Below is a summary of the discussion we had with Matt Gidley.
Regarding changes, there was one small change which didn't alter the point that was made, it actually reinforced it.
Keen to hear your thoughts.
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I had previously sent a series of questions to Matt Gidley, as a follow up and to see if we could get more detail on a number of topics that are near and dear to our hearts and he was kind enough to give us the opportunity to meet and discuss the issues. Whilst we are all concerned about the performance of the club and its future, credit must be given to Matt for always fronting up to face the criticism and questioning and we appreciate the access we have been given.
Centre of Excellence – We asked about progress on this issue understanding that it would be a key enabler for future success. It seems that progress is advanced more that perhaps the clubs previous commentary suggested. They have money allocated from the state government and three sites are under consideration.
They are the stadium, which the club feels is the optimal location for obvious reasons, at West’s which also has its appeals as it’s the training base for the club and finally the University is in play which in itself is an attractive option due to the access to sports science and facilities. The club acknowledged the need to move on the option sooner rather than later as the grant from the state government will not be around forever which in itself may take the stadium location out of the decision making process as it’s likely the longest lead time development.
My personal opinion is that the University might be the most attractive proposal in the long run due to the access to sport science and medicine departments and the ability to link it into a community asset. I also reckon that Wests, as a potential owner, will weigh in with an offer but it could potentially be a bargaining chip as part of the sale process. Due to those variables, I suspect we won’t see a decision until the sale is formalised.
High Performance manager – We asked about progress in this area after the loss of Phil Coles, whom the club thought they had tempted back. Phil seems to be playing a consulting role in the background and helping the club reinvigorate this part of the club. They understand the importance and are trying to add additional resources. At the time Matt suggested that they were close to securing the services of an experienced sports medicine guy to head that department up. Subsequent to that it seems that we’ve recruited Tony Ayoub from the Dragons. I’m not sure whether he was the person nominated by Matt. It’s safe to assume we will see some changes in that department and fingers crossed an improvement in our injury situation.
Contract situations – Hottest of hot topics and Matt was upfront about the situation that they find themselves in and it’s essential in line with much of the detail reported in the media. They were confident that McManus and Snowden would be medically retired (and they were) which would help the cap situation. A number of players have been told that they aren’t in the plans for 2017 and beyond so they are working to move them out or encourage them to find new homes. All of this is intended to allow the club to bring new players into the system that better compliment the remaining players and putting some experience around the kids.
It seems there are a number of players targeted and the club believes they will be in mix as the season progress. The club believes that a number of clubs have cap pressures which may assist us in securing some support.
The club knows they need to bolster the roster and they feel that Brown and Mooney have a solid plan in place to improve the club. We did however make the point that the further the season progresses, the more fans are concerned that the lack of signing progress means the same roster for 2017.
Matt wouldn’t be drawn on when we can expect to see some progress on this front and we suggested that the club needed to make some progress quickly to give the fans something to focus on as we move into 2017.
Team performance – We discussed this and Matt acknowledged the pain that supporters are going through in 2016 and the necessary but unfortunate process of roster change during the season. The club has faith in the junior development pathways whilst Mac and I suggested that beyond the golden crop (of which Matt was one), our ability to recruit, develop and retain star juniors has been questionable over the last decade or more. I asked that assuming we did develop a crop of juniors, were we putting support around the junior teams and getting the best possible coaches and support staff.
Matt said they were and indicated that it was an area of investment moving forward. We did ask about how Todd Lowrie became a U20’s coach when signed as a player and whether Garth Brennan was in the mix in the future and to be far Matt didn’t offer a lot of commentary on either point.
He believes that all the young players will be better for the exposure in 2016 and better with a full preseason under their belts, something most didn’t have. I did acknowledge that not all the juniors would evolve into long term NRL players but he did feel there were a number in the current team who would go on to have long careers and some who wouldn’t go the distance.
We spoke about potential new recruits and Matt suggested that they were looking for players with the right attitude to cement the culture and yes it seems we are genuinely interested in Greg Bird although he is still under contract. Much of what has been written in the media about what Greg Bird would bring to the team seems to echo the clubs position on him and his attributes.
We are also looking at a number of players and yes there seems to be some promise in them, rather than bits and pieces players and journeymen. We made the point to Matt that it all sounds promising but the fans need to see some positive movement because the job of rebuilding is only half done, moving players on is but the first piece. We felt it’s time to put a few signings to bed to prove that we are executing the plan.
Interestingly, we spoke a little about Darren Mooney and Matt believes he could be one of the most important signings in the clubs history such is his ability to remediate a cap and build a team. At this point we know Brown and Mooney can cut players, we just need to see them start building the roster up, until we do, it’s subjective how we get out of this hole.
We get the impression that Matt is hurting as much as the average fan and that makes sense as he’s pretty vested in the club, we can’t fault that piece.
We touched on Rick Stone briefly and how he had the support of the CEO and board, until he didn’t and how did the club know that Nathan Brown was taking the club in the right direction as he’d been afford more latitude than just about any coach in NRL history and certainly any Knights coach.
Matt made the point that even before Nathan Brown got the job, he told them that they could appoint a coach who’d tweak things and we’d run 8-12th most years, but if we wanted enduring success; we’d need to start from scratch. So we are starting from scratch. Again we made the point that the timing seems vague and the results are far from certain, it’s critical we see some progress beyond letting blokes go.
Future ownership – We touched on this briefly and frankly not a lot of hard detail was shared, which we get but there does seems to be a pretty decent pool of interested parties across a spectrum of types such as individuals, parties and community groups. The deepest cheque book doesn’t seem to be the major criteria but our speculation was on debt retiring and sufficient working capital / reserves to endure the cyclical nature of an NRL team’s success.
Matt did however confirm that any surplus from the sale gets returned to the NRL, it’s hard to imagine any new owner ponying up millions but it’s a bit galling that the NRL potentially gets a windfall from our sale whilst running us on a shoestring. Perhaps the members should have got first right to buy back the club, rather than the NRL. Matt didn’t offer any comments on these points.
TPA’s -Now some good news, it seems that the club has done well in re-engaging with the community and particularly the business community and it seems that a number of prominent businessmen have rallied around the club offering support and assembling TPA opportunities for the club. Everything is of course above board but Matt believes we finally have some TPA’s available to bolster the cap situation. The secret is finding the right investment to utilise them and whilst it was not confirmed, it seems we are yet to use them and hopefully they come into play sooner rather than later.
Generally the club acknowledges the pain the supporters are going through and they feel we will be better for the disastrous season we are about the close out. They know they need some quality to bolster the team and they seem to be working on that situation. We made the point however that until the supporters see some positive developments on the recruitment front, the plan as mentioned numerous times, lacks substance and no one is quite sure.
Thanks again to Matt Gidley for taking the time to meet with us and discuss our concerns and issues of interest in detail.
