Sack Adam O'Brien

[HarVeeGee]

For it looks like the best coach of the four listed is Ciraldo, they’ve clearly improved once again the Bulldogs. The hype about how important he was to the Panthers looks like it was accurate. It was very hard to see the vision in his first terrible year there but the proof is in the pudding now that the players not meeting the standards he wants have moved on and what remains are his competitive psychos. Not 100% convinced he isn’t going to burn them out but we’ll see.

Madge is what he is, a short term option. He can give you a few good years then the players are off him. Good option if you think you’re primed to win a comp.

Des seems like he’s no longer on the cutting edge of tactics etc, so he doesn’t look as good. That was always the thing which differentiated him. But the Titans job is the hardest in the NRL so whatever. Moving Jayden Campbell to 7 is looking like a great call though.

 

[Knight Tales]

Ciraldo is clearly a great coach. That one could be the biggest error of them all.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

The question mark I have about Flanno is his obsession with veteran players. Guys he knows are reliable & consistent with their standards, and who’ll make better decisions on the field. Guys he doesn’t have to coach all that much…

Shouldn’t a coach want to coach though? And yeah give me a starting lineup of 17 grizzled vets in their 30’s, guys like Gutho, Cook, maybe throw in Jamal Fogarty at 7, and yes I suspect I could also get them training well & putting in most weeks… by doing nothing.

he's trying to repeat a formula that worked for him before (Gus is doing his at the Dogs now)

At the Sharks it was Maloney, Barba, Ennis, Lewis, Heighington, all veterans recruited to form a core of experienced talent, that is "reliable and consistent" - instill a better culture for the younger players.

 

[Woody90]

Ciraldo is clearly a great coach. That one could be the biggest error of them all.

I think we need to remember that Gus head hunted Ciraldo to the Dogs from Penrith. Sure we can say in hindsight he would have been a good target, but realistically he was always going to end up at the Dogs.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

I think we need to remember that Gus head hunted Ciraldo to the Dogs from Penrith. Sure we can say in hindsight he would have been a good target, but realistically he was always going to end up at the Dogs.

He would not have done any better than AOB - A rookie coach has more chance of success at a club with a stable front office. Safe to say Gus has delivered on that front + recruitment and junior pathways immediate turn around. With the riff he was starting from near insolvency, with the dogs it's a rich leagues club with resources.

AOB on the other hand has been faced with rookie management, politics and infighting leading to turnstile employment in key areas at the club, such as recruitment and junior pathways. I remember Toohey did an article on it, the staff turnover has been a eye opening - anything but stability leading to success.

 

[HarVeeGee]

He would not have done any better than AOB - A rookie coach has more chance of success at a club with a stable front office. Safe to say Gus has delivered on that front + recruitment and junior pathways immediate turn around. With the riff he was starting from near insolvency, with the dogs it's a rich leagues club with resources.

AOB on the other hand has been faced with rookie management, politics and infighting leading to turnstile employment in key areas at the club, such as recruitment and junior pathways. I remember Toohey did an article on it, the staff turnover has been an eye opening - anything but stability leading to success.

Yep this is always what I come back to with AOB. It’s been chaos around him most of the time he’s been there except maybe, finally, for last couple of years or so. He’s just got on with the job without complaint.

The Knights have also had easily the fewest games with their whole first choice spine together (last time I went through and looked it was literally less than 10% of the time), and it’s just so hard to build cohesion in that situation. More or less every time we’ve had a run of decent victory luck, a winning streak has soon followed. There’s never been any signs of him losing the playing group. And this is just a vibes thing but IMO the % of games I’ve come away from thinking that the team genuinely had a dig, win or lose, is the highest it’s been since the early 2000’s.

4 trips to the finals in 5 seasons is a very good result given he’s always been filling out the roster with kids & other clubs’ rejects, and has had a reserve grade standard halves duo more often than not. Which other club has done that?

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

Yep this is always what I come back to with AOB. It’s been chaos around him most of the time he’s been there except maybe, finally, for last couple of years or so. He’s just got on with the job without complaint.

The Knights have also had easily the fewest games with their whole first choice spine together (last time I went through and looked it was literally less than 10% of the time), and it’s just so hard to build cohesion in that situation. More or less every time we’ve had a run of decent victory luck, a winning streak has soon followed. There’s never been any signs of him losing the playing group. And this is just a vibes thing but IMO the % of games I’ve come away from thinking that the team genuinely had a dig, win or lose, is the highest it’s been since the early 2000’s.

4 trips to the finals in 5 seasons is a very good result given he’s always been filling out the roster with kids & other clubs’ rejects, and has had a reserve grade standard halves duo more often than not. Which other club has done that?

The media dramatically shapes public perception .

I've posted before, compare to the Roosters, they still have a formidable roster, yet any chance of success is downplayed. They still have 4 current SOO players in the pack. A Wallaby, former SOO winger, England international, and a former Aust Captain in the backline.

Give AOB the cattle, stability, and resources that Robinson has had at his disposal and I'd back the fella to do at least as good, if not better than the "super coach".

 

[Woody90]

I think we also probably need to put the Bulldogs form into perspective. They’re doing great and are very well coached but I’m not sure their style of play is sustainable for the whole season. We saw them run out of steam last year. They’re definitely emulating Penrith’s system well, but the difference with Penrith is that they had/have some legitimate stars in their side so they could occasionally drop the intensity and their stars could get them home. The Dogs don’t really have that luxury. They basically have to be on 100% of the time for their style to work, and I suspect that will be hard to do for the entire season, especially in the back end when the top teams start to click.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Ciraldo has done a fantastic job getting the buy in he has and getting them up all the time with that enthusiasm clearly shows he can coach…it’s round 5 though…it’s a very long season and we don’t really know how they’ll go sustaining that intensity all year. They couldn’t last year.

 

[Woody90]

He would not have done any better than AOB - A rookie coach has more chance of success at a club with a stable front office. Safe to say Gus has delivered on that front + recruitment and junior pathways immediate turn around. With the riff he was starting from near insolvency, with the dogs it's a rich leagues club with resources.

AOB on the other hand has been faced with rookie management, politics and infighting leading to turnstile employment in key areas at the club, such as recruitment and junior pathways. I remember Toohey did an article on it, the staff turnover has been a eye opening - anything but stability leading to success.

Yep. There’s absolutely no way as a rookie coach he was going to come to the Knights who he knows first hand had poor management instead of the Dogs where Gus already was who he worked with at Penrith.

So really the “we should have signed Ciraldo” is null and void because it never would have happened even if we were interested.

The only one I would have gone for would have been Flanno, but he’s also showing now that a coach can’t do much with 2 crap halves. Not sure he would have done any better here than AOB. His recruitment has become really negative too. I’d be horrified if we had have signed Klemmer tbh.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

The dogs are far from the finished product. They'll hit their straps in the next 2-3 years or so. As they filter out those multi positional bargain buys and the juniors start to come though.

 

[Woody90]

The dogs are far from the finished product. They'll hit their straps in the next 2-3 years or so. As they filter out those multi positional bargain buys and the juniors start to come though.

Yeah I think their next step needs to be either buying or developing a couple of genuine attacking threats in the spine that can get them home if their grinding/intensity isn’t there 100% of the time.

 

[Knight Tales]

It won’t surprise me at all if AOB walks into the Storm job one day when Belly decides he is finally done.

 

[HarVeeGee]

I think we also probably need to put the Bulldogs form into perspective. They’re doing great and are very well coached but I’m not sure their style of play is sustainable for the whole season. We saw them run out of steam last year. They’re definitely emulating Penrith’s system well, but the difference with Penrith is that they had/have some legitimate stars in their side so they could occasionally drop the intensity and their stars could get them home. The Dogs don’t really have that luxury. They basically have to be on 100% of the time for their style to work, and I suspect that will be hard to do for the entire season, especially in the back end when the top teams start to click.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Ciraldo has done a fantastic job getting the buy in he has and getting them up all the time with that enthusiasm clearly shows he can coach…it’s round 5 though…it’s a very long season and we don’t really know how they’ll go sustaining that intensity all year. They couldn’t last year.

It’ll be more achievable with an injection of more dominant athletes into the side. Everybody’s job gets easier. Unfortunately I think Leo will be a very good buy for them for that reason.

 

[Loose Cannon]

I think we also probably need to put the Bulldogs form into perspective. They’re doing great and are very well coached but I’m not sure their style of play is sustainable for the whole season. We saw them run out of steam last year. They’re definitely emulating Penrith’s system well, but the difference with Penrith is that they had/have some legitimate stars in their side so they could occasionally drop the intensity and their stars could get them home. The Dogs don’t really have that luxury. They basically have to be on 100% of the time for their style to work, and I suspect that will be hard to do for the entire season, especially in the back end when the top teams start to click.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Ciraldo has done a fantastic job getting the buy in he has and getting them up all the time with that enthusiasm clearly shows he can coach…it’s round 5 though…it’s a very long season and we don’t really know how they’ll go sustaining that intensity all year. They couldn’t last year.

Almost everybody here in the Knights forum has underestimated Canterbury for 18 months plus, but they’re doing everything right. I love the Dogs, they were my first, and for years still my favourites. It was only technology and familiarity on this site that pushed the Knights to #1, despite 25 years prior of wanting the locals to be where my heart truly lies. I will always appreciate the contributors here for giving me that outlet, despite us all being basically anonymous.

Gould/Ciraldo have them on the fast track, and I don’t doubt them, watching closely as I do. They maybe are still a year away, but they will be top4 for a decade to come, I have no doubt.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

Almost everybody here in the Knights forum has underestimated Canterbury for 18 months plus, but they’re doing everything right. I love the Dogs, they were my first, and for years still my favourites. It was only technology and familiarity on this site that pushed the Knights to #1, despite 25 years prior of wanting the locals to be where my heart truly lies. I will always appreciate the contributors here for giving me that outlet, despite us all being basically anonymous.

Gould/Ciraldo have them on the fast track, and I don’t doubt them, watching closely as I do. They maybe are still a year away, but they will be top4 for a decade to come, I have no doubt.

As a Knights supporter it's frustrating to watch how quickly a club can be turned around when real professionals are running the show.

They'll likely win a Premiership before we will.

 

[Woody90]

Almost everybody here in the Knights forum has underestimated Canterbury for 18 months plus, but they’re doing everything right. I love the Dogs, they were my first, and for years still my favourites. It was only technology and familiarity on this site that pushed the Knights to #1, despite 25 years prior of wanting the locals to be where my heart truly lies. I will always appreciate the contributors here for giving me that outlet, despite us all being basically anonymous.

Gould/Ciraldo have them on the fast track, and I don’t doubt them, watching closely as I do. They maybe are still a year away, but they will be top4 for a decade to come, I have no doubt.

My post wasn’t intended to be offensive or criticise the Dogs or what they’re doing at all. I apologise if it did though as an ex/partial Dogs supporter. I also don’t think everyone here underestimated them. I had them in my top 4 this year (along with Storm, Broncos and Panthers).

All I said is that it’s a long season and I have concerns they’ll be able to maintain their playing style right to the end. They couldn’t last year. It’s a very long season and they might find it a bit difficult come finals time against a fresh Storm or Broncos who have been able to coast a bit more due to the stars in their sides.

Most of my post was praising them though. Put it this way id be a lot more optimistic about their future than I am about ours as a Knights fan (although that’s mostly to due with Gus’ leadership at the top level - would love to have someone like that here).

 

[Loose Cannon]

My post wasn’t intended to be offensive or criticise the Dogs or what they’re doing at all. I apologise if it did though as an ex/partial Dogs supporter. I also don’t think everyone here underestimated them. I had them in my top 4 this year (along with Storm, Broncos and Panthers).

All I said is that it’s a long season and I have concerns they’ll be able to maintain their playing style right to the end. They couldn’t last year. It’s a very long season and they might find it a bit difficult come finals time against a fresh Storm or Broncos who have been able to coast a bit more due to the stars in their sides.

Most of my post was praising them though. Put it this way id be a lot more optimistic about their future than I am about ours as a Knights fan (although that’s mostly to due with Gus’ leadership at the top level - would love to have someone like that here).

Nah mate, I did‘t take offence to your statement, and everyone is entitled to their views regardless. I apologise if my response came across that way.

I guess it’s difficult to convey in writing without seeming defensive. My intended position is that it is likely that neutrals haven’t followed the progression of a random club as intently as those with a higher interest. It’s presumptuous of me to assume that of anyone’s opinion, but we are in the Knights thread, so………

Anyway, from my personal experience, believe it or not, my peak Knights appreciation was watching the growth in the seasons during and following the three spoons. It was painful, yes, but coming out the other side is so rewarding. I have always cheered for the underdog, and Canterbury have come off the same basement level performances. I honestly think they will get to that “Consistent Top 4” level before the Knights, despite being half a decade behind in the rebuild. Very frustrating from the position of a Knights fan.

Cheers.

 

[slotmachine]

I honestly think they will get to that “Consistent Top 4” level before the Knights

Absolutely, put your house on it

 

[Apey]

Not doubting what Gus et al have accomplished at all but a Sydney club will always be a hell of a lot easier to turn around than ours. No chance we sign any of the Penrith players that are now their leaders for similar amounts of money etc.

Similarly the Tigers. I said before the season started they have a good chance of finishing above us this year.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

in terms of the amount of juniors, where does Newcastle rank? Genuine question as I have no idea. I keep reading we have a huge nursery. Compared to other clubs where do we actually sit.