Bigredwarrior wrote:
Don’t kid yourself. Had you heard of Michael Maguire before he was appointed? There were no rumours, no shortlist etc. IL is a very astute businessman and he’ll be doing everything he can for the benefit of the club.
In terms of CVs, Wigan is still one of the biggest names in the world of Rugby League and I suspect there’ll be no shortage of good quality applicants. Any up & coming assistant in the NRL would probably see it as an opportunity to develop and prove themselves for a few seasons before hoping to land a head coach job in Oz.
Nobody has said Edwards will come back, the debate was whether or not we’d want him back.
Couldn't agree more.
I think anyone who didn't want Shaun Edwards would need their head seeing to, frankly.
We say he's been out of the game, but that doesn't mean he doesn't follow and study it. And let's not kid ourselves, British RL is full of coaches who've never been out of the game and yet who we wouldn't want anywhere near Wigan. I can't think of one currently plying his trade in the UK who I'd be interested in, with the possible sole exception of Powell, though he still still strikes me as a typical chippie Yorkshireman who'd be spiritually lost were he to relocate to Lancashire. (The Saints guy would be good, but the only place he'll be going next is to a top job in Aus, I'm sure).
Surely this is an opportunity to get someone in who is way better than that. Someone who would break the mould again, the way Michael Maguire and Graham Lowe did. The top Aussies seem to be out of our reach, and I understand why. Most first grade NRL coaches are late 30s or 40s, a time of life when their families are settled, their kids in high school, doing exams etc. It's too much to ask those guys to shift around the world. So why wouldn't we consider someone like Edwards? It would be very different from the norm, and a risk ... but people said Maguire was a risk because he'd only ever been an assistant. People said Graham Lowe was a risk because he'd never played.
Also, I'm not sure why, whenever an ex-Union man is mentioned, the kneejerk response is 'dream on', 'no way will that happen' etc.
Why? Is RU really so appealing that it absorbs our guys for life?
Their domestic game is not in great shape financially. They have the international dimension, for sure, but it's hardly an all-year-round occupation. There is the money. That's always an obstacle, but RL coaches are not included in the salary cap, so the only thing causing problems there would be if we weren't prepared to pay the going rate, and if that was the case, it would be no-one's fault but our own. But if we were to get that part of it right, I'd be surprised if the likes of Edwards and Andy Farrell wouldn't at least consider returning to League should the jobs come along. (They also have a huge emotional link with us, which would have to exert some degree of influence).
In my lifetime as a fan, and I've been watching since the mid-1960s, we've always stagnated when we've gone for a 'safe pair of hands' type of coach. Okay, we've occasionally won trophies with them and finished first and second, but there's never been a feeling that we were the dominant force. That has only come when we've had visionaries at the helm like Maguire and Lowe, who have completely changed the ground rules and thought well outside the box. Granted, there's no guarantee that Shaun Edwards would do this, but there's a cast-iron guarantee that no-one else currently coaching in the UK will do it either, and unless the NRL has another really talented assistant hiding his immense talent under a bushel, like Maguire, I can't see the harm in looking to some illustrious former-son like Shaun Edwards.
