Sack Adam O'Brien

[macavity]

I think to date Reyno offered us more. Pretty sad. Elliott has been a complete non-event. Wage thief.

hardly alone though

 

[perverse]

hardly alone though

Absolutely not. Most of our forward pack should be so embarrassed. They don't seem to have any personal pride or shame in their performances. That's what I don't get the most honestly. They're a joke amongst their peers, and they don't seem to care. I'm sure the money helps, but I've rarely seen such shameless behaviour from people before.

 

[Knight Tales]

Absolutely not. Most of our forward pack should be so embarrassed. They don't seem to have any personal pride or shame in their performances. That's what I don't get the most honestly. They're a joke amongst their peers, and they don't seem to care. I'm sure the money helps, but I've rarely seen such shameless behaviour from people before.

The best summation of their ineptitude I have read in a while. It is worse that their talent is not the issue. They do not use each other’s momentum. The top packs just roll through and share the burden.

 

[Alex28]

Staff turnover since Wests took over:


2018: Nathan Brown (head coach), James Shepherd (NRL assistant coach), Mick Potter (NRL assistant coach), Simon Woolford (NSW Cup/assistant coach), Todd Lowrie (under-20s coach), Scott Dureau (under-18s coach), Rory Kostjaysen (under-16s coach), Tony Ayoub (head of physical performance), Phil Gardner (CEO), Brian Canavan (director of football), Darren Mooney (GM of football), Brian Canavan (director of football), Troy Pezet (head of recruitment).
2019: Kristian Woolf (NRL assistant coach), Scott Dureau (under-20s coach), Balin Cupples (head of physical performance), Anthony Wood
(head of strength and conditioning), Kristian Woold (interim head coach; August), Alex McKinnon (head of recruitment).
2020: Adam O’Brien (head coach), David Furner (NRL assistant coach), Willie Peters (NRL assistant coach), Eric Smith (development coach), Troy Gleeson (NSW Cup coach), Adam Bettridge (under-20s coach), Danny Buderus (GM of football).
2021: Eric Smith (NRL assistant coach), Rory Kostjaysen (NRL assistant coach), Anthony Seibold (coaching consultant), Hayden Knowles (head of high performance), Andrew Ryan (development coach), Mark O’Meley (Harold Matthews Cup coach), Clint Zammit (recruitment manager).
2022: Andrew Johns (consultant), Brian McDermott (NRL assistant coach), Blake Green (NRL assistant coach), Matt Jay (head of high performance), Michael Dobson (head of pathways), Michael Monaghan (NSW Cup coach), Adam Doyle (recruitment manager), Peter Parr (director of football).

How on earth does a club perform under that kind of churn?


Analysis: Why sacking O’Brien won’t prove a thing at Newcastle
https://www.codesports.com.au/nrl/s...g/news-story/56aa9c13bba4807e91f340d111a2ff07

 

[perverse]

Hopefully only a few more weeks until:

2023: Adam O'Brien.

 

[Alex28]

Hopefully only a few more weeks until:

2023: Adam O'Brien.

I really don’t know what it’s going to achieve or who we replace him with, however I’d suggest it’s going to happen.

 

[perverse]

I really don’t know what it’s going to achieve or who we replace him with, however I’d suggest it’s going to happen.

lol, there's no point us debating it. There's 105 pages of reasons for you to sift through and I'm not gonna make you a list. Most of the names in your post either have little to do with first grade, or were shit appointments to begin with. And including 2018 in the list at all - when they took control and installed their own staff, is just a poor argument. I can't be bothered to go through the whole list, but Browny was with us until 2019, not 2018.

Our style of football sucks. Our player commitment sucks. Our fitness sucks. Our nurturing juniors through to first grade sucks. These are all factors a head coach oversees. It's time for this pretender to go, regardless of other factors.

What do you think O'Brien does well, out of interest? You never seem to say.

 

[Alex28]

Our style of football sucks. Our player commitment sucks. Our fitness sucks. Our nurturing juniors through to first grade sucks. These are all factors a head coach oversees. It's time for this pretender to go, regardless of other factors.

All of that has sucked for a long time - long before AOB turned up, and I see nothing from those in charge suggesting that is going to change anytime soon.

How can we develop juniors into first grade when there is a different coach every year teaching them a different style of play?

We can’t get the fundamentals right. Let’s face it - we got lucky with a few juniors in the mid-1990’s which got us two premierships in spite of ourselves. Other than that, the club has been a basket case.

What has AOB done well? I personally think he is a pretty decent leader, has got the team fit (especially this year), seems to have the players buying in. I agree that his game plan is probably too rigid and lacks flexibility. He can’t seem to change the club mentality that when things get tough, we give up - that has been evident for two decades really.

 

[perverse]

What has AOB done well? I personally think he is a pretty decent leader, has got the team fit (especially this year), seems to have the players buying in. I agree that his game plan is probably too rigid and lacks flexibility. He can’t seem to change the club mentality that when things get tough, we give up - that has been evident for two decades really.

What do you base his leadership on? The way the players respond to him on the field by putting their best performances in every week? There's a huge leadership vacuum at the club in the coaching staff and the playing group.

What do you base our great fitness on? The way we've been fading consistently in the last 20 for the past several months? To the point that we're too out on our feet to even fire a shot when the game is in the balance?

You're just saying words, but there's no evidence for any of it. Actually there's tonnes of evidence in every game we play that the opposite is true. I'm sure the players love him and support him, but that isn't the sole metric of a good leader. I've loved a lot of bosses that were shit leaders in my life.

I agree that his game plan is too rigid and he can't seem to change the mentality of the club though. You nailed that bit for mine. Maybe someone else can, who knows. We won't know until we try.

 

[Loose Cannon]

What do you base our great fitness on? The way we've been fading consistently in the last 20 for the past several months? To the point that we're too out on our feet to even fire a shot when the game is in the balance?

Couldn’t agree more. We were buggered 12 minutes gone last week.

There’s no excuse for that.

 

[Alex28]

I reckon the attitude of the club - relaxed, laid back, one town team heroes - hasn’t changed since the last few years of Joey being in the club - no matter who has been in charge. I don’t see any leader out there that can change that as quickly as this forum would want it changed. f**k - if Wayne Bennett couldn’t change that, who exactly is going yo

All you did was repeat what I said and dispute it without any substance. They have been in the game a lot longer this year than previous years - at some point that has to come down to the players.

The vacuum of leadership - where do you reckon that starts? I’ll give you a tip - it’s not the coach.

 

[aqua_duck]

lol, there's no point us debating it. There's 105 pages of reasons for you to sift through and I'm not gonna make you a list. Most of the names in your post either have little to do with first grade, or were shit appointments to begin with. And including 2018 in the list at all - when they took control and installed their own staff, is just a poor argument. I can't be bothered to go through the whole list, but Browny was with us until 2019, not 2018.

Our style of football sucks. Our player commitment sucks. Our fitness sucks. Our nurturing juniors through to first grade sucks. These are all factors a head coach oversees. It's time for this pretender to go, regardless of other factors.

What do you think O'Brien does well, out of interest? You never seem to say.

Also a few of the names that were listed as staff turnover simply moved into another role or were interim/short term hires.

I reckon the attitude of the club - relaxed, laid back, one town team heroes - hasn’t changed since the last few years of Joey being in the club - no matter who has been in charge. I don’t see any leader out there that can change that as quickly as this forum would want it changed. f**k - if Wayne Bennett couldn’t change that, who exactly is going yo

All you did was repeat what I said and dispute it without any substance. They have been in the game a lot longer this year than previous years - at some point that has to come down to the players.

The vacuum of leadership - where do you reckon that starts? I’ll give you a tip - it’s not the coach.

The Newcastle complacency is a real thing and unfortunately seems to get worse the more we try to focus on local boys, I personally loved the Brian Smith approach of bringing in mercenaries who knew they weren’t entitled to anything and had to earn it.
I know you’ve got this anti wests, anti Gardner thing but the lack of on field success isn’t the only indicator of leadership from wests. In terms of financial stability, facilities, infrastructure, etc we’ve never been in a better position. Under Brian Smith and Rick Stone the first grade team were training at a council field with all the training gear loaded into a cargo container, it’s a far cry from the state of the art facilities and centre of excellence they now enjoy.

 

[perverse]

Yeah I just can't be bothered anymore. Do I have to pull up time codes from every match where we look buggered (lack of fitness) or every time we made a ridiculous substitution or the players didn't do anywhere near their best (lack of leadership) for what i'm saying to be substantive? Absolute joke of a conversation.

The coach doesn't have it. There's other problems too, but the coach is certainly one of them. The evidence has been there for years. We've been discussing it for years, yet here we are. lol, what an absolute piss take.

 

[perverse]

Also a few of the names that were listed as staff turnover simply moved into another role or were interim/short term hires.

The Newcastle complacency is a real thing and unfortunately seems to get worse the more we try to focus on local boys, I personally loved the Brian Smith approach of bringing in mercenaries who knew they weren’t entitled to anything and had to earn it.
I know you’ve got this anti wests, anti Gardner thing but the lack of on field success isn’t the only indicator of leadership from wests. In terms of financial stability, facilities, infrastructure, etc we’ve never been in a better position. Under Brian Smith and Rick Stone the first grade team were training at a council field with all the training gear loaded into a cargo container, it’s a far cry from the state of the art facilities and centre of excellence they now enjoy.

Couldn't agree more with this, and we've pondered it off and on in here for at least a decade at least. Whether it's the town and lifestyle itself, etc, etc. Also couldn't agree more that off the field Wests have done just about all you could ever ask of an entity that owns the club. There's honestly no excuses for the football department. They've got everything they need except a brain it would seem. This whole complaining about staff turnover is nonsense anyway. What good is low turnover when the staff are shithouse?

 

[Alex28]

I’m not anti-Wests. I’m highlighting the leadership of the Knights is poor, and it all flows down from there.

 

[Spot On]

Fitness is a real issue.

We look ok after a week off due to the bye.
After that game, we are rooted after 15 minutes most weeks.

Rinse and repeat.

 

[perverse]

I’m not anti-Wests. I’m highlighting the leadership of the Knights is poor, and it all flows down from there.

That doesn't mean this man can coach. I'd say one of the biggest arguments in your favour is that we haven't had the stones to piss this guy off 12+ months ago

 

[aqua_duck]

I’m not anti-Wests. I’m highlighting the leadership of the Knights is poor, and it all flows down from there.

Well maybe not anti wests but you’ve certainly been pretty vocal of Gardner. As I mentioned you’re using a very narrow spectrum to judge ‘leadership’. Gardner has never run a NRL team and there are things that certainly could’ve been done better but you’re also ignoring everything else that has been delivered including the massive improvements off the field, commercially, NRLW, etc. Gardner can at least point to that and add it to his LinkedIn profile, what has AOB done?

 

[Knight Tales]

Gardner has taken us to the top in terms of facilities. Once we get a winning culture right then the club will be a very attractive landing spot for players again. But time is not on our side. Kids today want nothing to do with a losing team. And they are where the next two or three decades of gate money is going to stem from. Generations are not as loyal as they once were. It is time WESTS realised their product is very much now tied to this club. And their lack of success can effect the bottom line.

 

[Alex28]

Gardner has taken us to the top in terms of facilities. Once we get a winning culture right then the club will be a very attractive landing spot for players again. But time is not on our side. Kids today want nothing to do with a losing team. And they are where the next two or three decades of gate money is going to stem from. Generations are not as loyal as they once were. It is time WESTS realised their product is very much now tied to this club. And their lack of success can effect the bottom line.

Once we get a winning culture…

You are more f**king deluded than I am wanting to keep AOB.

It’s been missing for the last 20 years - where do you think it’s coming from? How is a guy more familiar with poker machines than NRL football going to get that from?

Constant turnover of staff - what is that doing for the culture of the club?

The bottom line.. Wests makes plenty. That really shouldn’t even be a consideration for an NRL club which gets subsidised by the NRL and no real shortage of sponsorship.