Tony Smith

Which one?

please take jimmy lowes off us.

I'll throw another name in the hat for you guys, Clive Griffiths. One of the highest qualified coaches in the game. Has coached both codes at international level and is local. Now he will actually get you lot to play exciting flowing rugby.

THE HOOF

If you get Cullen, then you'll be royally entertained at least. If nothing else, he turned is into if you like 'the neutrals favourite'. His principals of playing open, attacking rugby etc.

I'm sure he'd jump at the chance to work with Gaskell & Toa again.

I know there's the history of him, but I don't get why Widnes fans wouldn't want him. He's an experienced SL coach who wants his sides to play the right way. He has experience in NL1 too, so you'd have to think he'd go okay.

I'd be mega surprised if he was interested in the job though, I don't mean that against Widnes, more that he's a smart guy, he'd know that with his background, he'd be afforded very little time by the fans etc should results not go his way.

FRANK ENDACOTT

Hanley will skate it - Seriously if you want to play to your strengths and see open Rugby then call for Matt Calland.

What's Bobby Goulding doing these days? Did a cracking job at Rochdale.

he was at my rugby presentation in july but nothing much since
aslonas as the new coach plays good expansive rugby and plays more younger players who actually want to play I don't mind
Paul Cullen would be nice though

Some info on Hanley for you after Tony Benson was appointed at Oldham from the local paper

Oldham’s money man (chairman Bill Quinn) admitted that talks had been held with Ellery Hanley.

However, the former Great Britain legend, who left his Doncaster post following the club’s National League Two play-off final victory over the Roughyeds last month, couldn’t offer the level of focus on the job that both owner Quinn and chief executive Chris Hamilton desired.

“Yes, we did speak to him (Hanley) but unfortunately, due to other commitments, he could not give our club the time needed to fulfil the role of head coach,” said Quinn, in a statement posted on the club’s official website.

“It had nothing to do with money, but we felt as a board that we needed someone who was totally focused to enable us to achieve our goals and targets."

Basically what you get with Hanley is somebody who wants FT wages for PT hours (see above quotes as well). Most of the coaching is done by his assistant and the drills he does do are generally considered to be out of date. However he does have an aura and a reputation that a) helps sign people and b) makes players listen. He did a good job at Donny, but he didn't do it on a shoestring as some people think, shortly before the season started people on the board at Donny thought they could go through the season undefeated - they invested a lot of money and ended the season losing £4k a week.

Goulding's lost the plot at Rochdale and they improved massively when he left under Darren Shaw.

Personally I think if you want good rugby go for Cullen - it's the way he wants to play and he's operated in an NL environment before. You don't need the best coach, just somebody who's going to give the players the freedom to perform - the FT training and your squad should do the rest. Last year at Oldham we had the best squad in NL2 and a technically superb coach in Steve Deakin, unfortunately sometimes people like this are so keen to pinpoint the exact way to break down the opposition they forget about the need to play good rugby as well. In the end it cost us promotion because after beating Donny up all game down the middle in the GF we never varied our play and moved it wide. Players become like robots and lose the ability to think for themselves. If you went down the Sharp or Harrison route I suspect you may end up with something similar to this (and indeed similar to what you've just got rid of).