Cunningham Out?
There’s a growing number of Saints fans calling for Keiron Cunningham to be shown the exit door. But is that fair?
2016 wasn’t a bad year for Saints really. Okay, so they finished the season empty handed, but they maintained their top four status, and only narrowly missed out on Old Trafford, after a decent Super 8s campaign. They did crash out if the cup early, but that was at the hands of the eventual winners.
Like virtually all of Super League, Saints were largely inconsistent for the most part last year, and its probably fair to say they’ve never looked like a dominant force during Keiron’s reign; certainly not the force the Saints fans works like them to be anyway. But is that enough to see Keiron booted out of Langtree Park for good? (Yes I know it’s not officially called that anymore!)
Cunningham is a hero to all but the newest of Saints fans. He played nearly 500 games for them, spending his whole career at his hometown club. He played in some great Saints sides alongside the likes of Matt Gidley, Sean Long, Paul Wellens, Jamie Lyon, James Graham and Paul Sculthorpe (to name but a few). He won five Super League titles, seven Challenge Cups, two World Club titles, featured in the Dream Team on six occasions and was even voted the best player of the Super League era by Rugby League World magazine. Heck he even has his own statue outside the ground.
Maybe he’s now tarnishing his legacy with a mediocre impression of a Head Coach, or maybe he’ll go on to become just as great a coach as he was a player. Who knows? I just think it’d be a shame for him to be shown the door this early into the season, when nobody else is going to come in and be able do any better.
