Arthur has moved players on before, including Tim Mannah who Arthur initially kept as co-captain after Stuart gave him the captaincy in the final three games of 2013.
We announced this year that we wanted to replace Gutherson at fullback, while Arthur was coach, and it later came out that we wanted to use Talagi there. This explains his selection at fullback in reserve grade to start the year.
But even if it was going to be harder to convince Gutherson, Sivo and RCG to f**k of while Arthur was coach, it doesn’t say anything about his coaching ability. It just means his relationship with them was getting in the way of roster management, not that he couldn’t coach. In fact after 11 years in the NRL he would be a better coach than when we signed him. He’s certainly not too old.
Ricky Stuart deserves credit for the 2002 premiership. He had the Roosters playing very well that season. The Knights were just a better team than the Roosters in 2001. Murray also got a relatively average Cowboys side to a grand final against a much stronger opponent (ironically against Parramatta). Brad Arthur never achieved any upsets of that magnitude during his coaching career (although he came very close in 2021 against the Panthers).