Ok, I am not in the mood to get into a slanging match or back and forth versions of "War and Peace" discussing this, however I will say a couple of things...
Nowhere have I ever said that our coach has overachieved or is a super coach so no, that is not what I was saying. In fact, I think BA has definitely reached his apex and unless he gets different assistants and can focus on using whatever man management skills he has, then I fear we will not achieve much more than we have for the last couple of seasons.
Mate, you introduced the word "awesome" into the conversation in regard to our squad, not me. I questioned you on whether the whole squad is really "awesome" or whether we have a limited number of strong players (16 or 17 from a squad of 35). Don't now claim that I don't rate our players as highly as I should. FFS, are you telling me you think Kaufusi is an awesome player even though he drops the ball cold at least once per game? What about Opacic, is he an awesome centre in the mold of someone like Staggs or Manu? Is Lane so awesome that he can be lazy at times throughout a game and let in easy tries?
I am not sure why not just you but many posters on here think that this is such a binary issue.
Do you think it might be possible that the players don't always execute the coaches game plan to the letter? Might it be possible that the coaches game plan is sometimes shit and sometimes good enough? What about the possiblity that individual players have momentary lapses in concentration and make mistakes?
I could go on but there isn't really a point is there? I mean the playing squad is awesome and the coach is crap right?
Mate that first paragraph was obviously sarcasm and also no clubs entire squad is top notch or that impressive past the top 20 odd at best.
The Roosters and Storms top 20 if that is about it and even the Panthers too. But it is the systems that they all train and play in and the standards that the coaching staff set and that all the players up to the 30th know and can execute well enough if and once called upon depending on their roll and what is expected of them. They don't over complicate it for those types of players and give them a few goals to reach and do very well.
Look at the Storm against the Sharks on the weekend. They had half there regular pack missing and yet they still beat another supposed contender.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona
Harry Grant
Brandon Smith
Felise Kaufusi
Trent Loiero
Josh King
Interchange
Tyran Wishart
Tepai Moeroa
Chris Lewis
Alec MacDonald
Now can you imagine the excuses we would have if we were missing that many quality players from our regular starting forwards? But the systems and standards that Bellamy sets allows for every next player up to exhibit and perform at a level that allows the play makers to still carry out what they do and win even the biggest and hardest games against the highest quality opponents without excuses.
Hell he is even carrying that lump Moeroa ffs and still finding ways to make him productive. But I suppose you think Moeroa is better then our top 18-30 players too even though we dumped him and he was languishing in Rugby and then in limbo until Bellamy took him in and reset him to do a specific set of tasks and perform as certain roll that he can handle and be beneficial to the team.
Great coaching breaks down every players game to bits and gets them to perform what they can do to the best of their abilities. Our players are still lost when it counts and fall out of structure way to often. That is a coaching thing not a player thing, unless you are for example someone like James Roberts that has mental issues and demons, but those sorts of players are rarer and only certain styles of coaches can get the best out of them and generally only for a short period of time before the lose focus again and go missing.
But for the most part Good to great coaches just need a high calibre spine and some hard nosed forwards up front to be a semi contender and and a couple of speedsters and or flashy players and you have a genuine premiership contender. Look at the Sharks as exhibit A as far as getting their spine in order and forwards right, they have become a genuine top 6-4 team as long as they are healthy and in a couple of years as they get better and bed everything down and add a player or to they will be a genuine title contender too.
Sure the players aren't concentrating for the full game and not executing the game plan the coach has set out, but it his job to make sure that they do. The players we have are way better then the Tigers for example and yet we allowed them to dictate terms. No one gave the Tiger a chance before the game for a reason. Our roster blows their away.
Coaching is the difference when that happens as often as it does with our team.
