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Sack Adam O'Brien

H

HarVeeGee

Juniors
Messages
287
We had a long run of producing seemingly no one but we’ve been on the up lately. Over the last five years we’ve seen Best, Lucas, Crossland, Sharpe, Jones, Croker, Cant, Leo & McEwen make NRL debuts as Knights and remain with the club until as of this year (only Leo moving on next year). Whether local juniors or lower grades washouts/poachees from other clubs, these are all players where the bulk of their development towards being real NRL players happened with us. That’s a better list than about half the clubs in the comp over the same period I reckon.

The decade or so before that doesn’t make for nice reading by comparison.
 
Woody90

Woody90

Bench
Messages
2,909
HarVeeGee said:
We had a long run of producing seemingly no one but we’ve been on the up lately. Over the last five years we’ve seen Best, Lucas, Crossland, Sharpe, Jones, Croker, Cant, Leo & McEwen make NRL debuts as Knights and remain with the club until as of this year (only Leo moving on next year). Whether local juniors or lower grades washouts/poachees from other clubs, these are all players where the bulk of their development towards being real NRL players happened with us. That’s a better list than about half the clubs in the comp over the same period I reckon.

The decade or so before that doesn’t make for nice reading by comparison.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately our junior system really took a big hit during the Bennett/Tinkler period, and we paid for that recently. Nathan Brown was not a good first grade coach, but to his credit he really took his role as the head coach of the club seriously and he really made an effort to help the club build back the nursery and we're seeing the benefits of that now (and AOB to his credit has done a good having them ready for FG when selected).

When it comes to your pathways systems you don't see effects of good or bad decisions instantaneously. We're now starting to see the benefits of work the club put in 5-10 years ago (likewise before recently we were seeing the effects of some bad decisions before that).
 
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Dr Dr Gimedanews

Dr Dr Gimedanews

Juniors
Messages
1,359
HarVeeGee said:
We had a long run of producing seemingly no one but we’ve been on the up lately. Over the last five years we’ve seen Best, Lucas, Crossland, Sharpe, Jones, Croker, Cant, Leo & McEwen make NRL debuts as Knights and remain with the club until as of this year (only Leo moving on next year). Whether local juniors or lower grades washouts/poachees from other clubs, these are all players where the bulk of their development towards being real NRL players happened with us. That’s a better list than about half the clubs in the comp over the same period I reckon.

The decade or so before that doesn’t make for nice reading by comparison.
Click to expand...
Yeh I think AOB has proven he can develop players into good first graders, and make the most of the cattle he's been given.

The recruitment and retention since Browny left, and prior to Sully's arrival, was nothing short of abysmal.

The number of juniors on the horizon is promising.
 
Yosh

Yosh

Coach
Messages
12,171
We losing the game, someone do some coaching/managing/directing please! Stop sending our smallest blokes right up the middle to get smashed by their biggest blokes. Changes something please!
 
Woody90

Woody90

Bench
Messages
2,909
Give it up mate. They won’t sack him until next year at the earliest. I do wonder though if he has another bizzare clause if we finish below 12th (seriously I still can’t believe that).
 
Mr_Knightside

Mr_Knightside

Juniors
Messages
2,463
AOB isn’t coaching the team to make errors. That’s not on him. That’s poor discipline from the team and a lack of on field leadership from our more experienced players. Honestly I really feel for AOB right now because he’s just being absolutely stitched up by a bunch of players being completely incompetent.
 
Jono078

Jono078

Referee
Messages
21,276
Over the past 25 seasons, the worst attacking team (in the NRL - not just Newcastle) was the 2016 Newcastle Knights who averaged 12.7 points per game.

This mob, the 2025 Knights, as things currently stand, average 8.4 points per game.

It could also be the worst attacking performance for the opening 5 rounds but I'd have to really dig through the archives to figure that out.

EDIT: Ok the Bulldogs were quite rubbish in 2020 or 2021 and only avg like 6 points across first 5 games.
 
Yosh

Yosh

Coach
Messages
12,171
Mr_Knightside said:
AOB isn’t coaching the team to make errors. That’s not on him. That’s poor discipline from the team and a lack of on field leadership from our more experienced players. Honestly I really feel for AOB right now because he’s just being absolutely stitched up by a bunch of players being completely incompetent.
Click to expand...
It is. He should have them mentally primed for the game. It's a pattern now.
 
perverse

perverse

Referee
Messages
27,005
Mr_Knightside said:
AOB isn’t coaching the team to make errors. That’s not on him. That’s poor discipline from the team and a lack of on field leadership from our more experienced players. Honestly I really feel for AOB right now because he’s just being absolutely stitched up by a bunch of players being completely incompetent.
Click to expand...
It's his job to prepare them, and you can't sack the whole team.
 
Apey

Apey

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
28,590
Mr_Knightside said:
AOB isn’t coaching the team to make errors. That’s not on him. That’s poor discipline from the team and a lack of on field leadership from our more experienced players. Honestly I really feel for AOB right now because he’s just being absolutely stitched up by a bunch of players being completely incompetent.
Click to expand...
Its part of a coaches job to get the team up for games mate. Their heads aren't in it and that's not just on them.
 
Mr_Knightside

Mr_Knightside

Juniors
Messages
2,463
The Axe of Druss said:
I hate when punters rollout the lines "it's not the coach dropping the ball/missing tackles" etc but it's very apt here for our side. I cannot see where this shit that the team has rolled out lately can be blamed on AOB.
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Exactly. The team literally hasn’t given themselves a chance over the last few games. If we were holding the ball and failing to ice our chances that’s on the coach, but the complete lack of ball security and constantly giving away penalties is on the players.

Problem is I don’t know where we go to from here, the experienced players have been just as bad as the rookies. So who do you drop and who do you bring in? The injury crisis that we’re under right now doesn’t help things either.
 
R

ryan.a87

Juniors
Messages
929
What other coaches out there could take over?

Flannagan would have been great

Heard Jason Taylor doing good things at dogs

is McDermott (spelling?) any good?
 
Loose Cannon

Loose Cannon

Bench
Messages
4,284
The Axe of Druss said:
I hate when punters rollout the lines "it's not the coach dropping the ball/missing tackles" etc but it's very apt here for our side. I cannot see where this shit that the team has rolled out lately can be blamed on AOB.
Click to expand...
Not
The Axe of Druss said:
I hate when punters rollout the lines "it's not the coach dropping the ball/missing tackles" etc but it's very apt here for our side. I cannot see where this shit that the team has rolled out lately can be blamed on AOB.
Click to expand...
Not blaming him for dropping the ball. But I will blame him for not instilling a system where dropping the ball is unacceptable.

It’s society across the board.
 
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