Given Rush's experience in coaching first team, and the hole that he was thrown into he did a very good job to get us to third and 40mins from OT.



After the Leeds and Warrington games I thought we had definitely turned a page and the confidence returned to the players: we were offloading the ball with style and the forwards were battering their counterparts...however - and this is a major negative of his time as coach from my PoV - after this promising start we went back to percentage rugby, and one that hasn't sat well with the paying supporters. 5 drives and a kick bored the hell out of me, and our three-quarter line may as well have just taken a seat until we got into the oppo's 20.



Another negative was the way Rush handled the youngsters...from an outside perspective he seems to have completely killed the confidence within Gaskell and Foster, and has suffocated Lomax's general play from half-back by putting him alongside Hohaia. Lomax hasn't been great this season, and you'd have to say that the change of his half-back partner is a major reason for this, as it seems to be the only variable.



Overall though I'd say that Rush did the job that was expected of him, and very nearly got us to another Grand Final. Hopefully Brown can come in now and push the club on by implementing a new tactical philosophy and developing and improving the likes of Lomax and Gaskell.

So really, we're agreed. He'll have matched the reasonable expectations we had of him given the circumstances, but, realistically, you'd want considerably more delivered by a permanant head coach.

After what he's done I wouldn't want him to be permanent head coach as he doesn't seem like a good long-term solution, but do you think that some of his decisions may have been made differently had he been given the job permanently in the first place?

Nah. IMO he's shown that he has no advanced tactics or play book beyond safety first.

Plus, dropping your only player with a long kicking game when you've decided to stick to % rugby shows a real odd approach.

Not quite. As I said at the time of Royce's sacking, I was of the view that to sack an experienced coach who had taken us to a GF the season before was a mistake, especially so early in the season when our losses had been so marginal. In that sense my expectations have been realised, but whether you would consider those expectations 'reasonable' is another matter. My expectations have been met not just because we were dumped out of the CC at quarter final stage for the first time in 12 years or that we didn't make it to the GF for the first time in 7 years. But also because of the attitude towards the young players, the willingness to play senior players regardless of their form or attitude, and the style of play, among other things.

Mmm, but are you talking about your expectations of Rush as a coaching individual, or the club set up as a whole? I agree he's shown tactical deficiancies and the whole Gaskell thing stuck in my craw, but I'm sure you/I/we wouldn't criticise a player with comparible 1st team experience for making some wrong decisions, but he did take us from 10th to 3rd & he beat Leeds, Wigan, Wire & Catalan (just). Rush the man has done alright, but he'll not be swatting away offers from Superleague clubs just yet.



While there were some sensible arguments against Royce leaving, we were in a real hole and I don't think he'd have pulled us round (certainly not as soon) and I don't think he'd have won any pots.

I do think that the nail in his coffin was mcmanus thinking about ongoing ticket sales. It was extremely depressing watching given the nature of our defeats, even if they were only by a couple of points (the Hull and Bradford games stick in my mind). Moving to a interim coach immediately lowered and expectations for the season and made people look forward to next, granting the temporary staf a degree of immunity to criticism for their tenure.

I'll stick by the club as it being the right decison at the time.

Will Rush be at Saints next year? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19800085

Will Rush be at Saints next year? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19800085

Quote Rogues Gallery="Rogues Gallery"Will Rush be at Saints next year? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19800085'" Meaning he has had offers. Hopefully not from us cause if we have another year of the boring rugby we have played my season ticket won't get renewed again.

Quote Rogues Gallery="Rogues Gallery"Will Rush be at Saints next year? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19800085'" Meaning he has had offers. Hopefully not from us cause if we have another year of the boring rugby we have played my season ticket won't get renewed again.

I think Huddersfield would have killed for a coach like Rush to get the players playing % football and to stop the rot.



He did the job that was needed. I'm sure had he done that for 6-8 games to give Saints time to find an available coach, then none of this over expectation of winning GF's would be laid at his door. A temporary measure for 3/4's of a season was just a bit too long for some fans.

Never expected us to win anything. But expect to turn up to games and get entertained. Currently we are the Bradford of a few years ago. DULL.

Quote Rogues Gallery="Rogues Gallery"Will Rush be at Saints next year? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19800085'" Yes; Saints tweeted that he's just going to move upstairs in the organisation. https://twitter.com/Saints1890/status/2 ... 9652763648

Quote Rogues Gallery="Rogues Gallery"Will Rush be at Saints next year? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19800085'" Yes; Saints tweeted that he's just going to move upstairs in the organisation. https://twitter.com/Saints1890/status/2 ... 9652763648

He did okay. We were heading over a ravine into the bottom half of the top eight before he came in and we were forty minutes away from another Grand Final. Given where we were he did a great job in stopping that. However, at best we only managed to replicate what we did last season and we didn't play as well at the tail end as we did last year. For an emergency appointment it was a success and kept KC out of the spotlight which was important too. Potter won coach of the year and deservedly so. After that though I think you'd be hard pressed to find another person as deserving as Mike. He stepped up from coaching the kids, despite having no previously revealed ambitions to do so in a honourable manner akin to Potter.