MARWAN KOUKASH - THE GOOD DOCTOR?

‘’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 it is to be hoped that he is taking a long, deep, breath and thinking hard before sending out anymore waves of panic or shock over social media networks.

A lackadaisical, lazy performance filled with handling errors, countless missed tackles, poor defensive structures and reads from the players, no cohesion in attack and poor discipline 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 and have led him to replace, firstly, Phil Veivers with Brian Noble and then Noble with Iestyn Harris as Head Coach, tweet apologies to fans for previous lacklustre performances and cancel last year’s end of season awards dinner as he didn’t think there was any reason to celebrate and hand out awards after such a disappointing season

Marwan Koukash

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 Super League from his dismally unsuccessful stint in Rugby Union, but he has certainly delivered in bringing a better quality of player to the Red Devil’s 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 amongst the more high profile acquisitions for the 2015 season and beyond.

The results and performances of the last 2 years will have played a part in his reason’s 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 and also the strong performance in their first game against Warrington Wolves had the Red Devils going into this game with, he would have hoped, a more aggressive and positive attitude.

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 personally. 

Iestyn Harris - under pressure?

I can already feel the eyes of Koukash boring into the back of the head of Iestyn Harris and the coach will have to turn things around very quickly if he is to be the long term Head 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.

On a wider theme, Rugby League is a minority sport in the UK that needs to raise it’s profile, improve it’s image and drag itself into the 21^st Century.

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 9’s 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 and want’s the best for Rugby League and want’s to see it, quite rightly, celebrated as the greatest game of all in the national media.

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 2 years and the game will be a lot poorer and duller without him.