Paul Wellens

[GeordieSaint]

Whilst I am sorry to see Wellens not succeed, removing him is the right course of action. I’d been looking at Rowley if I were Saints. 

I’d also get rid of Mike Rush. 

[M j M]

38 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Whilst I am sorry to see Wellens not succeed, removing him is the right course of action. I’d been looking at Rowley if I were Saints. 

I’d also get rid of Mike Rush. 

Rowley has turned down Hull and Leeds. I guess things are a bit different now given the state of Salford but does he actually want to be a Super League head coach any more?

[Curly perm]

3 minutes ago, M j M said:

Rowley has turned down Hull and Leeds. I guess things are a bit different now given the state of Salford but does he actually want to be a Super League head coach any more?

He was due to move up to DOR at Salford so I questioned that on another thread…but others said it was more like not wanting to relocate. 

[The Future is League]

1 hour ago, Curly perm said:

He was due to move up to DOR at Salford so I questioned that on another thread…but others said it was more like not wanting to relocate. 

I would have thought if he was offered the Saints job and was still keen on coaching he would be a fool to turn it down, and Rowley is not a fool

[Liverpool Rover]

Lee Briers was brought in as an attack coach but who was having the final say in Saints attacking play? I thought Briers was well regarded as an attack coach so I would have thought that their attacking play would have been a lot better than it was this year.

[The Future is League]

28 minutes ago, Liverpool Rover said:

Lee Briers was brought in as an attack coach but who was having the final say in Saints attacking play? I thought Briers was well regarded as an attack coach so I would have thought that their attacking play would have been a lot better than it was this year.

Briers didn't have a lot luck when he was attack coach at the Brisbane Broncos either.

[Worzel]

I'm not sure that 5th place and a semi-final with that squad is a poor result.

I can understand Saints fans issues with the style of play though, on a surface-level look. But pause for a moment and even then surely you'd have to say, "well, what about the recruitment?". If the powers that be don't provide a competent half-back pairing, what's he supposed to do, work miracles? Even Lee Briers wasn't able to sort the attack out with that odd mix of components, and they had one of the tightest defences in the league which hardly screams out "bad coaching" does it? 

If it was Hull KR, especially with a long-serving club legend, I would have wanted to see him get another season with an opportunity to work with a functioning spine. 

[Worzel]

2 hours ago, The Future is League said:

Briers didn't have a lot luck when he was attack coach at the Brisbane Broncos either.

Didn't they get to a Grand Final, with him coaching the attacking systems?

[Human Punk]

It's a bit odd - it's been a disappointing season again for Saints and you'd say on the face of it that Wellens hasn't managed to get the best out of his squad. But looking at the quality of players at his disposal, a narrow semi-final defeat is pretty much the best that anyone could have achieved with that lot (especially the complete absence of a quality half back).

I don't suppose we'll ever find out if he's capable of being a great coach, but we've seen plenty evidence that he's a thoroughly good bloke, and I hope things work out for him in future.

 

[GeordieSaint]

Seen rumours of Fairleigh and Rowley as the front runners to replace Wellens so far. 

[Josef K]

On 05/10/2025 at 15:32, RigbyLuger said:

Did Matt ask his new podcast partner?

 

 

I will not party party party until it is official that he is gone. 

[Josef K]

On 05/10/2025 at 15:45, graveyard johnny said:

to be honest to have your season ended by 2 blatant forward passes and a knock on over the line - we I  feel sorry for him- saints would be in the final next week if they had been pulled up - good luck to him with whatever he does next

Saints in the GF Vs wigan would’ve been a nightmare, i was pleased we lost. 

[Josef K]

On 05/10/2025 at 16:01, graveyard johnny said:

seemed ok to me

He was awful and too pally with a lot of players, also tactically inept, and clueless with his interchanges. 
After 3yrs of his coaching his domestic highlights were beating a 12 man wigan, leeds (A) this season 0-6.
That is all i can think of. He has done well in putting fans off from attending games. 
But there are fans still saying he is marvellous, i never knew he had so many relatives and friends. 

[Josef K]

20 hours ago, up the robins said:

Feel sorry for him. Clearly not given the backing to sign players like the top teams have, a fith placed finish and semi final in playoffs is far from a disaster.

Is a case of entitlement that St's fans expect a top 2 finish.

I am not entitled wanting my club to win, but what i do expect if we’re not going to pickup any trophies is to be entertained.
When we lost to Leigh in the CCSF 2023 it was then i realised Saints had made a huge error in giving Well the HC job. He has had no Plan B it’s just five drives & a shocking kick. 

[graveyard johnny]

6 minutes ago, Josef K said:

He was awful and too pally with a lot of players, also tactically inept, and clueless with his interchanges. 
After 3yrs of his coaching his domestic highlights were beating a 12 man wigan, leeds (A) this season 0-6.
That is all i can think of. He has done well in putting fans off from attending games. 
But there are fans still saying he is marvellous, i never knew he had so many relatives and friends. 

it was a pun about the poster saying wellens was too negative and me saying  i thought he was ok - as I  am always portrayed as not been the most positive on here 

[Just Browny]

3 hours ago, Worzel said:

I would have wanted to see him get another season with an opportunity to work with a functioning spine. 

Is this a dig at Welsby?

[Worzel]

10 minutes ago, Josef K said:

I am not entitled wanting my club to win, but what i do expect if we’re not going to pickup any trophies is to be entertained.
When we lost to Leigh in the CCSF 2023 it was then i realised Saints had made a huge error in giving Well the HC job. He has had no Plan B it’s just five drives & a shocking kick. 

Fair enough, you have to sit there and watch it, the rest of us only see "on par" results from a badly assembled squad. I'm sure someone like Rowley would get far better results from the same raw materials, no doubt about that. I think Saints need to sort their recruitment out too in order to get back into the top 4, and not sure exiting Wellens will address that eh... more change needed I'd think. 

[Worzel]

6 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

Is this a dig at Welsby?

No, I like Welsby and would have him at Rovers in a heartbeat. It's the half-backs Saints need to sort, or rather the right mix between halves and full back playing styles. Recruiting another potentially brilliant full back in Sailor for a team that already had one was one of the recruitment errors I'm talking about elsewhere. 

[The Future is League]

3 hours ago, Worzel said:

Didn't they get to a Grand Final, with him coaching the attacking systems?

They did, but they didn't retain him, and guess what they have just won the NRL grand final with attacking flair.

Edited October 6 by The Future is League

[Tommygilf]

4 hours ago, Worzel said:

I'm not sure that 5th place and a semi-final with that squad is a poor result.

I can understand Saints fans issues with the style of play though, on a surface-level look. But pause for a moment and even then surely you'd have to say, "well, what about the recruitment?". If the powers that be don't provide a competent half-back pairing, what's he supposed to do, work miracles? Even Lee Briers wasn't able to sort the attack out with that odd mix of components, and they had one of the tightest defences in the league which hardly screams out "bad coaching" does it? 

If it was Hull KR, especially with a long-serving club legend, I would have wanted to see him get another season with an opportunity to work with a functioning spine. 

As others have said, had Wakey and Hull FC played to their potential more consistently then that 5th place wouldn't have been there and they got to a semi final on a dubious fluke.

Stats like you just said there can be used to prove anything, so perhaps the old eye test is important here and ultimately Wellens has failed with that. Saints have become dour to watch and have fallen well behind the standards they set for several years recently under his stewardship.

As I said earlier in this thread, he is Danny McGuire with a better squad. 

[Chris22]

In 2023, Wellens did alright. Won the World Club Challenge. Finished 3rd, level on points with top. Lost the Super League semi final in the last play. Lost the Challenge Cup semi final by 2 points and a missed late conversion. The cup was a massive missed opportunity. Had Leigh on the ropes, failed to finish the match and got burned in the second half.

If we turned one of those narrow losses to wins, Wellens leads us to a final against Hull KR and has a good shot of winning. Things may have been different.

In 2024, he led us to our worst ever Super League finish. In 2025, he led us to our worst ever Super League finish before he became coach. His record against big teams is abysmal. Even lower end clubs have better records than us. There was never any realistic chance of winning Super League with that kind of record.

Recruitment has been bad the last few years leading to the situation we have now where we don't have a first team player who can competently kick a ball. I do not know who is in charge of recruitment but this does not fall just on Wellens.

I think this is the right call. Wellens can leave without being sacked and we get a fresh start. Contrary to some of our fans, I think he has conducted himself excellently under a lot of pressure and can leave with his head held high.

[Josef K]

13 hours ago, DoubleD said:

Saints loving throwing their own under the bus 

He didn’t have to take the job, i wasn’t in favour when he was given it. Myself i think he is a worse coach than Cunningham. 

[Josef K]

22 hours ago, arcticchris said:

I really think he should be given another year or 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a Wigan fan that is.

Ha ha ha all opposition fans would love him to stay as our coach. Although there are still quite a few Saints fans who would like him to remain HC the majority want him gone now. 

[DoubleD]

11 minutes ago, Josef K said:

He didn’t have to take the job, i wasn’t in favour when he was given it. Myself i think he is a worse coach than Cunningham. 

Saints fans love to stick the knife into one of their own though 

[Josef K]

12 hours ago, Bull Mania said:

Feel for Wellens, you want it to work out as he's a club legend. You look at the stats/spreadsheets etc and Saints don't look far off.

But sometimes the best analysis you can do is what you see in front of you with your eyes and Saints look a poorly coached team. The KR game looks "close" on the scoresheet, but Saints were woeful and if KR had been on it, should have put a cricket score on them. Yes recruitment hasn't been the best, but still, that Saints team has some quality players in it. When the coach is playing one of the leagues best FB's at LF (where he's never played his entire career) in a derby, you know he's run out of ideas of how to fix it.

 

When Frayssinous was our assistant coach he got loads of abuse from fans saying ‘he isn’t good enough get rid of him, bring Briers in’.
He left, Briers the saviour was brought in but we have haven’t improved. I think Wello is the problem, he wants to use the Woolf BoreBall tactics despite other clubs finding it easy to go around us.