Leigh - they both scored the last two tries of the game. Cas - 38-0 up after an hour then we didn't score again in the last 20 minutes. Some might say 'so what, we're winning', but it's good that even when things are going well, he's keeping us grounded and focusing on areas in which we can improve.

I like the fact that he’s improved every club he’s gone to by changing the culture. I don’t know if he’ll be lucky enough to be the one to finally get us over the SL trophy line, but if not I’d like to think he’ll be the guy who put us in the position to finally do it, with a good culture, a spine of young quality players and a sprinkling of home grown academy stars. Similar to what he did at Leeds before Smith took over.

its a fair point, i quite like the idea that we've potentially got a few more gears to go through.
when we hit our stride in 2011 a lot of teams were beat before we stepped on the field, id like to get somwhere near that, but with some tough challenges thrown in

Agreed FMC, but as we are The Wire there are bound to be bumps along the way!

I’m not too bothered about bumps along the way. Recent history of SL suggests flat track bullies come unstuck at the final hurdle (maybe Saints were the exception last year). I like the way we’re significantly stronger than other teams, but I’d rather win it from 2nd or 3rd with a plucky victory than smash every team but come unstuck on the big day again.

At least the journey itself is entertaining with Powell’s style of play. In 2018-2019 we made three finals and won one, but were pretty dour to watch week in week out.

Yes, that's very important - and was key for me when I was looking to recruit or considering a new job offer.

Was the culture good when TS took over, or was it just that we were short on confidence?
I know he had a few run-ins early on with some players (like Rauhihi, and Briers) and he soon got his message across, but he probably was aided by having some decent senior players like Morley who had the right attitude.
If there wasn't a massive culture change, then clearly not only did we play crap footy for a few years after that (with a few exceptions like the CC final), the culture and issues of cliques developing and players becoming too big for their boots did.

Interesting how things change. Hill was there for the good and the bad, so did he get affected / moulded by the culture change?

I think TS and DP are two very different coaches. With a team of stars TS has proven that he can work his magic, although a solitary grand final win may give others an argument against that. He certainly had us playing some outstanding rugby though.

Powell on the other hand seems to be able to pick some fairly random players, rejects and misfits and turn them into a well-oiled machine, batting well above their weight. Looking at this squad before the season started, there was only really Williams, Clark and Vaughan who fans of high-ranking clubs would like to see in their team. Compare that to the star-studded line ups during our ‘glory’ period (stands by for incoming from Saints / Wigan fans) and this team looks distinctly average on paper. No one expected us to be undefeated and six points clear of the clubs fighting for 4th place.

Re: Hill. I don’t for one minute doubt his quality and commitment, nor do I think he was one of the ‘problem’ children, but I’ll make a guess and say he was set in the mould of the wrong mindset, and Powell knew his leaders had to have the key ingredient Hill was missing. Would he have been transformed under Powell? Probably, but not at the cost of his salary and two-year deal. It may well have been that Hill’s money was spent on Vaughan, and as good as Hill is I just can’t see him having the same impact.

Regarding club culture, it's interesting looking back at that classic post-match interview Jake Mamo did in 2021, where he talks about being a member of the Positive Reinforcement Crew, along with Tom Lineham, Matt Davis, Joe Philbin and Rob Mulhern. I know it all seemed a bit jokey, but it does make me wonder if there was already some disgruntlement among the squad at that point, which the PRC was trying to challenge. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Either way, there was definitely not much evidence of a PRC in 2022!

I’m not so sure it was gripes from the PRC, just that Powell doesn’t do cliques. Nor does he want senior players treated any differently from those below them, business interests or not. It’s clear from the introductory video at the end of 2021 that he wants a one-for-all and all-for-one attitude. Remember the ‘next available seat’ policy at lunch that he borrowed from Graham Murray? And the quotes about humility from the All Blacks book? Leaving work early because you’re a senior player, getting off a coach early instead of sharing the blame with the whole team on the way back from a heavy defeat, pushing back against a new style of training. And so on. You can see on the pitch just how excited the players are now compared to the last few years.

I hope this is something that stays with us long after Powell moves on, engrained in the mind of our good core of academy graduates coming through.

No, I wasn't suggesting that the PRC had gripes - just that in 2021 they were maybe trying to create a more positive atmosphere because certain other members of the squad already had negativity creeping in at that point. But anyway, it's water under the bridge now, because the spirit in the current side is there for all to see, thankfully.