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Panthers sack Griffin 4 weeks from finals

OldPanther

OldPanther

Coach
Messages
13,404
From Young_Rust on reddit. Very good bloke with a good mind for the club and game:

Hook handled himself admirably I thought.

I don't think anything he said really contradicts anything coming out of Penrith. More that he disagreed on the degree to which there was a problem.

While the focus was on Gus, the 360 interview definitely missed the fact that Gus was one of the last people to come around to the fact that Hook needed to go. It's not fair to say this was Gus and Gus alone. In fact Gus was one of Hook's defenders when there was pressure to sack him earlier.

At the end of the day though, Hook needed to go. Probably in the offseason, but his days were numbered. Regardless of the off-field issues, I think the on-field issues are obvious. I definitely don't agree that we were "ahead of where we should have been" and I don't really think Griffin thinks that either. As an aside our juniors also weren't a mess before Griffin arrived. That's absolute nonsense.

To anyone who feels strongly towards Griffin after that interview, he's all yours.

Edit: the other thing that's interesting is that it sounds like O'Neill and the board may genuinely have orchestrated this Cleary coup without Gus. As in, it's not just Gus saying that to covering his arse. Possibly to the extent that they cut him out / undermined him on this one and forced his hand to terminate Griffin immediately. Some of what Gus said on his podcast was quite candid, but nothing he said about the timing of terminating Hook's contract made any goddamn sense at all. I'm very interested to see if this develops. There's some talk that Ivan may genuinely not be Gus' first choice.
 
mxlegend99

mxlegend99

Referee
Messages
23,328
super_coach said:
Earlier tonightI wasted 30 minutes of my life listening to Gould’s podcast. In one breath he said he was in charge of the Panthers andthebuck stops with him and the next breath he said, he had no idea of any talk with Cleary and in fact it was the head of the board, he also said he wanted to keep hook till the end of the season.

The whole podcast was not about the coaching fiasco at Penrith, it was just a PR exercise by Gould trying to play the nice guy and seperate his brand name from the mess .
This whole circus is all about re signing young Nathan with Ivan being the bait and Hook being the fall guy....and for half the price give me Brooks any day
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Not entirely true. Getting Ivan is about keeping Nathan. Definitely. He's a good coach. But that's the real reason.

Griffin however is not a fall guy. Griffin confirmed he refused to work with Gus or other staff at the club because things had to be done his way. He didnt trust his colleagues. He admitted to going 4 to 6 weeks without talking to Gus.

The club believed Hook had reached his limits on his own and went out of its way trying to get him the help required to go the next step. No doubt because Gus didnt want to admit he was wrong. He refused that help. This is a team sport and his players had a coach who wouldnt work with his team.

The timing is shit for Hook But he refused to work with his boss and colleagues. That's going to get you sacked in any profession. Usually a lot earlier than it did for Hook.

Hooks biggest contribution was making a fitter NRL squad. And giving guys a chance. But he wanted to get rid of anyone here before he arrived and to build a young side that grinded out tough wins. The guys with flair either had to shelf it or find a new club. Gus had said long before Hook that he didnt like coaches who coached that shit out of their players. Again that'son Gus fot hiring him though. Uoung guys and playing tough just rarely go hand in hand.

Yet Hook refused to compromise. Even after the club backed him over players. He's not a fall guy. He lost his job on his own.
 
S

super_coach

First Grade
Messages
5,061
Fangs said:
Quality spin, some might say this whole thing has gone 360.

Griffin/Tigers are certainly winning the PR war. But who will f**k the prom queen? I say Gus.
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If Penrith get what they want they will say it’s all worth it and all the flak will blow over in no time. Look at the Chooks they thrive on bad press. Sadly it’s all about doing what is necessary to achieve your goal.

Don’t get me wrong I think Penrith,Gould and Cleary have all been the main players in a very low act..but good guys seldom win
 
B

Bronco18

Juniors
Messages
1,072
I wonder if there’s a chance Ivan approaches the Penrith board and says I’m coming back if you get rid of Gus...

If you were an established coach you wouldn’t want him breathing down your neck.
 
B

Bronco18

Juniors
Messages
1,072
TheFrog said:
Don't know about Hannant, but Sowie certainly did.
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Hannant had an axe to grind after Hook moved him on from the Broncos for telling a young player to look around for his next contract. Nothing malicious from Hannant, but dumb as dogshit and not what you want a senior player saying.

It was a classic Gus move inviting him on to his show to badmouth Griffin the day the news came out.
 
Canard

Canard

Immortal
Messages
35,609
Bronco18 said:
I wonder if there’s a chance Ivan approaches the Penrith board and says I’m coming back if you get rid of Gus...

If you were an established coach you wouldn’t want him breathing down your neck.
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That's what I can't fathom, son involved or not, why would you want to work with the arsehole that sacked you and bad mouthed you to the press.
 
S

Someguy

First Grade
Messages
7,139
beave said:
Side note after watching league life, Marina Go is over her head with this shit, how in the f**k did she get the Tigers gig?
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I’m kinda confused why she is upset? Making an offer while Cleary is still under contract...was that exactly what tigers were proposing with Nathan only a few weeks ago?
 
OldPanther

OldPanther

Coach
Messages
13,404
Ivan asked for help.

Gus said no.

Hired Griffin.

Reationship strained over "coaching philosophy" leadd to losing Moylan.

Realised modern coaches can't do everything (evidenced by Roosters, Storm, Broncos) and Griffin took this as Ciraldo was undermining him on behalf of Gus.

Gus realises it was a mistake to sack Ivan and Ivan was right wanting help (the statement that he though he was right sacking Ivan even he wasn't was an admission).

Board chase Ivan for when his contract ends but Ivan wants now to help develop Nathan.

Gus sacks Griffin early because you can't have a coach in the finals going for a premiership when all the talk is about his successor in a few months(Griffin admitted he knew he'd not last the year).

Big media shit storm with fans blaming Gus most of all.
 
OldPanther

OldPanther

Coach
Messages
13,404
franklin2323 said:
Not if you can't do your job. On paper sounds and looks good in reality you are being micro managed and already a high pressure job. Some would love it others not so
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I think most would think they could work with Gus. Coaches are all strong personalities and would think they could overcome whatever issues.
 
ed-grimley

ed-grimley

Bench
Messages
2,552
Cleary will go down in my estimation as a human if he jumps ship and turns his back on Wests.
What's the big deal about coaching his son. That's under 10's stuff.
Nothing Gould says or does surprises me in the least.
 
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