First I do like BA and have the opinion he has had 5 or so years of absolutely shit support from the board / management which has lead to several disasters - however that’s another argument.
I think BA is currently doing a fairly good job (and did in previous years) this year (yes this week was a disaster but the rest of the season has been fairly decent and while last year was a disaster then appears to be a few reasons why - another argument)
Regarding competing for a title, I don’t think it’s that simple especially for a side like us, firstly we just need to be making the finals consistently first over a few years and build on that (that is what sharks / cowboys did). Once we consistently do that, our culture changes and with some luck, we hopefully can compete for title.
However regarding extending BA’s contract, I cant see anyone available that would do a better job.
Yes plenty of rookies with potential but I just don’t think the eels as a club and after our current review/new structure cant afford to take a risk on a rookie.
If there was a experienced coached with a good record yes definitely we should consider them. Flanagan fits this criteria but obviously he is currently no chance.
Anyhow my decision for BA would be a 2 year extension - this gives us some stability, then monitor the Flanagan situation (and any other experienced options) and see how we go between now and end 2020 - it’s not like we are curently playing like wooden spoons.
Then if needed we can sack BA in 2020 (if I ran a club, I wouId have no issues with sacking a coach in his last year and with the costs involved - it allows the club to be stable as the coach is not off contract and it’s easy to make quick decisions if needed ) if we decided we need a new direction.
Additionally another reason I am happy to keep BA, is it appears we have finally sorted our cap management out, we finally have promising juniors playing NRL with several more potentially debuting in the next few years and our squad is looking good.
I think this is the most sensible and reasonable approach to our immediate future as a club.
I don't see anyone else on the market being able to do a better job with what we have, and it's not like we haven't tried rookie coaches before. This club is a firing line and bringing in a rookie again personally for me is a massive NO NO.
I agree, focusing on making the 8 consistently is the beginning, we need to stop the rot, up until 2017 we were missing from September footy for 8-9 years, how on earth is a winning culture ever going to be created like that?
If someone like a Bennett, Bellamy etc proven winners were available then obviously that's what we need, but I think off what is available BA is the best.
Let's make no mistake, his had to deal with absolute rubbish for his time at Parramatta so far, 2016 we were a definite top 8 probably even top 4 side and that was ripped from him, through no fault of his own and then has had to essentially rebuild from that again.
I am making no excuses for some of the garbage that has been served up during his time here, to me he shows signs of being a good coach but then other times I question what he is doing. I am sick of going into every game with a fear of what happened on Saturday night. Every away game e play especially against a big team my biggest fear is if we will get humiliated, that feeling was slowly going away after 2016-2017 but last year brought me back to reality, and again this year it's happened. Until that mentality and attitude within the club goes, we will never move forward.
Better the devil you know, then the one you don't me think's.
