Inside the meeting that has led to tension between Knights players and CEO
Players within the Newcastle squad feel their relationship with the CEO has been left strained by a speech that put the club’s flagging results directly back on the playing group.
The agitation stems from a meeting of the entire squad held last month where Knights CEO Phil Gardner fronted the playing squad.
Held inside the theatrette of the Newcastle Knights’ sparkling $20-million Centre of Excellence at Broadmeadow, Gardner stood at the front of the room.
Gardner’s arrival was considered unusual by the players, with the CEO an infrequent speaker in front of the entire group.
It was held prior to the recent arrival of respected football director Peter Parr and before the club’s
string of recent – and separate – incidents that have involved captain Kalyn Ponga, Bradman Best, Enari Tuala, David Klemmer and high-performance manager Hayden Knowles.
Seemingly sick of the club’s flatlining season, Gardner went about listing what he and his board had provided to the players in order for them to perform.
Players within the room claim Gardner pointed towards the freshly painted walls of the red and blue Centre of Excellence.
He told the players he and his board had gifted the players the best training facilities in the NRL. Essentially, they had no excuse for failing to deliver.
It’s claimed Gardner then told the players any proportioning of blame towards Newcastle head coach Adam O’Brien wouldn’t wash.
The CEO said O’Brien was here to stay.
Gardner then rattled off the club’s high-performance leaders and their achievements at the likes of Penrith and the Roosters.
Knowles, head of high performance for NSW State of Origin, and Patrick Lane, the club’s strength and conditioning coach, were among the best in their field, Gardner said.
Lane had spent eight years at the championship-winning Roosters and Knowles, the past three years at premiers Penrith.
The players sat there listening. What Gardner hoped the players heard and what they felt appear two different things.
Gardner, as CEO, has every right to challenge his staff – and that includes the players.
However, if that was his intention for the speech, it did the opposite in the eyes of several players sitting in the room.
What resulted from the CEO’s speech is a level of resentment from the players, seemingly creating a division between the playing group and management.
There are some players who felt the address proved there is a lack of care and family-focused culture from the hierarchy within the football club.
Results, particularly poor ones, sat entirely with the players. Yet victories would be an all-of-club achievement.
This has riled the players the most, though many these days are taking comfort in the fact Parr now runs the club – albeit without the chief executive’s title.
Some of the players saw the speech as coming from a CEO who wanted to distance himself from the club’s poor results in order to protect the image of the club and its flashy new facilities.
One thing is certain, the meeting is still echoing within the dressing room of Newcastle today — and that’s not normal practice within a footy club.
It will take some work — and significant change from the board — for that noise to stop.
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