I've posted a few things on here lately, so I'd like your opinion, as I find a lot of Leigh fans are delusional......

Last season for us was an absolute waste, beat every part time team, beat two Super League teams plagued by injuries and had a dire middle 8s...... I hate the way Rowley played, not respecting possession and throwing the ball away on the first tackle.....

Do you think Rowley was a brilliant coach, or do you share my opinion that he is a dumb coach?

I think he's a good coach IMHO

Yes they flopped in the middle 8's, but they had gone two years where everything went right for them, and in the middle 8's they lost their 2 opening games and didn't know how to respond or recover. Leigh as a club, coaches, players and backroom staff all learnt some very harsh lessons in those middle 8s and those 7 fixtures will have taught them more than the next 23 rounds of the championship will.

I think Rowley going is a problem as Leigh have some good players, but a few volatile characters who will now have a coach they didnt sign up to play under. They may not like the coach, his training methods and he may not like them.

He has the potential to become a very good coach but I don't think he achieved as much as he should have done. He taught the lads how to play fast rugby with little regard for possession, this works well against the lower teams but the more experienced full time teams saw straight through this tactic which left them stuck for ideas. This showed him up as lacking in ideas. The best thing for him now would be to get some time under his belt as an assistant coach for a super league team to develop his own skills and knowledge

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CORRECT

What was Leigh's record in the challenge cup over the last couple of years? I hardly feel it was a case of SL simply sussing them out, more a case of the extra 1m or so that SL teams had to spend on their squad proving the difference. Given that gap is smaller this season which should give Leigh more chance, it makes Rowley walking out even more bizarre.

Rugby's changed a lot since Michael McGuire et al.came to Super League. It's a more structured, defensive, statistical game now. The style of play Leigh do is 10 years out of date, and is incompatible with getting in Super League.

I've come on here to get opinion because everything Bradford are doing in my mind seems sensible:

- Building a young team up who will only get better
- A coach who plays the Super League way
- Sticking with the majority of the main core players, rather than disrupting the rythem of the side

I think in a few years Bradford will be reeping the rewards, and Leigh will be bankrupt with all their stars retired.

Hopefully this isn't the case!

We'll find out about Rowley at his next club.

I assume they'll be a bit higher up the league than Leigh - which probably tells you all you need to know.

I'd say he's a promising coach with a bit to learn. I can see him getting a job in the lower levels of SL provided the reasons he's left Leigh (of which I know nowt) don't get in the way for some reason.

Leigh played attractive attacking rugby under him but also had a hard edge (which you need). They did get undone when faced with stronger teams as they seemed unable to rein in the "hail Mary" rugby when patience was needed the hard edge often turned into ill discipline too which was punished more heavily. I think that's a symptom of playing in a weaker competition as they often weren't tested so never had to play any other way.

Whether it's fair to put that weakness down to Rowley I don't know. Players can develop bad habits when they're not being tested and it's hard for a coach to overcome that if you're still winning comfortably most weeks.

I agree with just about all of that, 'Bullseye'. Our implosion in the Qualifiers was probably down to a few factors, but I fervently hope that all at our club identified the reasons and learned from them. And that definitely has to include the coaching team.

For me, Paul's biggest achievement was in getting a squad together, three years ago, when it looked like the club was going under, at the start of the season. Not only did he astonishingly put together a quality side, with virtually no assistance, he instilled the belief in them that they could play, finishing second to a very good Featherstone team. (and then imploding in the play-offs!!!) Sure, two successive league titles have been good, but it was what he did in extreme adversity, that impressed me.

Personally, I feel he needs to move elsewhere, to further his career - and I wish him every success with that.

Rowley did what was expected of him at a great club with good players - Leigh fan

Rowley played some of the best attacking entertaining rugby ive see at Leigh in over 20 years. He is responsible for putting circa 2000 extra bums on seats every week. He was the reason why Leigh fans traveled in great numbers to every single away game.
IMO What Rowley did was work out a style which played to the strengths of the players he had.
If Leigh had tried to trundle the ball up the middle of the field we would have lost a lot more games than we did due to the fact that our pack wasent big enough to play that way.
This year will be different due to the strengthening in the forwards and its a shame that he wont be working with the new recruits.
People talk like hes some young kid who needs to earn his stripes before being allowed to play with the big boys of super league well i coudnt disagree more. Dont be supprised if some SL chairman decides to give him a call in the coming weeks.