In my last post I talked about the recent sackings of superleague coaches, and I was inclined to the view that it doesn’t really solve any problems.
However, further thought and the events of the past week have made me review that opinion. For a start, Warrington lifted their game for Jimmy Lowes the caretaker coach at the weekend to beat Harlequins, who have been playing well this season. Matt King, who has been a major under-achiever at Wolves, scored one of the tries and set up another. Hull FC, now coached by Richard Agar, beat Bradford convincingly in the Challenge Cup quarter-final, and played pretty well against St Helen’s and Leeds. Both Warrington and Hull still have significant injury problems, but were able to come up with victories nevertheless. We don’t yet know how Huddersfield will respond to the sacking of Jon Sharpe, as they have had a couple of weeks off, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see significant improvement when they play next weekend.
Which brings me to Bradford, as surely Steve McNamara must be looking anxiously over his shoulder at the moment. Bradford too have serious injury problems, most importantly to Paul Deacon and Glenn Morrison, and they have struggled ever since those two were sidelined. In this week’s League Weekly Emily Parker expresses the view that McNamara is unlikely to be sacked, due to the fact that he is popular with the Board, and that Bradford did not spend money on big-name signings (once again due to the Harris saga and the possibly payment of costs) so presumably there is less that can be achieved by them. I have a problem with this second view, as that seems to imply that the Board and coach never expected Bradford to do well this year, and were in fact resigned to be second-rate this year. The knock-on effect of that, however, would be that the fans would become disillusioned and desert the club, which does in fact seem to be happening if the 8,400 crowd yesterday (the lowest by far this season) is anything to go by. Then there will be no income to pay for any big signings in the future, and the club will never be able to break back into the top echelons of the sport. The play-offs themselves bring in much needed revenue to clubs, and if Bradford don’t get into the top six that will be a major loss for them. Peter Hood, the Bradford Chairmand, writes encouragingly in today’s Bradford Telegraph and Argus that better times will be coming. I’m just not sure that the club can look to the long term if it loses a large part of its fan-base in the meantime.
Leaving that aside, I am still not convinced of McNamara’s credentials. It seems to me that since he took over, when the crunch has come the Bulls has failed to achieve. Granted he has had a difficult time, taking over in the middle of the season with a side which was not of his making, and then losing Stuart Fielden to Wigan soon afterwards. He has also lost Leslie Vainikolo, who was a great crowd-pleaser even when not at his best, and will soon lose Shontayne Hape, another very popular player (though one who has done almost nothing this year, he seems to be coasting along waiting for June 30 to come). Iestyn Harris is a spent force and it must be a great relief that he is out of contract at the end of the season. The worry over how much might have to be paid out to settle that courtcase must have restricted spending on players.
But I still think back to the play-offs last season, when Bradford squandered a 30-6 lead over Wigan and crashed out 31-30. I remember seeing 3 important players taken off (I think they were Lynch, Solomona and McKenna, but I can’t be sure) and thinking that was a bit unwise, so soon after the start of the second half. It turned out to be an impossibly foolish decision for a coach to have made, I think McNamara thought he was home and dry and could afford to rest some players for the following week. Up to that point I was very up-beat about having a new young British coach in charge, but my belief in his judgement was seriously damaged by that decision. Now I am wondering, if Bradford cannot reverse their losing trend, and if they find themselves outside the top six in the next few weeks, can the Board afford to maintain their faith in McNamara? Only time will tell …..
Tags: Bradford Bulls, Castleford Tigers, Harlequins RL, Huddersfield Giants, Hull FC, Hull KR, Leeds Rhinos, St Helen's, Wakefield Wildcats, Warrington Wolves, Wigan Warriors
