Do you want Brad Arthur as coach

[The Phelan Folly]

The way I see it the board have brought in Ennis, Mary, Barrett, Wolford, Nathan Brown (coach), Caylo and new unnamed defence guy for a reason. They recognise that BA is a very good man manager and has a proven track record to turn fringe NRL players into great players. However they see no reason why fresh eyes can't deliver greater success. From a corporate POV, it doesn't look to me that they necessarily have a succession plan. Simply put the performance of the team doesn't rest just with just one guy. It's junior development, sports science, training regimens, game day tactics etc etc and anyone who just peers through the keyhole and only sees "9 years" is not seeing the wood for the trees.

There will be a time when the board make change or the coach wishes to move on, but "winning the comp" cannot be the sole metric when reviewing recent performances and deciding who gets the new job.

That’s a pretty impressive assistant coaching line up. Almost like the club realise that they have to invest in resources to get to the top?

 

[Eelementary]

Why don’t we compare Payten and his trajectory as a coach and his current Dally M coach of the year award at the corresponding stage of BA’s coaching career shall we?

Payten achieved more this year than what BA did in 8 years.

To be fair to Arthur, though, Payten has:

* Jason Taumalolo (one of the best players in his respective position in the world) ;

* Valentine Holmes (Origin star) ;

* Peta Hiku (12 Tests for New Zealand) ;

* Chad Townsend (Premiership winner)


His squad is probably better than ours.

 

[Gronk]

That’s a pretty impressive assistant coaching line up. Almost like the club realise that they have to invest in resources to get to the top?

Well Ennis, Mcgregor and Wolford were all signed in late 2021. So they have been implementing change for a while.

 

[hindy111]

To be fair to Arthur, though, Payten has:

* Jason Taumalolo (one of the best players in his respective position in the world) ;

* Valentine Holmes (Origin star) ;

* Peta Hiku (12 Tests for New Zealand) ;

* Chad Townsend (Premiership winner)


His squad is probably better than ours.

Would you swap Penisini for Hiku or Moses for Townsend?

I sure wouldn't

 

[Avenger]

Would you swap Penisini for Hiku or Moses for Townsend?

I sure wouldn't

And I’d rather have Lane and Papali’i than Jason Taumalolo. They’d cost about the same too.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

And I’d rather have Lane and Papali’i than Jason Taumalolo. They’d cost about the same too.

Wouldn't they be about 700k combined? A fair bit cheaper than JT.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Why didn’t you include 2018? You are a typical politician on these forums and will only use stats to benefit your argument. Yes we have improved and according to your sample we are in the final year of a five year plan so the trajectory must mean a better result in 2023.

#eelspremiers2023
#thanksgronk

There's no guarantees. We might've been a 10% chance of winning the comp this year. If we're a 20% chance next year it's a significant improvement. But 20% is still more chance of not winning (80% in fact). There's no trajectory that guarantees a premiership.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Why don’t we compare Payten and his trajectory as a coach and his current Dally M coach of the year award at the corresponding stage of BA’s coaching career shall we?

Payten achieved more this year than what BA did in 8 years.

He's at a bigger club ffs. This is the same club that won a comp and made another grand final with Paul Green. After they sacked him he couldn't get a job. That's how much his coaching contributed to a premiership with the Australian front row and the game's best playmaker. You merkins far overrate coaching as the magic bullet. The strength of the club is what matters, which Jack Gibson famously pointed out. It's why back-to-back premiership winner Cleary couldn't make the top eight in two seasons at Wests.

 

[lucablight]

He's at a bigger club ffs. This is the same club that won a comp and made another grand final with Paul Green. After they sacked him he couldn't get a job. That's how much his coaching contributed to a premiership with the Australian front row and the game's best playmaker. You merkins far overrate coaching as the magic bullet. The strength of the club is what matters, which Jack Gibson famously pointed out. It's why back-to-back premiership winner Cleary couldn't make the top eight in two seasons at Wests.

Paul Green did a great job to win that season. Are Tamou and Scott any better than what RCG and Paulo are now? Their team wasn’t stacked across the park and had a lot of average role players. His team thrashed a stacked Melbourne side in Melbourne to make the GF (albeit missing Slater). Their second run to the GF was a huge fluke with no Thurston there much like the Bulldogs in 2014 (who should be a strong club as well by your metric of making close to back to back grand finals).

 

[hindy111]

He's at a bigger club ffs. This is the same club that won a comp and made another grand final with Paul Green. After they sacked him he couldn't get a job. That's how much his coaching contributed to a premiership with the Australian front row and the game's best playmaker. You merkins far overrate coaching as the magic bullet. The strength of the club is what matters, which Jack Gibson famously pointed out. It's why back-to-back premiership winner Cleary couldn't make the top eight in two seasons at Wests.

I tend to agree but at some point you still have to make a change if cant get the title. Just how it is mate.

 

[Eelementary]

Would you swap Penisini for Hiku or Moses for Townsend?

I sure wouldn't

I might swap Penisini for Holmes.

Townsend is a solid, but unspectacular halfback - but he's won a Premiership, and is a cool head.

Moses is far more talented, but Chad was given a lot of credit for turning the Cowboys around...

 

[the phantom menace]

There's no guarantees. We might've been a 10% chance of winning the comp this year. If we're a 20% chance next year it's a significant improvement. But 20% is still more chance of not winning (80% in fact). There's no trajectory that guarantees a premiership.

 

[lucablight]

I might swap Penisini for Holmes.

Townsend is a solid, but unspectacular halfback - but he's won a Premiership, and is a cool head.

Moses is far more talented, but Chad was given a lot of credit for turning the Cowboys around...

Shane Perry has won a premiership as well. Chad was dropped in the finals the year they won the comp and had Maloney running the show next to him. He got shown up against us in the prelim this season. Barely any kicks to Blake and they couldn’t score despite all that possession against us.

 

[Homo man69]

He's become stagnant and doesn't have the Bellamy, Hasler fire in the belly. He seems void of emotion. Win, lose or draw he's always the exact same. He doesn't have the ability to fire up a team. Then there's the whole Rouse Hill Rhinos/son favouritism thing, that's surely causing some friction within the club

 

[Gary Gutful]

They would case more about what the boss represents himself like.
Ours walks around without any shoes on.

He probably lives in a shed.

 

[Gary Gutful]

He's become stagnant and doesn't have the Bellamy, Hasler fire in the belly. He seems void of emotion. Win, lose or draw he's always the exact same. He doesn't have the ability to fire up a team. Then there's the whole Rouse Hill Rhinos/son favouritism thing, that's surely causing some friction within the club

Bellamy and Hasler’s teams have been piss this year. By all means, change the coach but I don’t think it’s a magic bullet.

 

[Parra Pride]

Social media laughing at us for losing the Grand Final...


Should we, as Eels fans, be embarrassed because:

* we finished the season as the second best club in the entire NRL

* we lost to one of the greatest teams of the NRL era

or

* we made the one game that all 16 teams aim to get to, but only 2 get to actually play?

FMD people are walnuts.

I’m embarrassed at the performance we put in. Couldn’t care what anyone else has to say about the club.

 

[lucablight]

I’m embarrassed at the performance we put in. Couldn’t care what anyone else has to say about the club.

Yeah people can go on about how we played one of the greatest sides ever blablabla but the fact is that they ran harder and tackled harder than we did. We might have still lost but no doubt we could have played better. Hopefully we were just tired after an arduous finals campaign and that’s not the ceiling of our forward pack.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Paul Green did a great job to win that season.

How do you know?

Are Tamou and Scott any better than what RCG and Paulo are now?

They both achieved a lot more. They played a combined 36 Origins ffs.

Their team wasn’t stacked across the park and had a lot of average role players.

Had a lot of big game players too.

His team thrashed a stacked Melbourne side in Melbourne to make the GF (albeit missing Slater).

Wasn't the first time Melbourne got flogged with one of their leaders unavailable.

Their second run to the GF was a huge fluke with no Thurston there much like the Bulldogs in 2014 (who should be a strong club as well by your metric of making close to back to back grand finals).

And again, how much of this was down to Green? The answer is that you have no idea.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I tend to agree but at some point you still have to make a change if cant get the title. Just how it is mate.

We could've sacked Arthur before this year and made the grand final under some other coach. Then all the dopes would be saying we made it because we changed coaches.