Anthony Griffin

[herbert henry1908]

And we'd have zero chance of beating anyone decent when it counts. Gus threw a Hail marry and it hasn't come off but I'm happy he tried at least.

If Gus saw it as a win now proposition, why has he simultaneously built such an inexperienced squad? The strategy is all over the place.

 

[OldPanther]

If Gus saw it as a win now proposition, why has he simultaneously built such an inexperienced squad? The strategy is all over the place.

Maybe win now is more of a take our team up a level now that they have all played a bit more footy.

This is just me putting a positive spin. I honestly have no idea in reality.

 

[TheFrog]

The point was that there was no job for 2019. The club's decision was that it was over at the end if this season. Initially it was stated that Hook made the call to terminate immediately. Has this changed?

I've not read or heard that anywhere, either from Gould or Griffin. However, I've heard Gus say that once the decision is made, they should go immediately.

 

[Frankus]

Interesting viewpoint. Typically you'd let the coach know ASAP so he can start looking for alternatives - this is a combination of professional courtesy and trying to limit any payout.

Makes me wonder whether this was the first emotional response from Griffin with the dour, monotonous persona just his cover.

If our season was heading south anyway, surely sacking him when we finish 7th or 8th at seasons end could be used as justification for a performance based termination and potentially limiting the payout. Sacking him when we are sitting in 4th spot on the other hand...

 

[martielang]

We managed to lose at home to Manly under Griffin, so I'm not sure your confidence is justified.

IMO Hit up, hit up, hit up, hit up, bomb likely wins that game against Newcastle with the wind the way it was. Instead we went sideways, sideways, forced offload, error. We played nothing like we would of under Hook. It required a conservative game plan; not all games do but that one in particular did.

We keep Hook, we have a much better chance of the Top 4. We make the Top 4, I'd give us a decent shot at beating Souths or (to a lesser extent) Roosters in Sydney week 1. If we miss the 4, the last 2 years have shown he is more than capable of firing the boys up when it comes finals time, we've won in Week 1 both years.

Everyone keeps saying that we weren't playing well for weeks before that. Granted it wasn't exactly pleasing on the eye at times, but we grinded teams down & won more than we lost. Melbourne (with Smith) & Souths did well through Origin period, I don't think any other side did. BTW both seem to be getting a little wobbly now too. Given the origin, injuries & the age of our squad, everyone expected to have a period where we'd struggle & we did & now everyone seems shocked by it?

TBH I tend to agree that i'm not so sure if Hook could of gotten us a premiership, but he did an admiral job getting us in the position we are with a squad full of quality juniors. He deserved to see out the season & we would of had the added benefit of not looking like an amateur club being run by an ego.

I hope we go on a tear now & take home the premiership, i truly do. Then we can all be mates sit around the camp fire, laugh at each others jokes & sing songs together.

 

[TheFrog]

hahahahaha the bum was never taking anyone to a GF

So can you PM next week's lotto numbers? There's a good fella.

 

[OldPanther]

I hope we go on a tear now & take home the premiership, i truly do. Then we can all be mates sit around the camp fire, laugh at each others jokes & sing songs together.

Why did the coffee file a police report?

Because it got mugged!

 

[martielang]

Why did the coffee file a police report?

Because it got mugged!

Go easy mate, we're not there yet! haha

 

[OldPanther]

Go easy mate, we're not there yet! haha

It's a sure thing with Maloney back. Right guys?!

 

[TheFrog]

Kumbaya my lord Kumbaya.

 

[Pomoz]

IMO Hit up, hit up, hit up, hit up, bomb likely wins that game against Newcastle with the wind the way it was. Instead we went sideways, sideways, forced offload, error. We played nothing like we would of under Hook. It required a conservative game plan; not all games do but that one in particular did.

We keep Hook, we have a much better chance of the Top 4. We make the Top 4, I'd give us a decent shot at beating Souths or (to a lesser extent) Roosters in Sydney week 1. If we miss the 4, the last 2 years have shown he is more than capable of firing the boys up when it comes finals time, we've won in Week 1 both years.

Everyone keeps saying that we weren't playing well for weeks before that. Granted it wasn't exactly pleasing on the eye at times, but we grinded teams down & won more than we lost. Melbourne (with Smith) & Souths did well through Origin period, I don't think any other side did. BTW both seem to be getting a little wobbly now too. Given the origin, injuries & the age of our squad, everyone expected to have a period where we'd struggle & we did & now everyone seems shocked by it?

TBH I tend to agree that i'm not so sure if Hook could of gotten us a premiership, but he did an admiral job getting us in the position we are with a squad full of quality juniors. He deserved to see out the season & we would of had the added benefit of not looking like an amateur club being run by an ego.

I hope we go on a tear now & take home the premiership, i truly do. Then we can all be mates sit around the camp fire, laugh at each others jokes & sing songs together.

Martie, you sing too?

 

[mxlegend99]

We had been playing poorly for weeks

But...

Sacking Griffin only a few weeks before the finals put a massive spotlight on a young team, I think we’ve gotten even worse since then. We don’t lose to Newcastle at home under Griffin imo. That alone could have us in the top 4.

Except we did exactly that to the Sea Eagles who aren't as good.

We haven't gotten worse. People just werent paying attention before.

 

[TheFrog]

Except we did exactly that to the Sea Eagles who aren't as good.

Manly have beat some good sides this year. They've also been flogged by some poor sides. They have class. The brothers, DCE, Walker, Taupau, Kelly, Api, Fainu. They are probably on par with us on paper or not far from it. They shouldn't really be second last but as we keep hearing things are wrong at the place.

 

[martielang]

Martie, you sing too?

I don't like to brag but...

 

[mxlegend99]

Manly have beat some good sides this year. They've also been flogged by some poor sides. They have class. The brothers, DCE, Walker, Taupau, Kelly, Api, Fainu. They are probably on par with us on paper or not far from it. They shouldn't really be second last but as we keep hearing things are wrong at the place.

Kelly is not that good and Fainu is a bloody rookie. He's potential like Egan. Not class. Here are the Sea Eagles and Knights sides side by side.... for mine the Knights side edges the Sea Eagles out dominating the backs with a comparable forward pack.

1. Tom Turbo vs Nick Meaney
2. Matt Wright vs Ken Sio
3. Moses Suli vs Sione Mata'utia
4. Brian Kelly vs Corey Dennis
5. Brad Parker vs Shaun Kenny-Dowell
6. Dylan Walker vs Kalyn Ponga
7. DCE vs Mitchell Pearce
8. AFB vs Ese'ese
9. Fainu vs Levi
10. Taupau vs Saifiti
11. Thompson vs Fitzgibbon
12. SBW vs Barnett
13. J Turbo vs Guerra

Both benches kinda sucked. Mostly players that are hard to rate and compare. Except I would take Buhrer ahead of Hodkinson. And SBW is Shaun Lane btw. I really wouldn't rate him ahead of Barnett aside from looking like a god when he had Maloney to run at.

Both teams have average rosters, have had average seasons and both beat us at home. One under Hook, one under Ciro. Stating that we would have beaten Knights with Hook in charge is a load of shit. Because every game we have played under Ciro has had an almost identical performance under Hook recently against similar opposition.

Titans = Raiders/Sea Eagles away
Knights = Sea Eagles @ home
Warriors = Broncos/Roosters

The style of play has changed slightly, but aside from that nearly nothing looks different at all. Team selections continued to be the same. ie. Ciro had Peachey at fullback then moved him to 6. Crichton on the wing. Only real change was dropping Katoa and I think Hook would have likely done that also... after a game that bad most coaches would bench him or drop him completely.

We still start slow. We are still poorly disciplined. We still tend to play half heartedly until the game starts to get out of reach. All that changed is players are now allowed to back themselves a bit. But sadly there's no structure, so set plays, the combinations are pretty much non existent and no one has trust in each other. There are very few players willing to give 100% on every play. Like Edwards used to. Like Blake does. Like Cleary does. Like RCG does. Even if they miss a tackle or make errors. These are guys who don't stop chasing or trying atleast. Often it's a wasted effort. But they still do it. We need 17 players like that.

 

[Abacus]

If our season was heading south anyway, surely sacking him when we finish 7th or 8th at seasons end could be used as justification for a performance based termination and potentially limiting the payout. Sacking him when we are sitting in 4th spot on the other hand...

Getting 50 put on us by the Broncs doesn't count as performance based?

 

[OldPanther]

Getting 50 put on us by the Broncs doesn't count as performance based?

To get beat by 50 and abandon the team on top of it.

 

[Abacus]

I've not read or heard that anywhere, either from Gould or Griffin. However, I've heard Gus say that once the decision is made, they should go immediately.

Sorry mate, took me a while to find it:
https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/08/06...h-anthony-griffin-four-weeks-out-from-finals/

 

[billypilgrimnz]

Manly have beat some good sides this year. They've also been flogged by some poor sides. They have class. The brothers, DCE, Walker, Taupau, Kelly, Api, Fainu. They are probably on par with us on paper or not far from it. They shouldn't really be second last but as we keep hearing things are wrong at the place.

You know you have incurable Hook fever when you are resorting to arguing that Manly is a good side in a desperate attempt to defend an abject loss to them.

 

[TheFrog]

You know you have incurable Hook fever when you are resorting to arguing that Manly is a good side in a desperate attempt to defend an abject loss to them.

On their day they are. At least five of their side would make any NRL team. But it was an abject loss, I'm not denying that. All I said is other sides had them too.

Sorry mate, took me a while to find it:
https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/08/06...h-anthony-griffin-four-weeks-out-from-finals/

This bravely attempts to explain the sacking contemporaneously, but much is inaccurate. There is no mention of Ivan Cleary and his discussion with O'Neill which was the catalyst for it in Gus's version.