just after everyones opinion on his acheivements with the crusaders this season. Me thinks personally he is a very good English coach who may be about to steer them into the play-offs. At the beginning of the season were they not struggling to get a squad together?? looking at the squad they have id say hes worked miracles there. Compared to ours id say we have had a poor season (yet again) and wonder what Mr Noble may have done with us??

I think the fact that in the coaching set up there are 3 top class coaches (Noble, harris and another bloke who's name escapes me) who have all been head coaches at other clubs with sucess probably gives them them the chance to coach the players individually to a higher standard rather than a head coach and one assistant, they must be on mega money so u pay for the quality.

Do we have a assistant coach yet? i feel if good money for an assistant was found for mcrae it would give us a good blend and move us on.

i beleive we will have an assistant coach next year in malcolm Alker.

Think putting Alker in charge of the academy set up would be a better option, he has the benefit of being a player of thier era and who they can look up to. Bring Hunte in as number 2 and hopefully he'll prove what we all suspect in that he is good enough to be given the full time coaching role when SM ends his time with the club.
Think that would be the best way to see if Alker has what it takes and also bring a more attack minded coach in to help give the first team a little more bite than they currently have.

On the origional subject i'd love Noble to be our coach, think the games we loose by the odd point would be reversed and we'd have a very real chance of being in the top 8 already as if you look at the Crusaders squad compared to ours they have over performed and we have under performed. I'd go so far as to say along with Kear he is the best British coach in Super League and it would be a shocking state of affairs if he was lost the RU.

Noble is susposed to be ending his role with Crusaders at the end of the season, Andy Wilson, and Chris Riley both are saying this, Noble is just not confirming either way, but there could be a funding problem.
So should we swap our Internationally known coach with one from the Welsh expansion area?

Does the club stick with Mcrea next season with his boring rugby that has been on offer for most of his tenure, with all the new signings we are making will he stop them playing exiting expansive rugby & stick with 5 drives & kick, OR do they bite the bullet get some money from somewhere & pay him off & try & get the likes of Noble or Kear who is apparently unsettled at Wakefield.
Just think we need a big last season at the willows & loads of other dedicated fans doubt Mcrea is the man to do it for us on the past showings & his explainations to games such as last week.
The club needs to make a big decision on this matter now, what we could probably lose in fans coming through the turnstiles financially over the next season would go towards his pay off which the club say they cant afford.

What do fans think?

It does seem that if your post count is under fifty you're not allowed to write positive comments...

I doubt anything will happen with McRea. If the Club wanted to 'find money' I'm sure all of the cash that's flying about with contracts and new signings would have gone on getting rid, if the Club truly felt like they needed rid of him. The question is not whether they should get rid it's who the hell would come to us?

Another thing that has struck me over recent weeks is that we have been resigning our best players and bringing in talent that we wouldn't normally attract. It doesn't strike me as a bunch of players in turmoil or with the smell of mutiny from the dressing rooms. If players didn't want McRea they wouldn't be signing new contracts and saying how much they are enjoying being at the Club.

Whether you like McRea or not, he is probably going to be in it for the long haul and constant barrages of negativity surrounding him only succeed in undermining the Club as a whole.

Disagree, I'm pretty certain the players are not happy with SM but he has only got 12 months left so they are looking further down the line as I expect SM contract not to be renewed

An average of 7 wins or less a season in SL whilst with Salford is just no good enough.
Baffling decisions, team tactics, boring rugby what else do you want to prove that McRae has been a failure.

I wasn't supporting nor disagreeing, just making a point.

That being, that the Club are very unlikely to get rid.

The coach is always going to be the frontline when it comes to the blame game, but others such as players, decision-makers and other influential figures are equally to blame. I just think that the McRea fixation draws people away from asking questions about the Club as a whole.

Have any of Salford's former coaches managed to average more than 7 wins per season?

Right, before I continue I hereby initially state that in no way, shape or form, am I a fan of Shaun McRae.

For the sake of balanced argument, a concept decidedly lacking on this forum, may I point out a few other contributing factors to Salford's inability to win games.

1) We operate on a budget, as far as I'm aware, that is smaller than any other team in Super League. Indeed, this year, once again as far as I'm aware, we have financed a playing squad on under £1million.
Having a lower budget for players means that the slub simply can't afford players with good reputations or CV's. So, when other club's look to sign current or recent State of Origin/Anzac internationals, we look for whoever's available and in need of a contract.

Summary of point 1. Some club's get ready made thoroughbreds. We get mongrels.

2) Having proven winners at your club has a knock-on (not literally) effect. The younger players coming through the academy structure are able to pick up a wealth of quality information including new skills, a winning mentality, better training methods, heigthened value of dedication amongst many benefits of hanging around with alpha males. The players we have, just don't posess these qualities to the same degree resulting in younger players not receiving a true understanding of what is required to make it at the top.

Summary of point 2. Winner's spread their wealth of knowledge and experience throughout the rest of the squad, producing a fertile ground to grow new winner's.

3) Oh s0d it. I'm wasting my time here. I'm preaching in a language most may not eevn understand...

Look. My main point is that as easy as it may be to just blame the coach, there may well be factors present that create insurmountable objects for the coach. Perhaps the proximity and obsession the good folk of Salford have with Trafford Utd has clouded and interfered with the clarity of vision to see what is required to become a champion side. (I doubt Fergie would be as successful as he is with a budget comparitive with that of a smaller club.)

Don't get me wrong. As many of you know I'm training to be a sport shrink but please, you've gotta have the right materials to work with in the first place. If it was simply down to the coach, you could give him the Langworthy under 12's team and he would mould them into world beaters! But that's the point, the coach can only do so much.

On the other hand, our playing squad is far more competent than I'm giving them credit for and thus, the poor coaching they receive is the reason behind their inability to perform at a consistently high level, week in and week out. One would suppose that the only way to find out would be to see how we go next year. It's already looking like we're going to have a stronger squad and thus, if my theory is correct, Shaun McRae will have better tools to work with and we should achieve more thereof. Playoffs or just about in 2011?