Re: New Skipper. : Wed May 19, 2010 8:45 pm  

Bren wrote:

Chris, not for one minute am I blaming Cullen - we can only judge him when he is sending out his best 13. I simply made an observation - something has happened behind the scenes.

Why not?

Good coaching is also about avoiding injuries as well!

Conditioning work, stretching, physio, plyo-metrics etc.. etc...
All these make up the package that the coach needs to organise to help minimise injuries.

Re: New Skipper. : Thu May 20, 2010 7:29 am  

wereutherein1987? wrote:

Why not?

Good coaching is also about avoiding injuries as well!

Conditioning work, stretching, physio, plyo-metrics etc.. etc...
All these make up the package that the coach needs to organise to help minimise injuries.

A couple of things here... firstly as a Fax fan you are in no position to determine what makes a good coach as your ideas on this change on a minute by minute basis if your opinion(s) of Calland are used as a benchmark.
The Fax Coachometer (which we all know collects the Fax fan's opinions automatically on a second by second basis) snapshot results are presented below and show a fairly stable set of results for this morning.. but this non-typical and normally they are a lot wilder than this..

2010-05-20 08:10:05 - Good
2010-05-20 08:10:09 - Bad
2010-05-20 08:10:24 - Excellent
2010-05-20 08:10:31 - Dreadful
2010-05-20 08:10:47 - Messiah
2010-05-20 08:11:11 - Unqualified

Secondly... looking at the some of the injuries - broken collar bone, damaged neck, broken cheek bone, broken hand, knee injuries, I'm not sure how a coach can prevent these. Admittedly if every player was suffering from strains and hamstring problems etc then fair enough.. but it's unreasonable to not expect a few of these type of injuries either. Unless unbeknownst to me these have been eradicated from the game by simple means and Cullen has ignored these.
Injuries happen. Sometimes you don't have many, sometimes you have a lot, sometimes you have loads. Part and parcel of a contact sport.

Re: New Skipper. : Thu May 20, 2010 8:40 am  

Good appointment for Allen but I don't see why we should remove Smith from captin. I know he is injured but, Smith has been a loyal and great servant to the club over the past 4/5 years. Unless Smith is regaining it when he is back from injury. I don't really see a need for Cullen to take this away from him.

Re: New Skipper. : Thu May 20, 2010 11:02 am  

wereutherein1987? wrote:

Why not?

Good coaching is also about avoiding injuries as well!

Conditioning work, stretching, physio, plyo-metrics etc.. etc...
All these make up the package that the coach needs to organise to help minimise injuries.

Though i'd agree with that in some instances not for ours, which makes it more shocking!

Widnes have had players out with...Eye injury, Broken Jaw, Shoulder injury, Back injury, broken hand, dislocated finger, sternum injury, hamstring injury, knee injury.... (so basically the full body!).

If we had say 5 ligament injuries i'd agree but due to the random nature of ours conditioning is not to blame IMO!

Re: New Skipper. : Thu May 20, 2010 11:04 am  

Mikey the Viking wrote:

Good appointment for Allen but I don't see why we should remove Smith from captin. I know he is injured but, Smith has been a loyal and great servant to the club over the past 4/5 years. Unless Smith is regaining it when he is back from injury. I don't really see a need for Cullen to take this away from him.

I thought at first it was as interim skipper but tbh the way I read it was Smith out as skipper Allen in as the was no mention of Smith getting it back but was worded 'taken over from Smith'

Hears Smith and Cullen didn't see eye to eye at first but thought that was over something to do with Wesbter and as Smith still here next season thought that had gone.

Re: New Skipper. : Thu May 20, 2010 12:04 pm  

It certainly seems to suggest that Smith has been replaced... and not by Gannon who is the acting 'on-field' captain?? Congrats to Allen but...

I'm pretty gutted for Smith if the truth be told. Considering the time he's spent at the club under recent circumstances I really would have liked to have seen him as the captain for our return to SL.

I think we have lacked a leader on the pitch at times. Cullen makes it abundantly clear in the article that he is furious with some of the decision making that has gone on recently on the pitch. Gannon now plays 30 - 40 mins, Smith is still some time away from being match fit so it's a smart move definately.

Just can't shake the disappointment for Smithy.

Re: New Skipper. : Thu May 20, 2010 12:09 pm  

Always rated Smith as a leader and think it's be shown when he isn't out there. Then again can remember a few times in recent seasons things have gone pear shaped in a match and he hasn't been saying a word behind the posts :/ I don't no!

Maybe was a mutual thing? Or Cullen just deciding things need sorting NOW rather than later and wanted a skipper to instill this on the pitch.

Is a blow for Smithy who is as you say a fabulous servant to the Widnes club.

Re: New Skipper. : Fri May 21, 2010 5:45 pm  

Chris B wrote:

It certainly seems to suggest that Smith has been replaced... and not by Gannon who is the acting 'on-field' captain?? Congrats to Allen but...

I'm pretty gutted for Smith if the truth be told. Considering the time he's spent at the club under recent circumstances I really would have liked to have seen him as the captain for our return to SL.

I think we have lacked a leader on the pitch at times. Cullen makes it abundantly clear in the article that he is furious with some of the decision making that has gone on recently on the pitch. Gannon now plays 30 - 40 mins, Smith is still some time away from being match fit so it's a smart move definately.

Just can't shake the disappointment for Smithy.

I'd like to think the journo has misinterpreted the situation, and Smith will be back as captain when fit.