Ivan Cleary has coached for 13 seasons for an average win % of 47%. At the Panthers in his first stint he averaged 45%.
Hook has coached for 7 years with a win% of 55%, including 58% whilst at the Panthers. Since Hook has only about half the experience of Cleary, you might expect that Cleary is better in some aspects of coaching than Hook, maybe beating top 5 teams is it. However, there could be many factors in that including when they were played, what players were missing and so on.Regardless, I'll take Hook's 58% with us, thanks very much.
In a team that finished 11th in 2015, his last season, Cleary had Soward, Wallace, Segyaro, Korasaiu, Moylan, Cartwright and Peachey to call on. In 2016 Hook took the same team, lost Korasaiu, added young Nathan Cleary because Soward's back was rooted and got them into the semi final.
"Injuries" I hear you say in defence of Cleary. Yes, that is true, a fitness regime so soft that Katoa looked like he had eaten Trent Merrin when he left us, will make players more prone to injury.
You know what, you can go on and on about who is better and quote stats, but when you get down to it, there is one thing Cleary has done that marks him out as a very, very poor leader and coach. He wants to coach his son and has absolutely no regard for the impact that has on his own son's development and the rest of the team. He is so egotistical and selfish he thinks he can do it without it affecting the team. He should never have been allowed to come back and place the team in this nepotistic situation. What happens when Cleary's form dips or a better player than him emerges in the juniors? Wrong. Just wrong.
