McNamara for me.

I don't think there will be any coaching losses this year. Teams appear to have bought well and had plenty of time for their teams to get sorted and ready.

richard agar

I think Agar is favourite for the chop. He has been an absolute disaster since he took over at Hull. As a side, Hull last year looked like a team stuck in a timewharp of outdated British coaching tactics. I think its no coincidence that Hull have brought in an assistant coach from Australia. I suspect he is the stalking horse, there to takeover at the first opportunity.

Hulls squad this year looks very strong, so Agar can field no excuses for an underperforming side. If Hull continue to languish in the bottom half of the table, below Rovers, then he will definately be up for the knackers yard.





Dont know why odds are high on Potter going early.

I suspect that people have been reading the crap on these boards and have therefore put bets on that he will be out of the door mid season. There just isnt any logic to that from a financial point of view or from Saints angle.



To get rid of Potter mid season would result in a big payoff and Saints having no coach for the rest of the year.

If a coach is going to be let go, you let them go at the end of their contract to avoid a big payout. As Potters contract reputedly runs out at the end of 2010 then that would be the logical time to release him if Saints were unhappy with the sides progress.

For the final third of last season I was surrounded by people on the terraces who wanted to see the back of Potter. It isn't just some people who post on here who are unhappy with him. Aside from the team's deteriorating performances last season there is also the issue - from what I hear on the terraces I mean - of how 'unfriendly' Potter appears. He doesn't write a piece in the local rag like our previous couple of coaches, he talks about the team in the third person when interviewed, he gives the impression of not giving a damn about the club, that kind of thing. No doubting that Saints went downhill with the season and returning players appeared to make no difference to that trend. We also produced some of the most boring rugby seen at the club for years. And Potter is aloof, whatever his reasons may be. He doesn't appear to have made any attempts to reach the fans, which has perhaps become important to many fans because they enjoyed that kind of relationship with recent coaches.





No, there isn't, so it won't happen. I don't think it matters how badly Saints perform next season, Potter will see out his two year contract. It just won't be renewed if things don't improve.

potter wont be getting the boot from the saints as they will again be involved in all the comps at the shake up time

a 4th consecutive gf on the trot?

Agar will be the first coach to go imo

Potter won't get the boot because Saints will win SL this year.

Oh no, what will Saints do? I hear he kicks his dog too!







Shock, how has he lasted this long??? If you call it a rag, why sould someone not even from the town rate it highly?







So because he doesn't seem as emotionally involved as you and the ts you stand with he should be sacked? Or am I reading this wrong?







Which players appeared to make no difference?







Yet reached the Challenge Cup Semi and Grand Final







Why should he? all you do is slate him







Yeah, I'd much rather have a relationship with a coach than let him run the team how he sees fit and allow himself some kind of private life, no really!

Alright Mick,any chance of being entertained this year. Hope you dont take offence.

Not really Don, but we've had exactly the same on the Leeds board about Tony Smith, and look what he achieved. Funny how it only matters that he doesn't engage with the fans when the team isn't doing as well isn't it?



Saints fans need to realise that you're coming to the end of a golden era given then players you had and brought in. I suspect the same will happen to Leeds too in a few years time, thats sport, and thats why we watch it.



The Saints board realised it and brought in who they felt was the best man to re-build the side. Those who say he doesn't like his teams to play an entertaining brand of football need to look back at the styles of play Catalans go with after his tenure.

You're talking to a brick wall mate.

Read my post again, this time perhaps putting your usual bile aside.



Firstly, I was reporting what people on the terraces [iaround[/i me say, not those I stand with on the terraces and not me. I used scare quotes around the word 'unfriendly' (I've done it again: do you know what the presence of scare quotes means?).



I don't think much of what Saints became last season and in that I think you will find I am not in the minority. Potter is the coach. Therefore, the buck stops with Potter when it comes to the team's performance. Had he taken us to a second treble there would be no problem with the buck stopping with Potter, would there? Likewise when the team deteriorates. I spread my praise and my criticism in equal measure. I criticise Potter for killing our attack and turning us into a boring team to watch.



Incidentally, I think at one time we had 11 players out injured all at once and people were struggling to remember how long it had been since we had experienced so many injuries in one go. Therefore, a deterioration in performance was almost inevitable at that point given the inexperience of the lads who were called on to play as well as those with more minor injuries who played through them. However, even with the whole first team back again, our attack was just as dull and our performances were just as boring, and of course we managed to lose in the semi-final of the Challenge Cup, the Grand Final and come second in the league. So to be fair to Potter he did achieve one thing he said he would do when he first turned up: he got Saints off the silverware treadmill.



And no, I am not asking for Potter to be 'emotionally involved' with the fans. That is a seriously stupid suggestion. Writing a weekly column in the local rag (and I use the word 'rag' in a generic sense, not a derogatory one) is hardly emotional involvement. It just shows a bit of interest in the people of a town which has been rugby league mad for over a century (granted, not as rugby league mad as it once was but Saints are still a presence here). I think both Millward and Anderson understood the culture of St Helens. Potter gives the impression of not being interested in that. But hey, who cares? He'll be gone at the end of next season (with a bit of luck if the team perform like they did in the final third of last season).



I think you'll find my criticism of Potter has been simply that under him we have become the most boring RL team in the league. That we didn't win any silverware was no shock to me and had we won, say, the Grand Final (which we might have done had Meli not managed to find his visa application) but done so while playing the most boring rugby league in the entire RL universe (as we were doing), I would still have criticised Potter for turning us into the most boring rugby league team in the whole RL galaxy.