OPINION: Were Salford right to change coaches?

Salford Red Devils earlier announced that they had parted company with Head Coach Richard Marshall, was it a fair decision, or harsh?

Rewind to November 2020, Salford had just finished ninth after winning eight of their 18 matches played. However, three of those were deducted.

During the season, Head Coach Ian Watson had been linked with a move to Hull FC, which he rejected. In an interview afterwards, he said he would be staying at the Red Devils.

But, not long after, Salford announced Watson had stepped down after being in contact with another Super League club; later confirmed to be Huddersfield Giants.

Watson was an extremely popular figure at the Red Devils. After helping them get out of relegation trouble in his first year in charge back in 2016, he then went on to lead Salford to a Super League Grand Final in 2019, and then a Challenge Cup Final in 2020.

His departure left a bit of a sour taste for Salford fans, and replacing him was always going to be a tough task.

That job went to Marshall, who had spent the last couple of years as an assistant at St Helens to Justin Holbrook and Kristian Woolf.

Before then, Marshall was Head Coach at Halifax and this was his first Head Coach’s role in the Super League.

He also had to contend with Salford losing key players like Niall Evalds, Joey Lussick, Luke Yates and Gil Dudson, whilst also losing the experience of players like Mark Flanagan and Tyrone McCarthy.

To combat this, Marshall went into the market and signed the likes of Joe Burgess, Harvey Livett, Jack Wells, Danny Addy and Elijah Taylor.

It was a tough start for Marshall,  winning just one of his first nine matches. But, as the season wore on, performances did start to improve, even if the results were not quite there. They were getting some results though, beating the likes of Wakefield Trinity, Hull FC and even the double over their former coach’s new side.

Before their Super League match against Castleford Tigers, Salford started the week with just seven players because of injuries and Covid-related absences. They went on to win 70-18.

There was some low points as well. Their final away match felt like a symbol of the way things went. They were 18-16 up over Warrington at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and were less than 10 minutes away from victory. But a high tackle from Danny Addy saw him sent to the sin bin, allowing Gareth Widdop to level it up. The two sides then traded drop-goals in normal time. Krisnan Inu missed the chance to win it for Salford, a chance George Williams did not hesitate to take.

Discipline, as mentioned in the last game, proved to be a big problem for Salford. Whether or not that was totally down to Marshall, remains to be seen.

The events that happened at Warrington proved to be a popular theme across the season. Salford would be in games, and then a moment of indiscipline would end up costing them.

Scrolling through Facebook on account of today’s news, a lot of Salford fans seemed to react with surprise at the news.

Back in 2018, Salford had won seven out of 23 matches. Not too dissimilar to Marshall’s record this season (Seven out of 22). They stuck with Watson, and a year later they made the Grand Final.

I’m not saying the same would have happened, but that year was a testament to the club and the patience they showed with Watson. A luxury that was not afforded to Marshall.

The club had already started recruitment efforts for 2022, with former World Club Challenge winner Brodie Croft already signed up.

Overall, I think it would have been interesting to see how Salford would have fared next year. Performances were on the up, so it would only have been a matter of time before results did the same.

If results still hadn’t picked up, then maybe consider making that decision, but right now it seems premature.

Whoever does come in, Salford need to make sure they have the time and resources to build a team in their image. A rebuild may well be on the cards, with the likes of Tui Lolohea, Kevin Brown and maybe a few others moving on.

It will be interesting to see what Marshall’s next move is as well. Will he go back to being a number two somewhere, or will he look for another Head Coach’s position?