one to get
@hindy111 wet
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...s/news-story/54dedab63ea86c3c592e74ff9c27e097
Phil Gould and Jarryd Hayne will determine fate of Panthers and Eels
- Ben Ikin
- The Australian
- 12:00AM March 10, 2018
Two of the NRL’s biggest and most polarising personalities, Phil Gould and Jarryd Hayne, will face off in the battle of Western Sydney tomorrow afternoon.
Sure, there’ll be others participating, but the 2018 season for the Panthers and Eels will be largely influenced by these two individuals. Gould is one of the smartest people I’ve met. He also has the rare ability to articulate to near perfection whatever occupies his mind. It’s a combination that makes him very effective in the cutthroat world of professional rugby league.
Gould generally gets what he wants, and in 2018, that’s an NRL premiership for his beloved Panthers.
But what happens when the football program he oversees, which includes a very well constructed elite roster, doesn’t perform to his expectations?
Short answer: he gets his hands dirty.
I know Gould has feigned public praise for his club’s recent finals appearances, but Gus wants and needs a premiership.
He’s been going at this Penrith rebuild since 2011, which is more than enough time to have won a competition.
Like most, I was shocked when Ivan Cleary got the sack as Panthers head coach in 2015.
Gould said Cleary was tired, Cleary disagreed.
The semantics don’t matter, only the message: if the GM of Football believes you’re not getting the club closer to a premiership at Penrith, you’re out the door.
Matt Moylan went from captain to outcast. Bryce Cartwright from local hero to let go. Luke Lewis and Michael Jennings fell foul before that.
Which brings us to the current head coach, Anthony Griffin.
Panthers representative forward Reagan Campbell-Gillard recently described Griffin to me as “old school”. Works you hard, dresses you down harder.
Not everyone’s cup of tea, particularly if you like playing Xbox in your spare time.
Wherever you stand on the how of coaching, there is one universal truth, lose the players, even a little bit, and the job becomes infinitely harder.
Gould likes and respects Griffin, you can tell, but if Gould believes his coach doesn’t have a premiership-level connection with his players, he’s going to do something about it.
What’s that something? More time on the grass.
Yes, Gus is back doing some coaching.
From a distance this has hairs all over it, but both Gould and Griffin need this to work.
The GM wants a premiership, and his reputation as a rugby league savant rubber-stamped.
Griffin would like to keep coaching in the NRL.
And after all, necessity is the mother of all motivators.
The quest to keep a job and enhance a reputation will also be top of mind for Jarryd Hayne this year.
His fall from grace since that attention-grabbing NFL sojourn has been rather dramatic.
Having left the game a Dally M Medal winner in 2014, Hayne’s 18 months at the Titans could best be described as 18 months at the Titans … that’s the polite version anyway.
Hayne takes up the baton at his spiritual rugby league home this year with everything to prove.
This week on
NRL360, Eels coach Brad Arthur told us the reason he decided to get Hayne back to Parramatta.
Lying at home, watching the Titans play the Wests Tigers in 2017, with the game on the line and his team needing something special, Hayne produced, probably just because he felt like it.
Arthur understands the Hayne challenge: how do you get a guy so enormously talented more fully and regularly engaged in the contest?
Arthur’s answer: replace expectation with ownership.
Paying big money and expecting big results, on its own, isn’t going to motivate Hayne. It just feeds his ego and breeds complacency — my words, not Arthur’s.
Brad Arthur knows that for Hayne to fire he must feel understood, and his input valued. Coach him less, consult him more.
Sounds like complex work, but let’s be honest, the upside is enormous. Hayne is one of the most devastating ballrunners the game has ever seen, but right now his on-field reputation is suffering and there’s only one way to change that.
Gould will be looking out from a nondescript room at Panthers Stadium tomorrow knowing full well what a poked bear can do.
Hayne has a few critics to prove wrong and Gus will have a fair idea what that looks like.
Closer to home, the Panthers GM will be hopeful that the miserable trial performance against the Bulldogs was a one-off.
Should there be signs things haven’t improved, Griffin wouldn’t want to be caught napping around Penrith HQ.
Former Test and Queensland Origin player Ben Ikin will write a weekly column for The Weekend Australian
