Doesn't N Brown keep saying he is going home to Aus?

From what I can gather, Simmons asked for Lance and also wanted Laffranchi as he had coached him earlier in his career.

No, on SL Extra Time he said he hadn't made a decision.

Distinctly possible. But amazing that 7 games in Saints would appoint a couple of seat warmers for 75%+ of the season.

yes but with no nrl jobs in the offing then his hand could be forced and end up at saints at the start of next season



got a job with the giants to finish first...club statement released saying hes going knowhere till end of the season

The problem IMO is that saints haven't replaced James Graham. he has carried saints for the last couple of seasons. Once Roby got injuried, the writing was on the wall. Wigan suffered the same when Farrell left (another who had carried a team for a number of seasons).

It happens.

Every team goes through a change as our players cannot play for ever. Coaches must start to blood the new generation of players 1 or 2 at a time so that when the time come that they are ready to step up .

Rhinos (more importantly, Sinfield and the players) stayed rock solid behind McDermott during their 'crisis' though didn't they ?



Saints are developing a habit of this ....announced McRae would be leaving well before the end of '98; Hanley left 4 games into 2000; Millward went about May time in '05; now Royce.



Since Anderson left they've made two dud appointments and paid the price.

They also got McClennan the shove a year before his contract was up too for similar reasons Royce has by the sounds of it. Player power always wins. They are the guys who win the trophies. Obviously a good coach helps but if the relationship isnt working between the 2 then it's the coach who goes every time.

As if the Giants would stand in his way. He's just finalising the rental of a house as we speak. He's on the East Lancs heading back towards the M62 as I've just seen him at a petrol station.



The Giants statement is just hot air, they'll get their compensation when Brown resigns from Huddersfield in three weeks after this tough run of games is over for Saints.

Hudds keep releasing stuff on their website carrying the name of Paul Anderson and not the Head Coach Nathan Brown.



Surely its a formality now that Brown will be at St Helens some point this year?

That's been the case since the beginning though hasn't it?



Plus why would he leave the team he has built for another job in this country when his family aren't overly happy here?

Quote Ande="Ande"Hudds keep releasing stuff on their website carrying the name of Paul Anderson and not the Head Coach Nathan Brown. Surely its a formality now that Brown will be at St Helens some point this year?'" If he does take the Saints job, it wont be this season if this report is anything to go by... www.google.com/hostednews/ukpres ... 169767614A Quote AndeOn Monday, Brown said: "I have seen all the speculation and I am going nowhere. I have a job here until the end of this season and that's that for me. "This group of players and the club are very special to me and I will leave here at the end of October having given my absolute best to try and achieve the goals we have set ourselves. What the situation is at any other club is not for me to comment upon." '"

Quote Ande="Ande"Hudds keep releasing stuff on their website carrying the name of Paul Anderson and not the Head Coach Nathan Brown. Surely its a formality now that Brown will be at St Helens some point this year?'" If he does take the Saints job, it wont be this season if this report is anything to go by... www.google.com/hostednews/ukpres ... 169767614A Quote AndeOn Monday, Brown said: "I have seen all the speculation and I am going nowhere. I have a job here until the end of this season and that's that for me. "This group of players and the club are very special to me and I will leave here at the end of October having given my absolute best to try and achieve the goals we have set ourselves. What the situation is at any other club is not for me to comment upon." '"

always been the case, brown sometimes leaves it for his assistant to do the post match comments etc.

As a lifelong Bradford supporter I'd say Saints were lucky to have a Board that doen't take chances when it's clearly not working. If our Board had acted so decisively when it became clear that MacNamara wasn't up to the job we wouldn't have spent the last 4 years in the sort of mess we've been in. Everyone in the ground could see what was happening year after year and knew that a change of coach was the only answer but the Board couldn't - or wouldn't - see what was in front of their noses. Potter now has a huge task in front of him but at least we have spirit back in the team so we can only hope. Imagine if Saints knew that their current form would go on until 2016.....

As for the Nathan Brown rumours.



It was only yesterday that someone at an NRL club said to me that he'd like to go to England and that Nathan Brown was going to take over from Royce Simmons.....



Could be nonsense, but it was before Simmons stepped down.

Who were you talking to? You can PM me if you like. Brown to Saints has been a rumour for a while now, it was in the papers mid-February, so it's not something that has come up because of the run of form Saints have had. Simmons only had a two year deal and was clearly under pressure at the start of the season as he commented that he didn't know if he'd be getting a new deal and that he suspected he'd have to win a trophy to be asked.

'Player power' surely only works when you've got players with a record of success. It'd be hard to imagine players at consistently failing clubs having any great clout with decision-makers.

If it's an entirely united squad though, then it still has some clout - it's not cheap or easy to assemble a completely new team under the coach that they all didn't want to play under, especially under the salary cap constraints of paying the outgoing players out of their existing contracts

I won't put a name in the frame. It could merely be coincidental. As often happens over here, people get spoken to and if someone hears about it, it spreads. If it's true? Probably or Possibly. But the timing was funny and I heard it from over here, without even following SL these days.

First of all, it is nearly impossible to replace Graham, no English prop is near him and it's hard to sign a top NRL player these days due to exchange rate etc.



I was really surprised when Saints appointed Simmons, he did Ok when he was at Hull, but nothing special and he had a decent (ish) squad at the time, when he went back to the NRL he didn't do very well there either so his Head Coach record was pretty poor, he is a good assistant, a bit like Peter Sharp.



Nathan Brown would a great appointment for Saints, really thought he would go back to the NRL though.

I think Daniel Anderson will be the next Saints coach.



Might be wrong but why would Nathan Brown throw away all of the hard work he's done at Huddersfield to get them to this point where they are one of the top candidates for the Grand Final, then leave for a team and set up he doesn't know?



Money is the only reason, surely.

It would be like leaving Man U to take over at West Brom

Simmons spent the last decade as a defence coach, he was hardly going to be suited to St's style of play! The board need a good kicking for a very poor appointment.

It's such an important appointment for Saints that they shouldn't rush it. With the likes of Lomax, Gaskell and Makinson, they have the potential to form the nucleus of the team to build around for the next 10 years. But they are at a crucial point in their careers and a bad appointment that see's these players games not develop properly over the next 2 years and they may never end up reaching their potential.

I know some people don't like other club comparisons but at a similar stage in their careers McGuire and Burrow at Leeds had Tony Smith arrive in 2004 and they are still going strong 8 years later.

Steve Kearney may be available sooner rather than later.

He Coaches a "balanced" approach to the game.