Warrington Wolves • Re: Sad indictment
My impression of Price is that he's an intelligent guy who is on top of modern coaching systems, he was involved in some very good set ups in the NRL and so compared to a lot of coaches in the UK he will have a better background. Probably the sort of guy who, if you were organising a seminar on global developments in RL coaching for upcoming coaches, you could get to deliver lectures and he would be really good. I can imagine how he will have come across well when he was interviewed for the role.
Two years ago when we were having to play the qualifiers to avoid relegation and TS quit, if someone said under a new coach over the next two years we will be back in the Grand Final and win the Challenge Cup again we would have thought that was pretty good progress from the position we were in. He did bring a toughness to the squad that was lacking in the latter TS years and we have looked more organised since he has been here. So I think he is a good coach.
But I don't think he's an elite coach who is going to win Grand Finals with this team. We have lacked imagination and creativity. I have never felt confident when we're in the last 20 yards that we are going to score, it always just feels like we are moving the ball about and hoping for a mistake. With this kind of set up we'd need individual gamebreakers to create things. Austin in the early part of the season was providing that with his sidestepping ability but whether through injury, loss of form or just other teams working out his trick he was less effective in the second half of the season. Our resilience in defence has also dropped off. We haven't had an answer to switch our fortunes. We've just come up short in one game after another and the losses have mounted up.
The Challenge Cup Final win was the best "big game" performance I can remember from us, especially in the context of Austin being out. We won the game through defence, commitment and organisation. It was all the best bits that Price has brought, coming together. However, I don't think you are going to win multiple trophies like that. It's a one off.
So is it Price or is it the limitations of the squad...to hedge the question, I think it is a bit of both. I don't think Price is the main barrier stopping us winning SL I just don't think he's a once in a generation coach who is going to get us there with the current players. But so much about how a coach is viewed comes down to the luck of the situation he finds himself in. I would rather have Price than Ian Millward a million times but look at the honours Millward won. I bet if Price had turned up in St Helens in the early 2000s he could have dominated SL for a decade.
Statistics: Posted by sally cinnamon — Sat Sep 28, 2019 6:39 pm