Kearney

[Big Pete]

How do people judge assistant coaches?

I'll admit it, I didn't think Kearney did such a bad job with the Eels in 2011. Working with the worst roster in the competition he avoided a wooden spoon, blooded a handful of decent prospects & had them playing a brand of football that at least made them competitive. In fact, I didn't think their record reflected their season really, there were around 10 losses/draws they could have and in a lot of cases should have won.

With Sandow & Tonga jumping on board, a lot of the dead weight released and the new blood settled it only seemed natural that the Eels would at least improve and at this stage the only answer is just one big emphatic 'NOPE'.

It's been a horror season for the Eels. Injuries & illnesses to essentially every key player which no doubt has affected the standards of their performance, as well as the long term injuries to forgotten players who either had a key role in 2012 (Loko) or would have been handy for depth purposes (B. Smith, R. Brien, J. Mannah etc.). I believe a measure of a great coach is to see how they handle adversity. In '99 Bennett turned the Broncos season around by getting them to play a gritty style of football that proved so successful they won the competition comfortably the next year. Bellamy has taken a club that's gone through so much turmoil in such a short space of time that it almost finished the club and turned them into minor premiers and the competition bench mark (watch this space) I guess.

Then you look at Kearney and the club is just going backwards. He keeps selecting players who constantly aren't performing (Lasalo, McGuire, Poore, Allgood etc.), makes questionable decisions (dropping a confidence player like Sandow, denying him the chance to visit his family) & most importantly he's lost the confidence of his team. Reading Hindy, Hayne's & even Shackleton's thoughts on all things Parra paints a very bad picture of Kearney and what the players think of him.

He needs to go but I get the feeling that this doesn't just stop with Kearney. Something seems rotten about Parra and it's seemed the way well before Kearney was on board.

As far as this season is concerned, write it off & just hope Kearney decides to build a team for the future. That means playing guys like O'Hanlon over Poore or even a junior winger over Luke Burt. Team needs changes & giving some other players a go wouldn't be a bad start.

 

[Noa]

I thought he'd be a good coach and still think he will be. Kia is projecting the present onto the past in saying he was an average assistant at the Storm. He was a very large part of our "success". Storms forwards started dominating when he joined as forwards coach at the end of 2005

Its funny, Parra despite finishing 2nd last in 2011 played tough I thought. They lost alot of games by not very much. Something is cleary wrong out there this year but who knows what it is.

Roberts was the worst choice possible as a halves partner to Sandow, they lack size in the props and there wide forwards are soft as butter.

 

[gronkathon]

A massive cleanout needs to happen right through the organisation.

Sio, Ryan, Mannah and Moi Moi were the only guys who looked like they gave a rats last night.

Did their captain skip this press conference as well? WTF is up with that? It shows how rotten the Eels club is from the core

 

[mongoose]

To me the eels are a club that just want quick results rather than building a good culture. Unless they can get a Bennett/hasler/Bellamy then there is no point sacking Kearney cause the cycle of poor results will just continue under the next coach. They need to appoint a Gould like coaching director, but I don't know who they could get, Chris Anderson?

 

[kia ora storm]

To me the eels are a club that just want quick results rather than building a good culture. Unless they can get a Bennett/hasler/Bellamy then there is no point sacking Kearney cause the cycle of poor results will just continue under the next coach. They need to appoint a Gould like coaching director, but I don't know who they could get, Chris Anderson?

Agree but also think that Kearney is part of the issue...his coaching style is too conservative.

 

[StormHi]

Sack the whole team and start buying players that kearnybcan mold to his style of football ...... Not possible I know but it's what needs to happen.

 

[boonboon]

Kearney isn't up to it -only langmack has a worse record in nrl history and to be fair he didn't have players anywhere near this class. I k ow parra aren't the best squad but in hayne , sandow, tonga, hind marsh, matuai, Tim mannah- they have a collection of rep players and a number of solid first graders and some ok young blokes who would do well in the right club but he has turned them into a horrible team and it's not like they have outside distractions like the gold coast and they have more talent then pennies and roosters at least and prob more talented then the sharks to be honest . Also this side was in the grand final in 2009 and it isn't that different a squad I mean they had Robeson and Mortimer in the halves then and maybe a couple of better outside backs of only marginally

 

[aqua_duck]

To me the eels are a club that just want quick results rather than building a good culture. Unless they can get a Bennett/hasler/Bellamy then there is no point sacking Kearney cause the cycle of poor results will just continue under the next coach. They need to appoint a Gould like coaching director, but I don't know who they could get, Chris Anderson?

Yeh because Gus is working miracles at Penrith.....

 

[Noa]

they have more talent then pennies and roosters at least and prob more talented then the sharks to be honest . Also this side was in the grand final in 2009 and it isn't that different a squad I mean they had Robeson and Mortimer in the halves then and maybe a couple of better outside backs of only marginally

Serious ?

Panthers pack is better then the Eels, Roosters pack is alot better plus better balanced halves pairing and Cronullas pack and halves (admittingly Carney is the main reason) shit on the eels from a great height.

 

[beefstew]

Kearney isn't up to it -only langmack has a worse record in nrl history and to be fair he didn't have players anywhere near this class. I k ow parra aren't the best squad but in hayne , sandow, tonga, hind marsh, matuai, Tim mannah- they have a collection of rep players and a number of solid first graders and some ok young blokes who would do well in the right club but he has turned them into a horrible team and it's not like they have outside distractions like the gold coast and they have more talent then pennies and roosters at least and prob more talented then the sharks to be honest . Also this side was in the grand final in 2009 and it isn't that different a squad I mean they had Robeson and Mortimer in the halves then and maybe a couple of better outside backs of only marginally

Agree with you there, Parra and the Dogs squads are on about the same level talent wise, it's the massive gulf in their
respective coach's abilities that is the difference.

Kearney is a joke.

 

[Avenger]

I have supported the Eels since 1977. Kearney is the worst coach that I have seen. Never have I prayed for a coach to be sacked more than this nobody. Brad Arthur can f**k off too.

 

[Frances the Mute]

For the good of the Eels and the standard of the comp..how long are they going to persevere with him as a so called coach ??.

Leaving Sandow on the bench tonight was an amateur decision and I question his credentials when he hung off the reputation of Bellamy at Storm and that is really all he did.

Seriously...the Eels have got to move him on sooner rather than later IMO.

Gives new meaning to the saying "Out of his depth".

I am sure his a great assistant coach but head coach he is not.

 

[Iafeta]

Yeh because Gus is working miracles at Penrith.....

Didn't Gould and Ivan Cleary at various points (without criticism from their board) say that it would take 2-3 years to get them to their potential? I can't imagine a coach at the Eels being given similar latitude. At the end of the day, it can't always be the coach at Parramatta. I think a good example of giving a coach time to build something really good is actually Cleary anyway at the Warriors... how many people called for his head in 2009? The Warriors responded by re-signing him, and by 2011 he had them in the Grand Final.

I would suggest two things need rectifying at Parramatta. Culture... because frankly there are some blokes there that don't seem to care too much. And recruitment policy. It seems to me there's been a horrible mish-mash of young blokes who haven't come from a pedigree junior background and once-were-but-now-are-way-past-its.

 

[Frances the Mute]

the people i feel sorr for the most are blokes lke hindmash and mcguire, these blokes are putting in and unfortunetly will probably finish their careers as wooden spooners, i mean not everyone can have a mal meninga style final season, but you almost feel hindmarsh deserves it.

LOL feel for Hindmarsh?

Past 2 years his been thieving off the club by playing on.

This year especially his just embarrassing himself, for godsake Goodwin ran over the top of him twice!

Moi Moi has the impact of a wet tissue. Honestly what happened to him? He seems to run as hard but just gets belted by even 5/8ths these days.

Shackleton & Poore are just embarrassments.

And blaming Sandow, well I guess his the obvious target since as he isn't in the Hayne Clique or an Islander.

 

[Iafeta]

In hindsight why did they sack Anderson. I'd take him at the Raiders.

Because the board is myoptic in their vision at best. It's incredulous IMO that a coach can go from a Grand Final coach to being on the outer one year later.

My biggest issue is the board fully supports him and this is part of the 5 year plan. They seem happy to accept medocrity.

Kearney's abilities have been grossly overrated - the players don't believe in him anyway. Get a new coach by the end of the year and start again or this rubbish will continue. Sandow's poor form might also be due to Kearney - he wasn't 'coached' at Souffs, he seems to be told what to do at the Eels and it isn't working.

Maybe then the board may finally be seeing some sense. I'm not suggesting Kearney is the man at all, but, this constant chopping and changing of the coach and the constant media 'experts' and hangers-on from a bygone era must make coaching Parramatta a living hell.

As far as the players not believing in him, it'd be good for them if they recruited appropriately rather than over a pack of Toohey's New year in year out, and if those so called main stringers developed a heart bigger and harder than a pea.

Coaching Parramatta with its outrageous boardroom antics and the constant media piranhas who float around knowing that various blokes will give them a headline day in day out, would be tantamount to career hell. This week on foxsports.com.au for some God unknown reason Feleti Mateo was quoted on the fortunes of Parramatta. A couple of things there, firstly Mateo's been gone for a couple of years so his opinion I would think is fairly irrelevant by now, and, Feleti surely has far more important things to worry about at his own club who are also underperforming severely.

 

[Frances the Mute]

Parra were never this poor under Smith, JT, Hagan and Anderson. Their defensive reads and structure is abysmal, their discipline is terrible and the recruits have mostly been duds, honestly Roberts, TongaX2, and Sandow have all been terrible for the most part.
Everyone is heaping shit on Hayne but honestly he's the only one that even looks like doing anything, and just because his style is relaxed people think he's a bludger.
People are prepared to give most playmakers a break if they play behind a beaten forward pack but Hayne gets slaughtered and labelled as disinterested and out of form even though he's put in 2 of the best individual performances this year against Cronulla and Manly only a few weeks ago

Out of that list they could probably do worse then bring back JT, I think the playing group would respect him yet fell comradre with him + he seemed to be able to be firm without being a bastard.

 

[BunniesMan]

I have supported the Eels since 1977. Kearney is the worst coach that I have seen. Never have I prayed for a coach to be sacked more than this nobody. Brad Arthur can f**k off too.

If you went a bit further back than '77 you'd have found worse.

They won 6 spoons in a row. I don't think even Kearney would acheive that.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Didn't Gould and Ivan Cleary at various points (without criticism from their board) say that it would take 2-3 years to get them to their potential? I can't imagine a coach at the Eels being given similar latitude. At the end of the day, it can't always be the coach at Parramatta. I think a good example of giving a coach time to build something really good is actually Cleary anyway at the Warriors... how many people called for his head in 2009? The Warriors responded by re-signing him, and by 2011 he had them in the Grand Final.

I would suggest two things need rectifying at Parramatta. Culture... because frankly there are some blokes there that don't seem to care too much. And recruitment policy. It seems to me there's been a horrible mish-mash of young blokes who haven't come from a pedigree junior background and once-were-but-now-are-way-past-its.

good sane post...there seems to be a helluva lot of things to fix at Parra & its too easy to blame just the coach. I don't know if SK is the man either but Bellamy & Bennett seem to think he's capable & have said so and I'm really hoping he proves them right- given time. Hopefully he can survive public opinion and is able to get some traction on what he hopes to achieve there
The shortsighted, knee-jerk 'expert' opinions on here who outnumber the more reasoned insights feed the media and vice versa.

 

[Parramatta1947]

We have the players - put Bellamy or Bennett in charge and we make the finals. The players we have do have ability - it is Kearney who is destroying our confidence and the sooner the board wake up to the fact he isn't that good as a coach, the better.

 

[Mixmasterreece]

You have the players? A team consisting of Blair, Morgan, keatimg, allgood, lasalo, poore and being led around by sandow and Roberts is not good enough to make it to the finals. Your dept is atrocious, easily the worst roster in the comp