Oh Ricky... not so fine

[Timmah]

Roosters to sack Stuart
By Phil Rothfield and Rebecca Wilson
August 27, 2006

The Sydney Roosters are on the verge of sacking Test coach Ricky Stuart, and paying out the final year of his contract.
We can today reveal head honcho Nick Politis last week put all senior positions at the football club, including the entire coaching staff, under review.
Rumours swept football circles last week that club powerbrokers were desperately trying to convince former champion five-eighth Brad Fittler to take over Stuart's job in partnership with Channel Nine's Phil Gould.
Fittler has been reluctant to accept the role because of his friendship and respect for Stuart. We're told he will be offered the first grade coaching job with Gould returning as director of coaching.
We contacted Stuart to ask him about the rumours yesterday but he declined to comment.
When we approached Politis yesterday, he confirmed Stuart's job is under review.
"We're running a business and not a very successful one at the moment. We're second last. Other than that, I've got no comment to make."
Another source told us: "There is definitely something happening with Brad Fittler.
"Everyone at the football club was told last week that all positions are under review."
If Politis cannot convince Fittler to take on the job, the Roosters have few alternatives. Outgoing Penrith coach Johnny Lang, who played for the Roosters in the 1980 grand final, is an option but an unlikely one.
Whatever happens, Politis has decided that missing the semi-finals for two years in a row is unacceptable and that the club is in need of a new coach and new direction.
The one thing that hasn't changed is that the man who knifed Stuart is one of Politis' closest friends, and the same cold-blooded person who callously worked behind the scenes to have the previous coach Graham Murray sacked as well.

Sunday Telegaph.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,20259363-23214,00.html

:lol:

There's the door Sticky :arrow:

Folkes for Aussie Coach? :lol:

 

[mattyg]

:lol: oh how much i love the Roosters getting cleaned out. It is a Rebecca Wilson story though so that gives it absolutely no credibility.

I wonder how Braith "i want to play under the best coach in the game" Anasta is feeling about this :lol:

Would Folkesy take the Aussie coach?? Ahh they will probably go with Bellamy anyway...

 

[dio]

would of been better if they said more chance of george bush coaching than ricky getting sacked then it would be a sure thing:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[innsaneink]

The one thing that hasn't changed is that the man who knifed Stuart is one of Politis' closest friends, and the same cold-blooded person who callously worked behind the scenes to have the previous coach Graham Murray sacked as well.

Pathetic and unproffessional, using their privileged position for their petty personal agendas.

No surprise to see who's latched onto this tabloid vomit....equally pathetic.

 

[Timmah]

:lol:

Anything to have a stab at me eh ink ;-)?

 

[Kid]

Pathetic and unproffessional, using their privileged position for their petty personal agendas.

No surprise to see who's latched onto this tabloid vomit....equally pathetic.

It's been a joke for sometime now. I assume your talking about the telecrap vs Gould? Whats worse is the boss of those so called journalists (Wilson ) in particular actually lets it continually happen.

 

[innsaneink]

It's been a joke for sometime now. I assume your talking about the telecrap vs Gould? Whats worse is the boss of those so called journalists (Wilson ) in particular actually lets it continually happen.

Yeah....you assume correct.

What I hate is being used as a pawn in a way for their petty bitchfests, all I wanna do is read about rugby league, Im not interested in their little tiffs....but they have to include the immature digs at each time after time after time.

I'm sure also they think its entertaining for the reader, when imo nothing could be further from the truth.

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

Can Fittler coach though

 

[SOULS 04]

i reckon if this had happened earlier in the year he would have been the next raiders coach.

 

[aussies1st]

It's a good thing it didn't happen earlier then ;-)

 

[SOULS 04]

haha aquite possibly... henry still has to prove himself though. Stuart does have some grand finals and a premiership behind him

 

[aussies1st]

He did have the great Fitler during the Roosters great run of finals but since hes left the Roosters have gone down hill.

 

[gregstar]

i don't see why stuart should be rissoled.

they do have to rebuild & they've uncovered a couple of good players for next year.

it's not like they've given up in games when their finals' hopes evaporated.

 

[Deleted member 10972]

If Fittler coaches, we might see a bit of common sense come into the Roosters team selections.

- no more releasing a huge foray of strong props when a prop shortage is already blatantly apparent, leaving our once mighty pack full of mobile, backrowers with non-existant running games, but still retaining a crash-and-bash up the middle playing style

- no more stubbornness & refusal to move Anasta to lock because "he wasn't bought to play lock", or refusal to drop plyers who simply aren't performing up to scratch i.e. Finch (Bellamy is ruthless with player selection, which is something i greatly respect)

- no more mobile, lightweight packs including going into a crunch-time match V the Bulldogs with a bench consisting of a back, a half, a 95kg utility lock & a backrower, or playing blokes like Harrison or Flannery as starting backrowers, or playing our best backrowers, Moz, Fitzy, Tupou, Shack & Plum, in the starting frontrow, ruining their impact

- no more personal vendetta's against young, amazingly skilled halves because of past defensive issues, which were largely due to poor defensive strategies on the part of one coach (defending Soward at centre was not the best idea out of the Roosters camp), or playing them out of position, killing their confidence

- no more getting into Tupou's ear & telling him to curb his offloads, the best part of his game, & making impact players like him, Paea & Tonga wear themselves out, & therefore jeopardizing their key aspect, their running games, due to a huge amount of defence they must get through by not giving them the ball when they are on the field. Let guys like Harrison, Plum & Flanno do these blokes tackling for them & let them save up for some hitups (i'ma miss you Charlie)

- no more stating that you will drop all passengers, then dropping blokes who have only been given max 5 mins gametime to show their worth (Doyle, Tonga, Stranger, Plum, Manua, Sa, Paea), whilst real passengers like Anasta & Finch get starting spots in FG, even after being rightly HOOKED from the field the week before for a disgraceful performance

- no more insane positional changes like playing Monaghan or Mellars (centres) on the wing, Wing (hooker/half) at centre, Cross (centre) on the wing, Flannery (starting lock OR bench utility) as starting backrower, Harrison (starting lock, 5-8 OR bench utility) as starting backrower, etc.

 

[Cletus]

I thought the really pathetic thing about that column was the two articles on players' girlfriends. Do we really need to know about that sort of stuff?

 

[Raiders Plight]

Hope he does get sacked. Don't get me wrong i would like to still see stuart coaching but not for the roosters. I still rate him as a coach and he will have no trouble getting another stint.

 

[El Diablo]

Choppies what have you been up to? lol

 

[Choppies]

Choppies what have you been up to? lol

WTF. How am I brought into this? :lol:

 

[Iafeta]

I think it'd be wrong to sack Stuart.

3 grand finals he's been to, hasn't he?

Grand Final winner in his first year.

There's been a hell of a roster turnover in the past couple of years, other clubs have gone through problems with this as well. They'll improve a bit next year, and will be back after that. Lewis and Soward need a bit more time to develop, and even then, there's still some young blokes like Mellars, Perrett, Plum, Sa, Soliola, Shillington, Shackleton that are worth perservering with as they have futures in the game and IMO Sticky would be a good mentor for them.

How quickly we forget how successful he was.

 

[The Punter]

Fittler must be so proud of the pic the ST decided to run of him.