Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:21 am  

Watching Toulouse v Batley two names from the past jumped up. One was Hooley a player widely touted for success but after one game it was clear he wouldn’t make it and hasn’t.

Second was Adam Gledhill, well actually no. He was a member of our Academy but it wasn’t him but his brother?? who's name came rushing back to me.

Ben Gledhill probably made the finest debut any young forward has made since I’ve been watching the Trin. He looked an absolute world beater and at that point he probably was.

Yet within a couple of years his career was over, long before it really began.

Why I don’t really know as he had it all. One thing I do know is that JK wasn’t happy to pay him the mega bucks he wanted and happily let him go. Salford did and got very little back. The lad failed, injuries played a small part but in the end he was for whatever reason, nowhere near good enough.

I’m only saying this because fans, including myself, become upset when apparently good players are let go. Yet as discussed on other threads the coaches rarely get it wrong.

I suppose it’s because we see them for a max of 80 mins every few weeks in the season. The coaches see them all the time and know them inside out as players and as people.

They know who they want and why and we have to accept this or what’s the point in having a coach?

One final point. We tend to assume coaches release players because they don’t rate them. I don’t think that is always the case. In a sport where cash is finite I suspect it’s far more often the case that they do rate them but they rate someone else even more and that has to be the one where the investment goes. That’s life I suppose.

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:43 am  

Lucas Walshaw was another ex Trin playing over the weekend for Batley. Always thought he looked promising as an Academy player same time as Liam Kay.

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 9:14 am  

Wollo-Wollo-Wollo-Wayoo wrote:

Lucas Walshaw was another ex Trin playing over the weekend for Batley. Always thought he looked promising as an Academy player same time as Liam Kay.

Thanks, now I’m going to have to contradict myself

Now that’s one of the few players who was in part let down by his coach, though I’m aware he had off field issues or so I’m told. When Agar idiotically played him as a prop and then made it clear he wasn’t happy with his performance, that would knock it out of most young players. LW had all it took physically and ability wise to be a top SL player, a real shame. That said he’s been a great servant to the championship.

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 11:45 am  

Funny you should mention Lucas Walshaw. I bumped into him a couple of months again in a job he does now and was chatting to him about what happened to him. Basically he got offered peanuts to stay at Wakey and got offered a shed load more at Bradford.

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 2:13 pm  

I would say, given the right coaching Walshaw and Hooley would do well. Being hung out to dry is what has knocked them and they've had to re-build their careers, both of which I feel aren't quite over just yet

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 3:00 pm  

Pat Bateman wrote:

Funny you should mention Lucas Walshaw. I bumped into him a couple of months again in a job he does now and was chatting to him about what happened to him. Basically he got offered peanuts to stay at Wakey and got offered a shed load more at Bradford.

Bradford paying over the odds? Nah, I don't believe that.

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 3:09 pm  

Wollo-Wollo-Wollo-Wayoo wrote:

Bradford paying over the odds? Nah, I don't believe that.

Don’t even know if it was paying over the odds. If Wakefield offered him a very small salary even a shed load more might be a standard wage to most

[PopTart]

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 3:37 pm  

Sometimes you've got to take opportunities and prospects over short term gain.

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 4:26 pm  

financialtimes wrote:

I would say, given the right coaching Walshaw and Hooley would do well. Being hung out to dry is what has knocked them and they've had to re-build their careers, both of which I feel aren't quite over just yet

Agree on Walshaw, not Hooley, he played in the Xmas friendly v Leeds and looked totally out of his depth. I was surprised, I didn’t expect Billy Slater but I was hoping for much more.

Another player ruined by his coach was Mark Field.

Re: Coach knows best : Mon Oct 04, 2021 4:53 pm  

vastman wrote:

financialtimes wrote:

I would say, given the right coaching Walshaw and Hooley would do well. Being hung out to dry is what has knocked them and they've had to re-build their careers, both of which I feel aren't quite over just yet

Agree on Walshaw, not Hooley, he played in the Xmas friendly v Leeds and looked totally out of his depth. I was surprised, I didn’t expect Billy Slater but I was hoping for much more.

Another player ruined by his coach was Mark Field.

I thought the same on Hooley. Was expecting big things but he was as you say totally lost at sea. If I recall I believed at the time it was to do with physical maturity. He was very slight as a young lad and i think this is what stopped him breaking through and making and impact.