Warrington Wolves • Price.

This is just the nature of sport.

The Leeds fans had threads every year wanting Brian McDermott out. Wigan fans went through spells of criticising Wane too. And these were coaches who were winning Grand Finals.

If you read a fans forum, you're not going to get particularly informed, insightful critique, it's gobsheets like me who have never played the game spouting off with their theories.

I have plenty of moans so I'm not going to call out others for doing so, but I think there are a few principles to bear in mind before griping.

We shouldn't airbrush out things that we have won. 4 Challenge Cups out of the last 11 is the greatest period of Wire history since the Bevan era. I remember growing up and being excited about winning the Lancashire Cup and Regal Trophy, it was all I saw us win in the first 20 years of being a Wire fan. The CC final last year was the best big game performance that I have ever seen from a Wire team. But I think some of our fans just seemed to shrug it off and say, yeah it's a cup, it papered over the cracks.

You should enjoy these moments as you never know when the next one will come around. I bet when Widnes won the Regal Trophy in 1992 they didn't think it was that exciting, they'd recently won two Championships and the WCC and Regal Trophy probably seemed small beer. They never won anything again and don't look like they ever will. Same with Bradford in 2005.

A related point is the rugby equivalent of the doctors' "first do no harm" principle. When you change things, like the coach, board etc, it's not a risk-free lottery: "what have we got to lose, we can't be any worse than now!". You can always get worse and there are plenty of examples from teams who will look back and think with hindsight we shouldn't have made that change at that time.

The wrong appointment as coach can really kill a club's roster over a 2 to 3 period. Look at Souness replacing Dalglish at Liverpool or Dalglish replacing Keegan at Newcastle. The argument for change should be more about what you are changing to rather than what you are changing from. If you're just taking a leap in the dark don't be surprised if sometimes you fall down rather than up.