Morris dancing...

With delight no doubt.

The news that John Morris is set to be offered an extension to his Derbyshire contract has been met positively by the man himself and, by the looks of 606, by the majority of fans.

Me too.

What we need at Derbyshire is a period of stability, with players being brought in and brought through. Anyone who cannot see the potential at Derbyshire shouldn't be allowed out unaccompanied, in my humble opinion. Morris has appointed shrewdly both on and off the pitch and we are in a much better position now than we were when he took over as coach.

Karl Krikken has done a fine job with the Academy and Andy Brown done likewise with the batsmen. Our weakest suit this year has been the bowling, where perhaps the occasional help of Phil de Freitas needs to be more frequent. Having said that, appointing a full time bowling coach could lose us a player, unless of course that person doubled up.

The problem with changing coach is that the new man comes in and either doesn't rate or get on with people who might otherwise have played a role at the club for some time. Morris has brought a lot of good people to the club with his persuasive manner, perhaps better players than we've had for some time. IF he can add to the staff this winter with a spinner, another batsman, a seamer and Steffan Jones (plus sort out the overseas berth) we'll move forward again next year.

Last week's poll suggested that almost half of those voting would like to see us move for James Middlebrook of Essex, with just over a quarter wanting us to stick with Jake Needham and the rest wanting us to move for Gareth Batty. I think the latter will end up at Surrey, personally, where his brother played for some years and where his club mate Steve Davies is headed. As I said last week, I would be happy to see Middlebrook come to Derby and think he's much better than what we have. I still think Jake Needham has greater potential than Mark Lawson, but he's gone back a little this year - a bit like Jon Clare I suppose. I'm sure they'll come again with lots of hard winter work in the gym and the nets.

This week's poll looks at our bowling, an obvious area for improvement. What do you think is our greatest need for next year?