Fond memories of his time in charge of the Bulls when he oversaw some spectacular turnarounds after getting 30 points up (Wigan play-off game, Catalans CC stick to mind) only to blow it in comedy fashion, followed by passive aggressive interview meltdowns with the likes of Tanya Arnold. Tansey-gate is another one. Pretty sure his team were the first to lose to Celtic Crusaders in SL, etc.


I could never understand the hype amongst a section of Bradford fans who credited him with their 2005 GF win over us as assistant coach to Noble (the 'Bulls' Barack Obama' - LOL). The Bulls went from superpower to relegation candidates with him in charge; yes, the money was running out but there were still funds available for quality players and he made a lot of dud signings at the time (Platt, Sheriffe, Tupou, Worrincy etc all spring to mind). To his credit he was surprisingly good and almost successful as England coach, and a stint as NRL assistant helped his coaching. He seems to have learnt something since being Bulls coach but the relative lack of silverware after a long stint at a well-resourced club says it all - he's no better than the likes of Agar IMO, and significantly below long-lived SL coaches like McDermott, Wane, T. Smith and even Powell.

He seems to speak well Langley but its a big risk him taking over if Arthur goes. I would feel much happier if he could work under Arthur for another year at least.

I wonder whether the compromise might be another year for BA with some kind of release clause trigger. I suspect the majority of the improvements that are now apparent were achieved pre season, and another dose of the same might take us to the next level. That approach might at least give us a flexible plan A and a plan B if required.

A good shout is this. It's likely that there will be a number of NRL opportunities for BA in the near future though, so timing may be against us even for that.  

I'm sure there will be, but the harsh reality from BA's point of view is that (as the Perth job proved) he's not the only coach who's looking for a job. If he was really desperate to get back to the NRL at all costs he could probably easily land a role as an assistant, but maybe he's been top dog too log to countenance that? One thing is for sure, personal stuff aside, he gives every appearance of loving his current job. That makes a difference in any walk of life. 

I think the Saints game underlines why we need at least another year of Arthur, or a top coach who shares his vision, to make sure that the changes of this season really bed in and become part of the culture. An appointment like McNamara could easily see this hard work being undone within 3-6 months of taking over, or even passing the reins to an unproven Langley (see Wellens/Woolf).