Phil Gould reveals his 'lack of review' into Dragons after coach sacked

[giboz71]

He spent 5 mins at the joint. There was a story that the review had started, then suddenly he was done?

Not exactly a glowing endorsement of his football management abilities when a review he supposedly conducted resulted in no meaningless change, a coach out of his depth retained, and a club that is now further behind the 8 ball by not acting sooner ? And what are we coming now 12th?

Yeh thanks for nothing Gus.

And now when we’re at our lowest point, he says he never did a review. Lol, arse covering at its finest. The reason the Panthers are doing so well as he’s as far away from the joint as possible.

 

[grouch]

Gould has come out of all this with whatever was left of his credibility in tatters. I pity the Warriors even more now

 

[RedV Resurgence]

Whilst this action shows what a prick Gus is, think about how incompetent and deceitful the Dragons' Board looks.

They outright lied to their members and Supporters! There was no review!

 

[Dragon Revival]

Brown will not see out three years with the Warriors as he will not exert any discipline and
Barrett will fail at the Bulldogs as he will be considered an outsider. I hope that the Dragons choose wisely as the coaching job is a pressure cooker. Bennett knows the ropes and can attract players and Wane could attract some Poms. I believe that Fitzgibbon or Young would get overawed. Demetriou would know the ropes. Matt Head and Willie Talau as a team could also get a look in.

 

[Dragon Revival]

Brown will not see out three years with the Warriors as he will not exert any discipline and
Barrett will fail at the Bulldogs as he will be considered an outsider. I hope that the Dragons choose wisely as the coaching job is a pressure cooker. Bennett knows the ropes and can attract players and Wane could attract some Poms. I believe that Fitzgibbon or Young would get overawed. Demetriou would know the ropes. Head and Willie Talau as a team may also get a look in.

 

[Kylez3]

Absolute dishonest coward. f**k that lying prick.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

Phil Gould has made the bombshell revelation that his supposed review into the Dragons was basically non-existent and that he warned the club Paul McGregor's coaching reign would end badly if the club failed to act.

Gould was charged by the Dragons with a club review last year, a process that was credited with an overhaul of support staff and the addition of Sharks premiership winner Shane Flanagan as an assistant coach.

Yet Gould told Wide World of Sports that the Dragons had not been in a position to make serious, meaningful change and that as a result, his review barely scratched the surface.

McGregor was sacked by the club on Thursday, with his role filled by assistant Dean Young for the remainder of this season.

"[McGregor's sacking] was probably inevitable, given the form of the team this year and given the amount of scrutiny around this and the type of pressure that the club has been under to make a decision in this regard," Gould said on his Six Tackles with Gus podcast (listen to the full episode below).


"I think there are a lot of issues within the Dragons club that need to be addressed if they're to be a consistent and formidable team going into the future but now that this decision has been made, it might be OK for me to start to give some clarity to my review last year - or lack of review - into the Dragons' situation.

"The truth of the matter is that there wasn't really any sort of substantial review. That was discussed between [then Dragons chief executive] Brian Johnston and I at the time and sometime later, Brian Johnston resigned and went back to do other things.

"It's difficult to talk about without giving away confidences but there was no real review, or what I would call a review, and I certainly wasn't going to put my name to any document or review at that time. That's why it's been confusing for some people if a review took place.

"There were a number of discussions between Brian Johnston, Paul McGregor and myself. There were a number of things that we discussed that the club would like to do but we were unable to do.

"To be honest, the review didn't really take place in the form or the type that one would expect and certainly that I would have liked to have done. We sort of preempted that unless things changed, they could well be in this situation halfway through this year (sacking McGregor); which has eventuated, which is disappointing for everybody.

"But right at that time, the club really wasn't in a position to undergo or take advantage of any sort of extensive review into what the club needed to do into the future. But it certainly needs to do that now and going forward.

"Now they've made a decision to sack their coach and move on, now I think their real review starts and that's up to the club now I guess.

"It [McGregor's sacking] is not surprising. It's unfortunate. I would have hoped that Paul and the club would have been able to turn it around and have to avoid this type of scrutiny and this type of decision."

Gould said that he did not expect Flanagan to be enabled to succeed McGregor by the NRL, with one year remaining on his head coaching ban for breaching the terms of another sanction while at Cronulla.

"I see very little chance of that restriction being lifted," Gould said.

"He has [pleaded his case to the NRL] on several occasions, I think there have been several attempts to have the restriction lifted and it has fallen upon deaf ears.

"I guess it's only another 15-16 months before he could be a head coach and he'll naturally be in demand when that time comes around but right at the moment, from my feedback from the NRL, there's absolutely no chance of that restriction being lifted or altered.

"It's not as though he could take another role within an NRL club and be a head coach under the guise of a different definition. He's allowed to be an assistant coach right at the moment and that's all."



Former Dragons premiership coach Wayne Bennett has been named as another possible replacement for McGregor, as has former St George Illawarra player Craig Fitzgibbon, a highly-regarded assistant at the Roosters who at this stage is committed to remaining under Trent Robinson for next season.

Gould said that the external scrutiny and internal expectations lumped on modern NRL coaches were excessive and detrimental to their prospects of success; from dealing with player managers and contracts to board members and the media.

He lamented the fact that four clubs - The Dragons, Warriors, Cowboys and Bulldogs - currently have caretakers after the sacking of head coaches.

"A problem with a lot of the coaches is they get totally distracted or disorientated by all the other things that go on within a club," Gould said.

"And some clubs leave too much responsibility to the head coach. I'm not saying that's the situation in these clubs that have failed but too many of these young coaches come in after being promising assistant coaches and then they'll go through an early period of success as a head coach but over time, the role of head coach really overwhelms them.

"And a lot of the time it's because the club has placed too much responsibility with the head coach ... they just haven't organised the club around supporting the coach in every way that he needs and just having the coach coach the football."

https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/dragon...il-gould/d3cecfa5-b27b-48a1-a748-8273bc3f8f52

In McGregor's case, who was he an assistant to before he was appointed head coach at St. George?

 

[Dragon Revival]

Gould is a pompous smart arse prick who talks in riddles. He will stuff up the Warriors as he did with Souths.

 

[Dragonslayer]

No wonder BJ high-tailed it out of there.

 

[since77]

No wonder BJ high-tailed it out of there.

Brian “Mary gets a pass mark” Johnston? Coward.

 

[Dragon Revival]

Johnston would have been sick of the games after failed Dragons/Roosters merger fiasco and then St. George/Illawarra Joint Venture bickering. Ryan Webb seems to be willing to sort the mess out. Let us keep our fingers crossed!

 

[Dragsters]

Great timing Gus, ... what a dog act

Indeed.

Stinks of arse-covering of the highest order.

Nevermind coming out with it today.

Lower than a dachshunds balls...

 

[DragonInTheInnerWest]

One of the game’s true deceivers is our man Gus. Comes as no real surprise. Otherwise he would have said more in the media prior to this about the role he was undertaking. It was always subterfuge from the very beginning. An arse-covering exercise to preserve Mary’s job and allow Jonno to limp into retirement before the joint blew up good and proper. A mates pact. He cares nothing for fans.
Gould is a mercenary who works on the fringes of the game and this allows him to keep up a thin veneer as the game’s ‘biggest brain’. But the fact is the game has passed him by. With every appearance as a pundit he sounds more and more out of step, becoming angrier and louder as the years roll by, largely out of frustration that he no longer commands a real seat at the table in clubland. Instead, he opts for these piecemeal roles that have blurry definitions and responsibilities. Development, pathways, reviews, consultancies. Nothing can stick to him in an ‘unofficial’ capacity. The Panthers were sharp enough to see the damage he was wreaking on their club, sabotaging some of his own work but essentially flailing at getting all the pieces to fit. Constantly hanging coaches out to dry. He cost them millions sacking coaches for no good reason, became a meddler of the highest order and was unable to work with experienced officials as a result. Rewind to a couple of decades ago in the mid-late 90s at the Roosters and during a 5 or 6 year coaching tenure, despite Uncle Nick’s millions, he failed miserably to lift that club to any meaningful success. After the Dragons knocked the highly-fancied Roosters out of the ‘99 premiership race (doing the same in ‘96) he cried off and replaced himself with the late Graham ‘Little Artie’ Murray who promptly took the Chooks to the 2000 granny. Murray was mysteriously flicked the following season by Gould who was then coaching co-ordinator, his gift role from uncle Nick that enabled him to save face. Probably also a sweetener for luring Fittler to the Eastern Suburbs, a move that was always going to result in a premiership. Ricky Stuart then won the competition two years later, and Gould dined out on the success of his appointment. That was the time his relevance in coaching and co-ordinating hit a dead end. He spent the following decade in the media before reinventing himself as a club-builder. His most recent success in coaching was in origin in the early-mid 90s. Not a tremendously tough job as he rode the coat tails of Johns, Daley, Fittler, Lazarus, Kennedy, Buderus et al in a dominant period. So the image that Gus projects as a grass roots aficionado and the one his sycophants inflate his ego with - ‘the brain’, rings hollow. The crocodile tears he sheds for sacked coaches belies the number he has thrown on the bonfire himself for daring not to pander to his ego. Murray, Elliott, Cleary and Griffin have all felt the cold steel of Gus’s chisel. Then there were the players moved on or chased away: Jennings, Soward, Graham and Lewis to name a handful who went on to win premierships at other clubs whilst a trophy drought followed him from the East to the West..

 

[st.phil]

Dog act

 

[Mr Spock!]

Kearney's available.

 

[Inisai Toga]

One of the game’s true deceivers is our man Gus. Comes as no real surprise. Otherwise he would have said more in the media prior to this about the role he was undertaking. It was always subterfuge from the very beginning. An arse-covering exercise to preserve Mary’s job and allow Jonno to limp into retirement before the joint blew up good and proper. A mates pact. He cares nothing for fans.
Gould is a mercenary who works on the fringes of the game and this allows him to keep up a thin veneer as the game’s ‘biggest brain’. But the fact is the game has passed him by. With every appearance as a pundit he sounds more and more out of step, becoming angrier and louder as the years roll by, largely out of frustration that he no longer commands a real seat at the table in clubland. Instead, he opts for these piecemeal roles that have blurry definitions and responsibilities. Development, pathways, reviews, consultancies. Nothing can stick to him in an ‘unofficial’ capacity. The Panthers were sharp enough to see the damage he was wreaking on their club, sabotaging some of his own work but essentially flailing at getting all the pieces to fit. Constantly hanging coaches out to dry. He cost them millions sacking coaches for no good reason, became a meddler of the highest order and was unable to work with experienced officials as a result. Rewind to a couple of decades ago in the mid-late 90s at the Roosters and during a 5 or 6 year coaching tenure, despite Uncle Nick’s millions, he failed miserably to lift that club to any meaningful success. After the Dragons knocked the highly-fancied Roosters out of the ‘99 premiership race (doing the same in ‘96) he cried off and replaced himself with the late Graham ‘Little Artie’ Murray who promptly took the Chooks to the 2000 granny. Murray was mysteriously flicked the following season by Gould who was then coaching co-ordinator, his gift role from uncle Nick that enabled him to save face. Probably also a sweetener for luring Fittler to the Eastern Suburbs, a move that was always going to result in a premiership. Ricky Stuart then won the competition two years later, and Gould dined out on the success of his appointment. That was the time his relevance in coaching and co-ordinating hit a dead end. He spent the following decade in the media before reinventing himself as a club-builder. His most recent success in coaching was in origin in the early-mid 90s. Not a tremendously tough job as he rode the coat tails of Johns, Daley, Fittler, Lazarus, Kennedy, Buderus et al in a dominant period. So the image that Gus projects as a grass roots aficionado and the one his sycophants inflate his ego with - ‘the brain’, rings hollow. The crocodile tears he sheds for sacked coaches belies the number he has thrown on the bonfire himself for daring not to pander to his ego. Murray, Elliott, Cleary and Griffin have all felt the cold steel of Gus’s chisel. Then there were the players moved on or chased away: Jennings, Soward, Graham and Lewis to name a handful who went on to win premierships at other clubs whilst a trophy drought followed him from the East to the West..

Not sure I totally agree on all points put forward, but loved the analysis and thoroughly enjoyed the read! Thanks.

 

[Crush]

Not sure I totally agree on all points put forward, but loved the analysis and thoroughly enjoyed the read! Thanks.

So did I, a few paragraphs would have been nice though.

 

[Reflector]

One of the game’s true deceivers is our man Gus. Comes as no real surprise. Otherwise he would have said more in the media prior to this about the role he was undertaking. It was always subterfuge from the very beginning. An arse-covering exercise to preserve Mary’s job and allow Jonno to limp into retirement before the joint blew up good and proper. A mates pact. He cares nothing for fans.
Gould is a mercenary who works on the fringes of the game and this allows him to keep up a thin veneer as the game’s ‘biggest brain’. But the fact is the game has passed him by. With every appearance as a pundit he sounds more and more out of step, becoming angrier and louder as the years roll by, largely out of frustration that he no longer commands a real seat at the table in clubland. Instead, he opts for these piecemeal roles that have blurry definitions and responsibilities. Development, pathways, reviews, consultancies. Nothing can stick to him in an ‘unofficial’ capacity. The Panthers were sharp enough to see the damage he was wreaking on their club, sabotaging some of his own work but essentially flailing at getting all the pieces to fit. Constantly hanging coaches out to dry. He cost them millions sacking coaches for no good reason, became a meddler of the highest order and was unable to work with experienced officials as a result. Rewind to a couple of decades ago in the mid-late 90s at the Roosters and during a 5 or 6 year coaching tenure, despite Uncle Nick’s millions, he failed miserably to lift that club to any meaningful success. After the Dragons knocked the highly-fancied Roosters out of the ‘99 premiership race (doing the same in ‘96) he cried off and replaced himself with the late Graham ‘Little Artie’ Murray who promptly took the Chooks to the 2000 granny. Murray was mysteriously flicked the following season by Gould who was then coaching co-ordinator, his gift role from uncle Nick that enabled him to save face. Probably also a sweetener for luring Fittler to the Eastern Suburbs, a move that was always going to result in a premiership. Ricky Stuart then won the competition two years later, and Gould dined out on the success of his appointment. That was the time his relevance in coaching and co-ordinating hit a dead end. He spent the following decade in the media before reinventing himself as a club-builder. His most recent success in coaching was in origin in the early-mid 90s. Not a tremendously tough job as he rode the coat tails of Johns, Daley, Fittler, Lazarus, Kennedy, Buderus et al in a dominant period. So the image that Gus projects as a grass roots aficionado and the one his sycophants inflate his ego with - ‘the brain’, rings hollow. The crocodile tears he sheds for sacked coaches belies the number he has thrown on the bonfire himself for daring not to pander to his ego. Murray, Elliott, Cleary and Griffin have all felt the cold steel of Gus’s chisel. Then there were the players moved on or chased away: Jennings, Soward, Graham and Lewis to name a handful who went on to win premierships at other clubs whilst a trophy drought followed him from the East to the West..

I have a love-hate relationship with Gus. He understands footballers and he understands the game well, take nothing away from him there. But then he loves to push agendas and (as you point out) he loves to put his name all over success while backing away like a dog in a storm when the shit hits the fan. He reminds me of one of those grumpy old men on the balcony in The Muppets.

 

[boardlumps62]

The Review that never was. Can we move on now we're looking for a coach. Is Gus available.

 

[DragonInTheInnerWest]

Yeah don’t get me wrong. He knows hit football inside and out. He’s done it all and he gets many kudos for all that. I just think this ‘high priest’ of the game persona that channel 9 have bestowed on him is more bluster these days. He did rejuvenate the Pamthers club in a business sense and build their academy etc so he laid the groundwork. But ultimately he also didn’t get the results and was shown the door. That was also spun as him making himself redundant because he’d ‘done his job’. Sorry, was the job to sack the coach, sack another then re-hire the first bloke to his own protestations? And he patently took part in an off-season charade at Saints.