Published at 15:44, Wednesday, 14 July 2010

IT’S a battle for survival. Choices have to be made.

Whitehaven’s under-siege boss Ged Stokes has made his choice. The head coach won’t quit despite a record 11 match losing streak.

“A no-brainer,” declares the amiable Kiwi. “I have never walked away from a challenge in my life. It’s been a battle every day just to keep the club where it is and I am not going to walk away from it. There are a lot of people prepared to sit back and criticise but if they came to the coal face to see what we had to do every week they might understand the situation we are in....and trying to dig our way out of.”

Eyebrows were raised when Ged was awarded a new two year contract early in the season when the team were already struggling.

But the Board, having squashed administration rumours, has made its choice: make sure Whitehaven RLFC lives to see better days. Which means players giving more and taking less.

Sadly the exacting task of balancing the books and putting a winning team on the pitch has not succeed-ed. For some it’s a doomsday scenario of the dreaded drop and its impact.

Players and supporters have to make their choice.

Hundreds of fans are staying away. With three of the remaining four crucial fixtures on home soil it’s imperative they return in force to give this beleaguered side the vocal support it needs to stay up.

Many of the “lost” supporters may be resigned to the fate? Quite a few say they won’t be back until Ged Stokes goes. None of this helps. Could anyone else give Haven the short term lift and fix?

For players and coaches an eleventh successive defeat at Halifax simply piled on the criticism.

Some cynics might say that semi-professional players earning decent wages (outside the game) don’t deserve much of a pay packet for playing so badly, or should offer to play for next to nothing until the end of the season thereby easing Whitehaven’s financial plight.

Their choice is whether or not to put Whitehaven RLFC first and play their hearts out, as some clearly have, but again the gap between effort and quality was all too evident at The Shay.

We wonder whether the public announcement of contract cuts, coming right on top of the sudden departure of Motu Tony, has affected players’ morale although the head coach insisted after the Halifax hammering: “There’s nothing wrong with team spirit but I wasn’t happy with some of the things happening out there. I didn’t feel as though some individuals were completely putting their hand up.

“There are players considering taking a pay cut and others who won’t but no matter what happens we’ll go right to the last game putting out a team who are willing to play for Whitehaven RL and try to keep the club afloat.”

On Radio Cumbria – the station earlier broadcast an apology to the coach over airing one fan’s inflammatory view – Mr Stokes said: “I’ve never had a year like this, it’s a struggle to keep the club above water, eventually the whole financial situation will come out. Traditionally you look at clubs who have struggled financially, it’s always clubs who have tried to have a big hand in going into Super League, we are still living and paying for that debt.”

Of the players, Ged went on: “ Nobody wants to lose money in any walk of life, there are those who will dig deep to help the club they know is in an absolutely dire situation.”

But he maintains: “I have a lot to offer as a coach, we have a great coaching team and we will get something out of it; in the next couple of years you will see some high quality pla-yers coming through.”

Maybe so but I, for one, can’t look that far ahead.

Only wish we had the help of Paul (the psychic octopus) to make the “right” predictions.

Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk