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Is Ivan Cleary the new Brian Smith?

Brutus

Referee
Messages
26,174
Brian Smith's son (Rohan) is coach of the Norths Devils who made the QLD Cup GF against Wynnum-Manly this weekend.

Let's see if he can get one up on his old man.
 

The_Frog

First Grade
Messages
6,390
No, the biggest 'hooray' should go to Wayne Scurrah and Eric Watson, who sacked him at the Warriors. 10 years on, Ivan has a premiership, a GF and other trips to the finals, while the Warriors have a solitary finals appearance in that time - and lost convincingly.
If Ivan was sacked by the Warriors immediately after taking them to the GF, it'd be a first. The truth is he was head hunted by Gus.
 
Messages
3,620
There are couple of coaches out there who have coached ALOT of games with without winning a premiership, having had high quality teams that have got to the GF without taking out the big one.

I give you Mr Stuart and Mr Bennett, the new Brian Smiths…
 

Penrose Warrior

First Grade
Messages
8,603
If Ivan was sacked by the Warriors immediately after taking them to the GF, it'd be a first. The truth is he was head hunted by Gus.
Sort of true, he was head hunted but we were in the strongest position to keep him. He wanted to stay, if he was made to feel wanted. John Hart, our Football Manager at the time and former All Blacks coach, implored Scurrah and Watson to keep him. Remembering at the time that we'd made the finals 3 out of the previous five years under Ivan, we would've made it in his first year if not for 4 point salary cap penalty that happened before his tenure then Sonny Fai died in 2009. And we had no one to replace him.

Then we could've had him in 2017 again, but Watson still couldn't pull his head out of his arse.

Oh yeah, and allegedly we could've had Bellamy too around 2013/14 but Scurrah wanted him to break the final year of his contract with Melbourne, and nothing else.
 

The_Frog

First Grade
Messages
6,390
Brian Smith is still a far better coach than Ivan Cleary.

A fluke Grand Final win does not make Cleary better.
Can't win. Either you get beat and its a choke or you win and its a fluke.

By the way, there has never been a premiership win by any team that was a fluke. Except maybe Souths when the opposition didn't turn up but they would have won anyway.
 

Munky

Coach
Messages
10,196
Can't win. Either you get beat and its a choke or you win and its a fluke.

By the way, there has never been a premiership win by any team that was a fluke. Except maybe Souths when the opposition didn't turn up but they would have won anyway.

The troll's a Dragons fan who is well aware the 2010 side lost more games in that one season than PENRITH did in the past two combined.
 

Panther79

Juniors
Messages
91
RIP thread, thought it was a lame comparison by whoever came up with it then the media ran with it. Brian Smith was way more consistent than Cleary for many years making finals, chalk and cheese.
 

Nealo 12

Bench
Messages
4,796
14 seasons coaching, at three clubs (one club two twice!). Made two grand finals. Yet he still hasn't won a premiership. Also played for 11 seasons as a player and never won one either.

Is he the new Brian Smith?
Have you forgotten this ?
 

blaza88z

Coach
Messages
15,065
It was a really valid comparison, then Cleary coached his side to win a Grand Final, at that point it became invalid.
 
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