I think the difference with Souths was that they had him as an assistant for a couple of years under Maguire. The players had been exposed to his methods and knew what he was about. They’d had a chance to ease in to his methodology.
The Broncos went from 1 extreme to another in one off season and ok, sure you could argue that Souths did the opposite with Bennett but Bennett’s methods are more orthodox and would be closer to what Souths players were used to before Seibold.
I can’t 100% agree because over time the “vacant” broncos lot had a couple of years to ease into Seibs style, even if they were initially shocked and awed with his “project resilience” training methods.
Then they actually got worse over time as was kindly pointed out. They kind of “eased out” of Seibs and by the end of last season, were a complete rabble.
The finals game against the saints was the pinnacle of the Seibs nrl effort. The game was lost for sure and certain until “ seibism” kicked in, the goals came and the defence set to deny the brave yet befuddled dragons their day in the sun.
There was the wrong pass thrown at the end, I put that down to fatigue and panic but you had to think that even if the pass was right, the Souths defence would somehow have managed to nail the winger.
Perhaps ( see below) Seibs mistake was to leave the rabbits too early. He was living the f**king dream, rising star and all that. That club made him massive offers over at least 8 months and he kept them at bay until Bennett was sorted up there.
There’s been a lot of public speculation as to whether or not he was cutting Madge’s grass in the final year/s. I don’t know. Bold statements made by heavy hitters, but looking at it rationally, for better or worse the Madge/Seibs combo was toxic.
It would have been pretty interesting to attend the Seibs interview at Souths and why he thought he could do a better job than Madge, you would think he would have provided examples of Madge’s decisions he differed from but was over ruled. I doubt he was malicious or rude, he’s an educated professional, just factual as he saw it.
All that said, Seibs did a wonderful job coaching Souths, regardless of the reasons, the record shows they were right to appoint him.
And I think Madge is enjoying some comfort at the Tigers. He’s not chasing past glories, he’s in repair and build mode after inheriting a shambles thanks to past coaches and poor officialdom. He’s well liked and about to be offered a fat contract. He’s not dictator at WT either. We have our own Richos etc. Madge is answerable to our officialdom, forget what you’ve read, he doesn’t control recruitment.
I’m more than confident, Seibs will be back in a head coaching role one day. To the earlier point, his plan to take on the broncos was maybe one or two years premature. But I can’t condemn him entirely because from his side, does he risk the bunnies having a worse season the following year and he loses some gloss? It’s possible. Coming 3rd in your first year as coach, 63% win ratio....bloody impressive. Hard to repeat. Almost unheard of. Most people would see that as a fair springboard for the plumb Bronco assignment and the rivers of gold that flow freely up there.
If it’s at the Tigers, to be honest, I’d be ok. If Madge doesn’t work out, we could do a lot worser. I’m not sure if Madge would like it!
