Hagan will know his fate sooner rather than later, says Parramatta boss
Greg Prichard | September 2, 2008
Michael Hagan will find out well ahead of next season's kick-off whether it will be his last as coach of Parramatta.
Eels chief executive Denis Fitzgerald said last night that the club would follow the same decision-making process as it did with previous coach Brian Smith, who was subsequently told ahead of his final year - 2006 - that his contract would not be renewed at the end of it.
"We will make a decision on whether to offer Michael an extension of his contract or whether to inform him his services won't be required beyond next season," Fitzgerald said. "Michael will be informed before the start of next season. That's the policy we adopted a while ago with our coaches, and Michael understands that."
Smith continued into the final year of his deal, but with the team performing poorly, he resigned midway through it and was replaced on a temporary basis by Jason Taylor, who managed to resurrect the team's fortunes and get them to the finals.
Hagan was subsequently appointed on a three-year deal at Parramatta, while Smith took over at Hagan's old club, Newcastle.
The Eels' board is bound to discuss the coaching position at a meeting later this month. How soon after that a call is made on Hagan remains to be seen. There is no suggestion the club will consider sacking him for next season. Even if they wanted to, they could not afford to pay him out.
Parramatta are no longer in the race to make the finals after their awful performance in losing 40-14 to St George Illawarra at ANZ Stadium on Saturday. The Eels have mostly struggled this season and Fitzgerald did not mince his words when asked for his reaction to how they finally went out.
"It [the season] has been disappointing," he said. "And it was a disappointing way to go out, with that performance against the Dragons. We haven't had many games where we could say the team played to the best of their ability this year. It didn't come together very well."
Parramatta finished last year's regular season in fifth position and won their first two games of the finals series to make it through to the second-last week, when they were beaten by eventual premiers Melbourne. That result was obviously good for Hagan's reputation.
The decline this year - the Eels are in 10th place going into the final round - and the fact Hagan won't get the chance to coach them again before a decision is made on his long-term future obviously hurts his chances of getting a new contract with the club.
But, when asked if Hagan's cards were as good as marked by those circumstances, Fitzgerald replied: "No, and I wouldn't like to see it portrayed that way. There will be a lot of discussion before any decision is made. The management will do a review of the season and we will have a chat with Michael as part of that."
Meanwhile, Penrith chief executive Mick Leary said last night he and the club's chairman, Barry Walsh, had decided they did not want to be drawn into any further discussion on their future of their coach, Matthew Elliott.
Elliott is also coming to the end of the second year of a three-year term and the Panthers have also been knocked out of the running for the finals, after losing 42-20 to the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday.
"I spoke to the chairman today and we decided we did not want to say any more about it," Leary said. "There has already been enough talk. Any more of it would just be unsettling."
i love his style of coaching.
