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Sack Adam O'Brien

Messages
665
If we lose the next 3, surely AOB has to go?
They just re-signed him, he'll last at least the season.

The bloke doesnt have much to work with.

We have few players that would make it into the top 17 of a serious team contesting the Premiership.

and some of those are debatable.

Best
Gags
JSaf
Leo
Marz
KPP
 

Mr_Knightside

Juniors
Messages
2,215
So who would be a slam dunk option to replace him? It’s basically the same coaches available as this time last year and I wasn’t overly convinced by any of them then and I’m still not.

John Morris is the only one who I would seriously think about because I thought he did a good job with the tools at his disposal at the Sharks. But it’s not like he has a really good coaching record, he’s not a “must have” option.

Madge has just taken the NSW gig so not sure if he’s be up for another club gig anyway, but what happened at the Tigers doesn’t fill me with confidence that he would do any better with our mob.
 
Messages
665
So who would be a slam dunk option to replace him? It’s basically the same coaches available as this time last year and I wasn’t overly convinced by any of them then and I’m still not.

John Morris is the only one who I would seriously think about because I thought he did a good job with the tools at his disposal at the Sharks. But it’s not like he has a really good coaching record, he’s not a “must have” option.

Madge has just taken the NSW gig so not sure if he’s be up for another club gig anyway, but what happened at the Tigers doesn’t fill me with confidence that he would do any better with our mob.
Knights need a strong confident leader with runs on the board, and not a fella on a learning curve. ( like AOB)

Maguire every day. The only one with runs on the board. The tigers killed off one of the most successful coaches in history - Tim Sheens

Morris has done zero, his resume is threadbare. Good assistant.
 

Mr_Knightside

Juniors
Messages
2,215
Knights need a strong confident leader with runs on the board, and not a fella on a learning curve. ( like AOB)

Maguire every day. The only one with runs on the board. The tigers killed off one of the most successful coaches in history - Tim Sheens

Morris has done zero, his resume is threadbare. Good assistant.
Maguire didn’t come across at strong or confident by the time the Tigers were through with him though, and our club has some similar issues as they’ve had, big name players overpaid and not performing, lack of toughness and lack of leadership. Maguire certainly delivers a spray or two when needed but the players at the Tigers were saying things like they were confused about the game plans and his man management wasn’t great. I’m not saying he’s a bad coach or anything but so far the sample size is that he won a comp at Souths with a stacked roster, then they slowly went down hill until they missed the finals and he was sacked. Then he takes over at the Tigers not long afterward and nothing seemed to change at all.

Besides I think it’s all a moot point with Maguire anyway, he’s the Blues coach now and I can’t see him taking on an NRL job at the same time, and I wouldn’t want a coach who is juggling the Blues job on top of the Knights job.
 
Messages
665
Maguire didn’t come across at strong or confident by the time the Tigers were through with him though
hard to argue, he looked the shell of the Bunny coach.

I wish we had of struck when we had the chance and got Flannagan

What about the current assistant, the English fella , ex military dude.
 

Yosh

Coach
Messages
11,348
So AOB keeps his job even if we keep losing? That's it? We'll good for him then. Same philosophy as why Dan keeps getting a run in the first team.
 

Woody90

Juniors
Messages
1,237
I get the feeling Karen might become available soon. Not sure I’d want him back or not though. Starting to look more and more like he got lucky with some really good sides.
 
Messages
665
So AOB keeps his job even if we keep losing? That's it? We'll good for him then. Same philosophy as why Dan keeps getting a run in the first team.
They'll look pretty foolish, but they have a history of extending and upgrading when there is no competition to do so.

Why they knee jerked and extended him so much, based on winning 10 games of footy is a mystery.

I expect big winning streaks every season, as a minimum.
 

Woody90

Juniors
Messages
1,237
So AOB keeps his job even if we keep losing? That's it? We'll good for him then. Same philosophy as why Dan keeps getting a run in the first team.

From now I think AOB gets judged on how we play, wanting to see effort on every play etc.

With Ponga gone there are some games we just won’t be able to win regardless of how well the remaining players put in.

If we continue to play with no effort like the last 2 games I think the club will seriously start thinking about things.

If the side goes onto try their absolute best and we put in some games likely early last year without Ponga I don’t think he’ll be moved on regardless of results unless a clear replacement arises.

If we don’t change our current play I’d be happy for anyone to come in.
 

Woody90

Juniors
Messages
1,237
AOB won't be going anywhere with another 3 years left on his deal. And with the KP injury he has a get out of jail free card right there.

Yep. In a way he got lucky because the side weren’t going anywhere even with Kalyn. By the end of the year when we’re on the bottom of the ladder all anyone will remember is that KP was out for most of the year.
 

Mr_Knightside

Juniors
Messages
2,215
I get the feeling Karen might become available soon. Not sure I’d want him back or not though. Starting to look more and more like he got lucky with some really good sides.
As if you wouldn’t take a 3 time premiership winning coach if he became available and for some reason wanted to coach at the Knights… if Robinson signed with us right now you’d be praising the club for it just like the rest of us.

Robinson annoys me with some of the stuff he says but so do most coaches tbh. The bloke is a winner and whether we like it or not the sides that usually win the comp have very strong rosters. Just go back and look at any side in history and they’ve got some of the best talent in the comp at their disposal. Probably the only year I can remember a team winning the comp when they didn’t look that strong on paper was the Tigers in ‘05 and that shows just how good Tim Sheens was as a coach back then.

The job of the coach staff is to get the best out of the playing group that they’ve got and arguably Robinson hasn’t done that in the last 4-5 years despite having heaps of success from 2013-2019. But maybe that’s a result of the playing group getting a bit stale as well. The nucleus of that squad has been around for a long time now so maybe it’s a matter of shaking things up at the Roosters.

Anyway, I think Robinson would have to miss the top 8 this year and start next year off poorly to be under any serious pressure so I can’t see him being on the market any time soon.
 

Woody90

Juniors
Messages
1,237
As if you wouldn’t take a 3 time premiership winning coach if he became available and for some reason wanted to coach at the Knights… if Robinson signed with us right now you’d be praising the club for it just like the rest of us.

Robinson annoys me with some of the stuff he says but so do most coaches tbh. The bloke is a winner and whether we like it or not the sides that usually win the comp have very strong rosters. Just go back and look at any side in history and they’ve got some of the best talent in the comp at their disposal. Probably the only year I can remember a team winning the comp when they didn’t look that strong on paper was the Tigers in ‘05 and that shows just how good Tim Sheens was as a coach back then.

The job of the coach staff is to get the best out of the playing group that they’ve got and arguably Robinson hasn’t done that in the last 4-5 years despite having heaps of success from 2013-2019. But maybe that’s a result of the playing group getting a bit stale as well. The nucleus of that squad has been around for a long time now so maybe it’s a matter of shaking things up at the Roosters.

Anyway, I think Robinson would have to miss the top 8 this year and start next year off poorly to be under any serious pressure so I can’t see him being on the market any time soon.

I’d definitely take him hence mentioning him. Saying that though, I’d still be hesitant. We don’t have the advantages the Roosters do and I don’t think he could get a Cooper Cronk here like he did the Roosters for those 2 comps. They don’t win either of them without Cronk.

You may be right about the roster getting stale, but sometimes coaches get stale too. Bellamy’s probably the only one that’s continued to rejuvenate his tactics. In 2018 the Roosters attack was revolutionary but the game has changed and he’s still attempting the same tactics that don’t seem to be working anymore. Also very stubborn in not admitting that Tedesco is a problem and Keary/Walker don’t work.

I’d definitely take him over AOB put it that way. But I don’t think we could necessarily expect he’d perform here tbh.

They’ll definitely retain him for a while longer anyway so it’s a moot point. Saying that though they demand a lot of success and they wouldn’t be happy with the last 5 years at all and it really wouldn’t surprise me if he’s moved on.
 

Yosh

Coach
Messages
11,348
I don't get the logic behind, we resigned AOB last year so he isn't getting the sack. If he loses all games for the rest of the year, you still think he won't get the sack?

If he loses the next 3-5 in a row and his job isn't on the line, then Knights management needs to go.
 
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