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“I’ve had enough” tweeted Salford Red Devils owner Dr. Marwan Koukash after the inept performance served up by his Salford Red Devils at home to reigning champions St. Helens on Thursday night.
Koukash hasn’t yet elaborated on that tweet and the Salford club are making no comment on it, but let’s hope it was just venting frustration at a poor game by the Red Devils.
It was a lackadaisical, lazy performance filled with handling errors, countless missed tackles, poor defensive structures and bad reads from the players. There was no cohesion in attack and is not the start to the home campaign of Super League XX that the good doctor will have been looking for.
His reaction will not have been based just on last night’s 52-6 hammering but also on the results of the last two years that have disappointed him greatly. This has led him to replace firstly Phil Veivers with Brian Noble, and then Noble with Iestyn Harris as coach.
I have had enough
— Marwan Koukash (@drmarwanK) February 12, 2015
Can you blame him?
Since taking over in January 2013 Koukash has kept all his promises about attracting better quality players to Salford in order to fulfil his dream of turning the Salford Red Devils from also rans into thoroughbreds.
He may have failed in his bid’s to buy Sam Tomkins from Wigan prior to his move to New Zealand Warriors or to bring Benji Marshall to the Super League from his unsuccessful stint in rugby union, but he has certainly delivered in bringing a better quality of player to the Red Devils that they have not had in many years.
A squad that already contained the likes of Rangi Chase, Gareth Hock, Kevin Locke, Adrian Morley, Harrison Hansen, Mason-Caton Brown, Theo Fages, Lama Tasi, Junior Sa’au and Tony Puletua has had further quality players added to it with Ben Jones-Bishop, Michael Dobson, Cory Paterson, Scott Taylor and Weller Hauraki among the more high profile acquisitions for the 2015 season and beyond.
The results and performances of the last two years will have played a part in his reasons for tweeting such a comment, but so will his knowledge of the amount of time and money he has spent trying to make the Red Devils a better and more attractive club. Their strong performance in the game against Warrington the previous week would have given him some inflated expectations.
Obviously, that did not happen – the fact that his side were not competitive at any point in the game would have embarrassed him and hurt him considerably.
I can already feel the eyes of Koukash boring into the back of the head of Iestyn Harris. He will have to turn things around very quickly if he is to be the long term coach at the AJ Bell Stadium. Everyone knows that it takes teams time to gel with so many new players, but there is no excuse for a lack of effort and determination.
Whether this performance was down to player apathy or a lack of leadership from their coach it is difficult to say, but it is clear that Koukash is used to being successful and does not want to be associated with failure.
The billionaire racehorse owner may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he doesn’t do things by halves, doesn’t do things quietly and certainly is not afraid to speak his mind and promote the game of rugby league beyond it’s normal boundaries.
From pushing for the salary cap to be raised, marquee signings, the possible purchase of an NRL club to more recently raising the possibility of a Super League Nines tournament and investigating the feasibility of entering a UK based team into the NRL, Koukash does not mind upsetting the top figures in the game in his bid to improve and spread rugby league.
We don’t have anyone else like him in our game at the moment and it is crucial that he remains committed to the Red Devils, not just for their long term security but also as someone who will think the unthinkable and then go and make it happen.
Koukash has made a big impact on rugby league in the last two years and the game will be a lot poorer and duller without him.
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