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Newcastle Knights coach Nathan Brown brushes off chairman Brian McGuigan's criticism
15 hrs ago
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Knights coach Nathan Brown has dismissed criticism from chairman Brian McGuigan, insisting he has full support of "the right people" inside the embattled club.
After Sunday's demoralising 33-12 loss to Wests Tigers, which left Newcastle at almost unbackable odds to collect a third consecutive wooden spoon, McGuigan expressed his disappointment in no uncertain terms.
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He said Brown was "the man that's got to carry the can" and suggested the coach's position might be reviewed if results did not improve before the season ends.
"It's just not good enough," McGuigan said. "The community expects better."
Man in the middle: Newcastle coach Nathan Brown. Photo: Marina Neil
Speaking at Wednesday's press conference, Brown shrugged off the comments and said he had not discussed them with McGuigan.
"I know that I've got support from the right people," Brown said. "People who've been in rugby league for a long, long time that understand what it takes to build a rugby league club.
"I suppose we inherited the situation that we're in, and we've chosen a path of younger players to start with. We now have money to spend, which we didn't have this time last year for this year, which was always part of our plan, which gives us our best long-term shot at putting a team out there for the town to support.
"It doesn't mean that the result on the weekend was acceptable. We're all disappointed in that. We've had a lot of pretty good performances this year ... that created some good expectations, which the players had earned, but we certainly let ourselves down in a game that we should have done better in."
Brown signed a three-year deal with Newcastle at the end of 2015, after former coach Rick Stone was sacked mid-season.
He was recommended by board members John Quayle, Phil Gardner and Mark Fitzgibbon and chief executive Matt Gidley, who formed Newcastle's football subcommittee.
Quayle endorsed Brown's strategic plan in a newspaper interview on Tuesday, saying: "You've got to bear some pain to get it right."
His staunch support is clearly a source of comfort for Brown.
"Look, we've got a plan in place that Quayley, the board, myself, Gids, [football manager] Darren Mooney, we put in place when we first took over 18 months ago," Brown said.
"It's a good plan. Along the way there'll be some bumps, but it's a plan that gives us our best long-term shot, and we'll stick to it."
Brown said McGuigan's comments "didn't faze me one bit".
"I didn't pay much attention, to be honest with you," he said.
Asked if he had since spoken to the chairman, Brown replied: "I don't need to talk to him about that, no."
Brown remains confident the Knights will start making significant progress next season, when the roster has been reinforced. The club recently welcomed mid-season arrival Shaun Kenny-Dowall from the Roosters and has also signed his former teammate, Aidan Guerra, and North Queensland dynamo Kalyn Ponga.
Hopefully by then the wests takeover will be finalized and McGuigan and his magic beans will no longer have a place at the club
