Post by 18cov74 on Feb 20, 2019 18:43:05 GMT
From the players to the coaches.
It's good to see Cov are already starting to drip feed the names of players whose contracts are being renewed for next season, although I imagine news of the signings won't come for a while yet other than through social media, as is the case with Rory Jennings.
I'm sure most supporters wouldn't expect the current squad to bear much resemblance to the one that will finally get us into the Premiership, with players coming and going over the next few seasons until there is enough strength and depth to make us consistently competitive with the very best clubs in the Championship, home and away.
However, is that also true of the current coaching and management set up? There's been lots of debate about the relative strengths or otherwise of the current squad, but the players alone aren't going to get us to the top. Is the current coaching set up good enough to attain the kind of success the Board are looking for as they develop Cov both as a business and as a rugby club?
Do we need to add more expertise on the coaching side and have Winter, Walshe and Deacon (as well as all the coaching and support teams) done enough to suggest they will be able to take the club to the pinnacle of English club rugby? What they've achieved in the past two and three quarter seasons has been everything we could have hoped for and more; yet despite mid-table success this year the jury is still out for me and I do see us being at least a couple of places lower than we currently are by the time we visit Jersey.
There's a general acknowledgement, even from the club, that one or two of the bigger name signings haven't been as effective as was hoped for, our away record is mediocre at best and there seems to be problems motivating/preparing teams away from the Butts, the same group of players who have only lost a couple of games at home. Supporters talk about being happy with consolidation this season, but Rowland Winter suggested pre-season that he was anticipating rather more. Will just the five or six players coming in (replacing those leaving, not additional to) be enough to make a significant difference? Second seasons tend to be just as tough, as both Hartpury and Richmond have found out in recent years.
Do we need to bring a coach or two in, and is RW finding it tougher than perhaps we'd expected?
There are certainly more positives than negatives at the moment, but long-term is the current set up we have good enough to move us to where we all want to be? I really do hope RW and the coaches will still be at Cov when we are in the Premiership, unless the Premiership clubs take a look at Cov's success, but thinking isn't always the same as believing.
I don't feel this is an unreasonable question to ask on a fans' forum.
Anyway, it would be interesting to hear the views of other supporters as to how the coaches/management have done this season as opposed to the players.
It's good to see Cov are already starting to drip feed the names of players whose contracts are being renewed for next season, although I imagine news of the signings won't come for a while yet other than through social media, as is the case with Rory Jennings.
I'm sure most supporters wouldn't expect the current squad to bear much resemblance to the one that will finally get us into the Premiership, with players coming and going over the next few seasons until there is enough strength and depth to make us consistently competitive with the very best clubs in the Championship, home and away.
However, is that also true of the current coaching and management set up? There's been lots of debate about the relative strengths or otherwise of the current squad, but the players alone aren't going to get us to the top. Is the current coaching set up good enough to attain the kind of success the Board are looking for as they develop Cov both as a business and as a rugby club?
Do we need to add more expertise on the coaching side and have Winter, Walshe and Deacon (as well as all the coaching and support teams) done enough to suggest they will be able to take the club to the pinnacle of English club rugby? What they've achieved in the past two and three quarter seasons has been everything we could have hoped for and more; yet despite mid-table success this year the jury is still out for me and I do see us being at least a couple of places lower than we currently are by the time we visit Jersey.
There's a general acknowledgement, even from the club, that one or two of the bigger name signings haven't been as effective as was hoped for, our away record is mediocre at best and there seems to be problems motivating/preparing teams away from the Butts, the same group of players who have only lost a couple of games at home. Supporters talk about being happy with consolidation this season, but Rowland Winter suggested pre-season that he was anticipating rather more. Will just the five or six players coming in (replacing those leaving, not additional to) be enough to make a significant difference? Second seasons tend to be just as tough, as both Hartpury and Richmond have found out in recent years.
Do we need to bring a coach or two in, and is RW finding it tougher than perhaps we'd expected?
There are certainly more positives than negatives at the moment, but long-term is the current set up we have good enough to move us to where we all want to be? I really do hope RW and the coaches will still be at Cov when we are in the Premiership, unless the Premiership clubs take a look at Cov's success, but thinking isn't always the same as believing.
I don't feel this is an unreasonable question to ask on a fans' forum.
Anyway, it would be interesting to hear the views of other supporters as to how the coaches/management have done this season as opposed to the players.