My Concerns: Hagan and the Joey saga

[bradeel]

I was waiting for some of us to draw some personal concern for Parra's future out of this latest episode with Hagan and the Knights and to be honest I don't think there's any dramas with Hagan's end of the deal. I reckon Joey deserves all the punishment (hopefully) coming his way because he is a spoiled brat (albeit a great player) and needs to learn that he can't abuse touchies or refs just like all the other players know not to.

Hagan however stayed pretty calm in my opinion. He didn't lose his cool and what he said was said with a pretty straight face and a mild tone of voice. I don't blame him for standing up for his captain and key player and a $5000 fine is peanuts in this day and age. Personally, it wouldn't bother me if he took this behaviour into his coaching career at Parra and I don't blame him for being a bit annoyed in the aftermath of a pretty bad decision by the officials - this doesn't excuse Joey's behaviour because that was over the top.

 

[CrazyEel]

Well I don’t want to be the sad sack here and I’m not anti Hags by any means but in my eyes the issue is not what Hages said or didn’t say in response to Johns outburst but why the whole issue occurred in the first place. Before everyone jumps in and says it's just Johns it is not because half the team are just as bad and this is far from the first time this type of thing has occurred at Newie. Buderus, Quinn, Perry, Carmont to name just a few have all carried on in similar vein without being pulled into line by the club and that is why Newie has been rightfully labelled serial offenders by the NRL. It’s a discipline and culture issue throughout their entire club, the players rule the roost.

The real question is regarding what role Hages actually has in all that and why he hasn’t been able to stop it from happening. Hopefully, and IMO, it seems to be a total lack of professionalism within the club itself and management in particular at Newie as they never seem to take their players to task for anything but instead proffer tripe excuses or play the ‘we are being picked’ on card. Look no further than how their management allowed the Johns walk off at Parra stadium and then attempted to protect and excuse him over it when management rightfully should have ordered him to get his arse back out on the field. Johns is what he is partly because of soft management who won’t stand up to him and pull him into line. There are also strong rumours that players often decide for themselves not to train but go surfing instead and that Johns actually runs the training session and picks the teams.

What role or authority Hages exerts up there I really don't know but there is clear evidence of a much undisciplined culture at the Knights that we don't want here. As I said it may just be a weak board or management structure up there and working within the more professional structure we have here may suit Hages to a tee and allow him to get excellent results. Say what you want about Fitzy but he does at least impose discipline and pull players into line as he did earlier this year unlike his counterpart at the Knights.

I’m not against Hages at all and am hoping he does great for us but I’m also not a fool and believe Ren did raise some salient points regarding Hages ability to impose discipline. Only time will tell whether it is a lack of professionalism within Newie or a weakness within Hages himself because frankly I just don’t know.

 

[bartman]

I think Brian knew when he accepted the Newcastle role that Joey would only be around for part of hsi time at the club (ie next season). Brian would be rubbing his hands together at the thought of getting Joey's salary money to be able to (re)build that club up and get a title without the "world's best player" getting the credit for it.

Similarly, I reckon Hagan would be looking forward to a different challenge and environment just as much as I think Brian will relish the post-Johns era - only Hagan will get to start his new challenge a season earlier.