Snide, letting Max get to you should in no way excuse you from making comments like Brash had more dominance than Tommy. I mean seriously mate, Brash was a fine, fine player, but Raudonikis was virtually unchallenged as Australian half for a decade. He might not have been a half in the same style as the Sterlo's or Joey's but he was f*ckn dominant alright.
As for coaching ability, no one tries to claim Tommy was a supercoach, but he at least made one finals series, which is more than Junior could ever achieve with at least comparable cattle. You don't need to bag off Tommy, to make your valid points about Pearce's coaching deficiencies. Neither were coaches backsides, both were awesome players, who made the most out of limited abilities through unsurpassed commitment. Of such things are champions made, but not coaches it would seem.
One thing that has to be said for Tommy though was that he could lift ordinary teams to great heights for a short time. His career in Brisbane demonstrated this. I think it was Ipswich he took from the spoon to the Final in short time. What his career does demonstrate though is that he didn't have the ability to build lasting success. He lifted every team he coached, then they fell back to where they were or worse. Wests management's greatest mistake was to not be mindful of this demonstrated pattern and make longer term plans for life after Tommy, but I suppose it's a pretty tough thing to look to replace a coach who has lifted you to the finals.
