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Leadership ...

Messages
60
In a perfect world change would start with the board. The incompetence shown in keeping a coach for seven or eight years on the back of such consistently poor results should be terminal, along with the hiring of a patsy CEO. But the board will never fall on their swords. Executives are like politicians. They're never wrong and set their own standards. Witness the hastily re-drawn line in the sand for the coach which highlights the gutlessness of the rabble we have running the show. True, factions are dangerous and it appears we now have a split. Board factions decimated the Tigers, Eels and Dogs for many, many years. It may well be that half the board wanted to pull the trigger.

But there's no practical reason why the current management structure cannot work. You need the right people sitting in key positions however. Especially one floor down. Our problems are very profound in the football department right now and it's beyond the current lot. But not insurmountable even without change on the board. Saints are not a united or happy group. Doust had his detractors but he led. Ultimately Doust made the tough decision to cede power and it saved his bacon. We have been crying out for a couple of strong leaders to guide the club for quite some time now. A new CEO/Coach combination is a good start. We know one or two personnel changes at the top can make all the difference.

Yes it's a different sport but look at how Jurgen Klopp has transformed Liverpool FC, a dour team of chokers when he took over, into a champion team which every good player in Europe wants to play in. A fresh ownership earmarked him as the man to reverse the trend of the Reds' regular struggles to break into the top 4. A top 8-like bench-mark for a club like that. Klopp is an indomitable personality who literally re-built LFC into one of the world's strongest clubs in 5 years with change. He arrived with a unique style and philosophy and brought in the players and staff he knew would actualise it.

With Saints, ever since Bennett lobbed it's been all guess-work. Trying to 'find' an identity by buying a few big names every so often on the back of failed campaigns, passing all that performance accountability onto a few outside stars rather than building a successful team culture first from within. Mary does the opposite of Des Hasler who is inclined to strengthen his weakest links until they are robust. Hasler doesn't have to teach DCE how to play footy and doesn't try to. Instead he will plough his effort into turning Brad Parker into a solid reliable player. This is what the best leaders do.

Leaders need to be more than humble and hard-working. Need to do more than keep problems in-house and arc up at press conferences. Good leaders project confidence and strength. By definition a strong leader is should be fearless.

McGregor's teams do not stand for anything. He talks endlessly about 'structures' and doesn't want the talent to stray from them but the structures yield nothing. He won't allow young players time to settle. Who can forget how he failed Drew Hutchison? Rueben Garrick. Kurt Mann. Good players. It's perform or perish then repeat if you aren't already a big star. The combinations and plans he persists with fail time and time again and do not change.

His favourite post-match lines are 'this is unacceptable?' and 'we are all accountable?' Repeated like a mantra that absolves him of actually having to hear them. They're hollow words because non-performance is routinely accepted. The same team is picked next week. Last season, Josh Kerr scored four tries in a Canterbury Cup game and on the same weekend first grade was badly beaten in the forwards. Kerr didn't receive a call up. Jackson Ford scored a hat-trick of tries in another reserves game. No call up.

But it's the club stand guilty of kicking problems in leadership down the road a bit at every crucial signpost.

The next coach must be have the strength to bully the board and get what he wants. A type who will not kowtow to senior players. One who empowers young talent. Someone to demand results of themselves and others. Even Wayne Bennett admitted to failure at the Knights. This also takes leadership, admitting that what you are doing isn't working and that what you have got 'ain't good enough.

I don't agree with Phil Gould's subterfuge for a second that our problems are unfixable. Change simply has to start now. Other aspects like facilities and performance units are a smokescreen to the key issue, the right personnel. Flanagan, Hasler, Toovey, Daniel Anderson, Sheens are all coaches who've won comps or made grannies with modest resources and dysfunctional boards behind them.

Give us a genuine leader. The right person is out there for the board to find and hire. It's never too late. Let's not forget that Peter Doust did hire Wayne Bennett.
 

BLM01

First Grade
Messages
8,944
In a perfect world change would start with the board. The incompetence shown in keeping a coach for seven or eight years on the back of such consistently poor results should be terminal, along with the hiring of a patsy CEO. But the board will never fall on their swords. Executives are like politicians. They're never wrong and set their own standards. Witness the hastily re-drawn line in the sand for the coach which highlights the gutlessness of the rabble we have running the show. True, factions are dangerous and it appears we now have a split. Board factions decimated the Tigers, Eels and Dogs for many, many years. It may well be that half the board wanted to pull the trigger.

But there's no practical reason why the current management structure cannot work. You need the right people sitting in key positions however. Especially one floor down. Our problems are very profound in the football department right now and it's beyond the current lot. But not insurmountable even without change on the board. Saints are not a united or happy group. Doust had his detractors but he led. Ultimately Doust made the tough decision to cede power and it saved his bacon. We have been crying out for a couple of strong leaders to guide the club for quite some time now. A new CEO/Coach combination is a good start. We know one or two personnel changes at the top can make all the difference.

Yes it's a different sport but look at how Jurgen Klopp has transformed Liverpool FC, a dour team of chokers when he took over, into a champion team which every good player in Europe wants to play in. A fresh ownership earmarked him as the man to reverse the trend of the Reds' regular struggles to break into the top 4. A top 8-like bench-mark for a club like that. Klopp is an indomitable personality who literally re-built LFC into one of the world's strongest clubs in 5 years with change. He arrived with a unique style and philosophy and brought in the players and staff he knew would actualise it.

With Saints, ever since Bennett lobbed it's been all guess-work. Trying to 'find' an identity by buying a few big names every so often on the back of failed campaigns, passing all that performance accountability onto a few outside stars rather than building a successful team culture first from within. Mary does the opposite of Des Hasler who is inclined to strengthen his weakest links until they are robust. Hasler doesn't have to teach DCE how to play footy and doesn't try to. Instead he will plough his effort into turning Brad Parker into a solid reliable player. This is what the best leaders do.

Leaders need to be more than humble and hard-working. Need to do more than keep problems in-house and arc up at press conferences. Good leaders project confidence and strength. By definition a strong leader is should be fearless.

McGregor's teams do not stand for anything. He talks endlessly about 'structures' and doesn't want the talent to stray from them but the structures yield nothing. He won't allow young players time to settle. Who can forget how he failed Drew Hutchison? Rueben Garrick. Kurt Mann. Good players. It's perform or perish then repeat if you aren't already a big star. The combinations and plans he persists with fail time and time again and do not change.

His favourite post-match lines are 'this is unacceptable?' and 'we are all accountable?' Repeated like a mantra that absolves him of actually having to hear them. They're hollow words because non-performance is routinely accepted. The same team is picked next week. Last season, Josh Kerr scored four tries in a Canterbury Cup game and on the same weekend first grade was badly beaten in the forwards. Kerr didn't receive a call up. Jackson Ford scored a hat-trick of tries in another reserves game. No call up.

But it's the club stand guilty of kicking problems in leadership down the road a bit at every crucial signpost.

The next coach must be have the strength to bully the board and get what he wants. A type who will not kowtow to senior players. One who empowers young talent. Someone to demand results of themselves and others. Even Wayne Bennett admitted to failure at the Knights. This also takes leadership, admitting that what you are doing isn't working and that what you have got 'ain't good enough.

I don't agree with Phil Gould's subterfuge for a second that our problems are unfixable. Change simply has to start now. Other aspects like facilities and performance units are a smokescreen to the key issue, the right personnel. Flanagan, Hasler, Toovey, Daniel Anderson, Sheens are all coaches who've won comps or made grannies with modest resources and dysfunctional boards behind them.

Give us a genuine leader. The right person is out there for the board to find and hire. It's never too late. Let's not forget that Peter Doust did hire Wayne Bennett.[/QUOTE
 

BLM01

First Grade
Messages
8,944
Dont pat Doust on the back too much
Wayne fell into his hands after the Roosters leaked that he had agreed with them..and the Doust proceeded to sign him for 3 in lieu of 5 and then panicked when Wayne said he would leave
Doust is the biggest reason we are where we are and why we have let some of the best players in our recent history go to other clubs
Doust is two faced and can not look you straight in the eye..
I know that first hand sitting opposite him and Steve Price back in 2012 when I asked if some players could come and help out with some lessons and visit our club at training one or 2 days
But you are correct about how our BOD still run things[/QUOTE]
 

getsmarty

Immortal
Messages
33,485
Dont pat Doust on the back too much
Wayne fell into his hands after the Roosters leaked that he had agreed with them..and the Doust proceeded to sign him for 3 in lieu of 5 and then panicked when Wayne said he would leave
Doust is the biggest reason we are where we are and why we have let some of the best players in our recent history go to other clubs
Doust is two faced and can not look you straight in the eye..
I know that first hand sitting opposite him and Steve Price back in 2012 when I asked if some players could come and help out with some lessons and visit our club at training one or 2 days
But you are correct about how our BOD still run things
[/QUOTE]

Actually..he was going to the Cowboys ( if i remember correctly ) and the Cowboys Board, especially tallis didn't want him....We did a bradbury...........
 

Banjo2014

Juniors
Messages
484
Hi can anyone tell me , did I hear somewhere that Doust is back as a board member ?
I did also on Fox they kept on saying Saints have Albert and Doust on the board

Also pisses me off a bit -

McInnes is saying that Jack De Belin does so much off the field with the young guys and the team.

Fox and last night Blocker in particular saying what a champion James Graham is on and off the field for the club.

Hello ......... can't see it on the scoreboard or the ladder???
 

Dragonsamy

Bench
Messages
2,882
I did also on Fox they kept on saying Saints have Albert and Doust on the board

Also pisses me off a bit -

McInnes is saying that Jack De Belin does so much off the field with the young guys and the team.

Fox and last night Blocker in particular saying what a champion James Graham is on and off the field for the club.

Hello ......... can't see it on the scoreboard or the ladder???

Which is correct
 

George Dragon

Juniors
Messages
1,985
Hi can anyone tell me , did I hear somewhere that Doust is back as a board member ?
.
I thought he went striaght into the Chair of the St George Leagues club...why invite him back to the football club?

Its interesting looking up time frames and changes.

Doust quit and Johnston becomes CEO and 4th board member with Young Piggott and Black.
Johnston quits and Doust becomes 4th board member. Webb CEO but not on the board.....
 

piesplusreturns

Juniors
Messages
96
Dont pat Doust on the back too much
Wayne fell into his hands after the Roosters leaked that he had agreed with them..and the Doust proceeded to sign him for 3 in lieu of 5 and then panicked when Wayne said he would leave
Doust is the biggest reason we are where we are and why we have let some of the best players in our recent history go to other clubs
Doust is two faced and can not look you straight in the eye..
I know that first hand sitting opposite him and Steve Price back in 2012 when I asked if some players could come and help out with some lessons and visit our club at training one or 2 days
But you are correct about how our BOD still run things
[/QUOTE]

Very correct. The Bennett coup was an anomaly. It was a very fortunate circumstance for the club and it's the exception that proves the rule.

From Bennett's own mouth - he told Doust he wanted to bring in his own team and he wanted complete control of the football department.
 

RedVDave

First Grade
Messages
5,571
Doust also gave Mary a 3 year deal after winning a handful of games in the backend of 2014.

Then extended him a further 2 years for winning a handful of games at the start of 2017 ....which we didn't end up making the finals that year.
 

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