You don't really know that. But - I am not going to slash my wrists after one performance. However, when all is said and done, our club is most certainly the least successful in NRL history - and probably only slightly better than the Demons and Saints in AFL.
70 years of competition and we won all our premierships in a 5 year 'golden period'. Apart from that 5 year period we have had 65 years of failing to win a premiership. Who can top that? The Bears before they were booted are the only team that come close. Imagine for a second if Sterling and Kenny had never joined our club !!! Scary thought.
Anyway, it just annoys me when everyone want to throw up excuses or reasons as Pou calls them. But clubs like the Bulldogs, Roosters, Panthers are never down for too long. One bad season max for those guys. We should be the same.
I would certainly not be including the Panthers in that group....
Those clubs are politically stable, and those clubs don't sack coaches on a whim. We struggled through the early 90s and I was too young to really understand why, so I won't talk about that. But late 90s we signed Brian Smith and, thanks to a hugely lucky break, the Canterbury 4. That turned us around, and we competed well for quite a while.
The rules changed in 2002/2003 and meant our small, mobile side struggled, on top of our boom signings Adam Dykes and Andrew MacFadden turning to chumps when they pulled on the jersey. Smithy went out, bought a heap of players, and 2005 we were back.
Then the administration of the club went to shit and we started sacking coaches as different factions fought to hang on to their positions of power. Since 2005 our first grade coaches have been Brian Smith, Jason Taylor (interim), Michael Hagan, Daniel Anderson, Stephen Kearney, Brad Arthur (interim), Ricky Stuart, Brad Arthur again. That's 8 coaching changes and 6 head coaches in 8-9 years, given Arthur has been in the job since 2014.
In the same period, the Bulldogs for example have had Steve Folks, Kevin Moore, and Des Hasler.
Brisbane have had Wayne Bennett, Ivan Henjak, Anthony Griffin, and Wayne Bennett again
The Storm have had Craig Bellamy
The Roosters have had Sticky, Chris Anderson, Brad Fittler, Brian Smith, and Trent Robinson, and they have been inconsistent too.
These are not excuses. These are reasons. They are facts. We have struggled because of the bullshit that has happened with our front office. That lead to instability on the field, which has lead to players steering clear of the club, which lead us to two back to back wooden spoons.
Then, when we were actually finally rebuilding, more political nonsense lead the board to cheat, and we lost two incredibly high quality spine players as a result. That put us back at least another season.
People need to accept that there are plenty of valid reasons that we are where we are. None of them have anything to do with Brad Arthur. He is the coach who was finally turning us around and he was sabotaged by a cheating administration last season. That's not to say he's flawless by any means, but the simple fact is we have been a basket case off the field for many years now and that will ultimately affect a club on the field.
The Tigers are finding that out now.
