Curious to read other fans review of this season, I'll do mine later. Basically what your thoughts on the season are, why it played out like it did and what YOU would do or in your opinion what should happen to improve matters.

bad coach,bad signings in key positions Brown and Kaye very average.no moves,boring rugby,poor attack,poor defence ,no improvement in any of the players,in fact some have got worse since joining us,Tonks,Cowling.

Needs a complete shake up and hopefully a coach with some attacking ideas.

Losing players like Branighan, Black, Royston, Beswick, Penky etc.... and being unable to replace them like for like.



Whichever way you look at it that's one hell of a loss of personnel over a relatively short period of time. Take out Riddy, Brierley, Penky and Pownall from the Leigh side and you'd have a similar effect.



Team has also been low on confidence. That Leigh second half at The Shay destroyed us.

Where to start?



On field things to start with and will probably add more stuff later......



Why things turned out like they did: Karl Harrison and Lee Greenwood - They lost the dressing room very early and probably lost most of the fans 2 years back. Im trying not to be too harsh because KH will always be regarded as a Fax legend for his playing days IMO but there were complaints about the two main coaches all the way up from senior players right through to the U20's and down to college kids that had coaching from one or both of them. The board did not listen and as a result we are where we are now.



Very few players have shown any sort of improvement under the coaching regime and it were quite visible that some players went backwards. It was a recipe for disaster from the start. The funny thing was though it was hard not to like Karl and I think that is why it went on as much as it did and if you take out the bollockings that he administered every game he could talk the club up and could talk players in to signing for the club, I mean the signings for the coming season all look promising and they are all his. Maybe he could have done a job 'upstairs' for the club but with the money situation that could not happen.



One of his biggest problems this season same as last was not been able to replace Penky and his poor decision in replacing Thackery. Maybe that was out of his hands as soon as Finn asked for a release but it certainly didnt help the cause. His complaints through the season before about how he had players with a slow passing movement, Im not quite sure how he thought signing Kaye and Mennell would rectify that. It probably also didnt help him that he still didnt want to believe that we were better with Holden on the pitch rather than either of his first choice hookers.



Harping back to the improvement thing and i think Morrison nailed it in his interview where he mentioned about happy players are always better players and although I think the group is tight nit Im not sure they were happy at all in the things they did in training or the things they were asked to do in a game. You only have to look at players like Thackery and even Barlow who look like twice the players they were at Fax and that has got to come down in a big part to the coach.



When it comes to picking the coach the reality is there wont be too many people who either fancy it or who will be suitable. There seems to be a couple of names been mentioned on different forums, one imo would almost be like for like, a coach who can do a job for a season but then the club goes stale, or a young coach learning his trade under a top quality coach at a good SL club. From what I have heard about the young coach he seems to be very keen, technically seems to have a lot of fresh ideas and will not be the sort to lambast the players after every single mistake and may even be able to compliment the players when they do something well. Its a no brainer for me but it looks like there are still some people yet to be interviewed so the best candidate could still be out there.

Again the others have said it.



Latest name to be linked for the coaching role from the younger end is Richard Marshal who is leaving Warrington.



Speaking of Warrington, retiring hooker Michael Monaghan has turned down the offer of coaching from SW Crusaders simply stating he is considering a couple of other possible coaching option.



Could be nothing in it.

Well I think the issues with this season stemmed from the previous 2, KH got rid of players and brought in what looked to be decent replacements but then had a gameplan that just wasn't up to it.

IMO he just didn't seem to know what his best team was so there was constant chopping and changing so we never got any consistency. He seemed to drop players for a slightly bad game and others just fell out of favour for reasons that were never explained.

I just didn't really get what direction he was trying to go, possibly at Salford they were happy to get mid table and at Batley they probably over achieved.

Anyway let's hope the new season brings a new direction.

Think Marshall as head coach with Monaghan as assistant would be a cracking result. Successful club, new ideas, get em in!

The problem was for me was Karl didnt really know how to put his gameplan across to the players last season and then made massive changes again including 6,7 and 9 which was always going to see problems this year. He couldnt see or help improve players and they were just drifting along. He never really trusted the U20s to make the step up and they probably felt they would have little chance to show what they can do. You cant just build a team and get success it takes time to gel properly. The spine of the team was too slow and changed from week to week. Why drop Johnson for Brown who hadnt played for weeks? Scott Murrell is too slow for Stand Off and is best at 13.

The players seemed to lose faith in Karl and Karl in them and in the end nobody had a clue what was supposed to happen. The players and Karl were not honest with each other or us. Excuses kept coming and things got worse. It was the excuses and lack of honesty which caused me to lose interest. The Club was not being honest about certain things and the buying of The Shay drama was just the icing on the cake. Mentally the players season finished weeks ago. They needed lifting and needed help to sort themselves out as players and as a team- but Karl and the coaching staff for whatever reason couldnt deliver.



I think we need to have a mass clearout. Get somebody in who has a record of working with quality players and improving them. Richard Marshalls name has come up and having worked at Warrington with Tony Smith might be a good option or a young assistant from an NRL club- I understand there are a couple that have been interviewed. I dont want somebody like Kear, Noble etc. Honesty and telling things as they are needs to start coming from the Club as well as the new Coaching Staff and Players. I dont mind losing if people put in their best and are honest. The club needs to start respecting the fans a bit more IMHO and the Fans need to have a bit more appreciation for the things the board and others do. Without the Board and Volunteers we have a weaker club. Without more fans we have a weaker club. Halifax RLFC needs to grow and it needs all to pull in the same direction and be honest but respectful with everybody.



I expect us to be rebuilding next year and not really challenging. You cant expect the new coach to turn things around quickly after what has happened. Also the new coach needs to be given time to show what he can and not people calling for his head after the first couple of defeats.

That really sums it up. A very good and reasoned post.

Once again im with you + GFB post

as an aside mr B,what's your run up to now ? is that 10 complete seasons.Hopefully next year you will get the rugby your support deserves.

poor man management and sometimes bizarre team selection (player gets MOTM one week then is dropped the week after) are just some of the things that I feel went wrong for us. Negative/over cautious tactics didn't help but I feel the crowd getting on the backs of the coaches and players constantly can't have helped. Flashes of great play (Holden was a good thing to come from this season) but we were too often found out and lack of plan B always left us vulnerable