Sack Adam O'Brien

[slotmachine]

I don’t think much will change though, especially when you consider the spine will still be the same and we’d probably only be able to afford one of our current assistants who are also responsible for the mess after paying out his contract.

AOB is definitely a problem but we've also wedded ourselves to a KP, Sharpe, Brown, Crossland spine for a few years which is also going to be a big problem.

If there was some way we could send KP packing, play Sharpe at 1 and pay an actual halfback we'd be a better side going forward

 

[slotmachine]

.

 

[Apey]

We've already seen the last of Hastings at the Knights in first grade, AOB had an interview during the week where he said as much.

Didn't he also say he would have played last week if his wife wasn't in his labour?

Can't imagine him making it back unless Cogger, Gamble and Crossland are all down though.

 

[perverse]

AOB is definitely a problem but we've also wedded ourselves to a KP, Sharpe, Brown, Crossland spine for a few years which is also going to be a big problem.

If there was some way we could send KP packing, play Sharpe at 1 and pay an actual halfback we'd be a better side going forward

I agree, but we'd also have been better off keeping KP and getting an actual halfback too. I think the crux of that issue is that we completely failed to get an actual halfback. We couldn't even convince Pezet to come instead of playing reserve grade for a few more years.

 

[Knight Tales]

The presser is not even worth watching IMO. Cut and paste. This week’s trip is likely pouring acid on an open wound. We are getting smoked .

 

[Nuke]

As I've said elsewhere in the last few minutes, I've wanted AOB to bring us success. For all the crap we've put up with week after week, year after year, having something to show for it at the end would have made a lot of it worth it, to some degree.

But it's not happening.

He isn't coaching them to drop the footy repeatedly, give away easy metres, miss tackles, ect. Sure. I acknowledge that.
But ... he's not coaching it out of them either, and that's the concerning thing to me.

That boring 'grinding' game plan with dud kicks totally does not suit our players that we have. That game plan and his lack of willingness to change his plan, perhaps even a lack of awareness that he needs to change his game plan, are also 100% on him.

My tolerance had pretty much run out now, I'm afraid.

 

[Woody90]

AOB is definitely a problem but we've also wedded ourselves to a KP, Sharpe, Brown, Crossland spine for a few years which is also going to be a big problem.

My take on it is that for that spine even have a chance to work, you need to play a less structured, and more off the cuff, support style of game…and that’s completely incompatible with how AOB and Green structure the attack (putting them both in there as the attack coach obviously has a part to play too). Likewise the style AOB/Green want to play likely can work, but it’s not going to with the current spine. AOB’s playing style relies heavily on a dominant halfback (not surprising considering he was an assistant at Storm and Roosters who both had Cooper Cronk).

So really one has to give…and like you said we’ve committed to that spine, so coaching needs to be the one to be overhauled.

 

[Loose Cannon]

O’Brien’s “four grand finals” quote could be etched on his gravestone now.

Or, six years back

 

[Loose Cannon]

We have attracted interest from the wider community.

Despite the trolls, could be worth a read.

 

[Haffa]

5 years of the same shit (10 weeks and Pong-god aside) this team is getting worse. Parramatta aside we are scoring at more half the amount of points per game than every other team in the comp. That's on the back of our supposed "soft start" to the season.

This team is headed for a spoon.

 

[Redandblueman540]

10 game winning streak was the worst thing to happen to the Knights.

Gave them false hope AOB could coach when really it was Ponga playing brilliantly and several players overachieving.

 

[Yosh]

Look. We keep dropping the ball playing safe and boring AOB ball. We start throwing it around and don't drop it. Am I the only one seeing a trend here.

 

[Haffa]

10 game winning streak was the worst thing to happen to the Knights.

Gave them false hope AOB could coach when really it was Ponga playing brilliantly and several players overachieving.

Celebrating that home semi win against Canberra was as close as I will get to seeing them win a GF again. It was probably worth the next 25 years of pain.

 

[mozza91]

I questioned his game plan last year and it’s negativity, it was fine to play that way when Ponga was out hurt but abandoning what worked so well in 2023 so soon was silly.

I don’t know what our game plan is this year because we’ve simply made too many errors to implement it. I get people are frustrated but I don’t think we’ll see much improvement if we sacked him right now.

People seem to think McDermott is the second coming and everything but a few weeks of us dropping the ball at the worst times and giving away stupid penalties and everyone will be off him too.

Missing a large chunk of our already skinny pack has been a disaster. Halves are an issue obviously but Gamble is our best (only option really) and I’m confident Sharpe will get there.

 

[Alex28]

Look. We keep dropping the ball playing safe and boring AOB ball. We start throwing it around and don't drop it. Am I the only one seeing a trend here.

I’m not convinced it is his game plan. Last week he was saying they were too focussed on set completions and less off the cuff footy. It screams lack of confidence.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The dropped balls and poor discipline aren’t on AOB. That’s on the players. The injury toll which so far has removed half of our preferred forward pack from our squad isn’t AOB’s fault either.

We had another 66% completion rate today. That’s now 3 of our last 4 games where we’ve completed at 67% or lower. That is utter dogsh*t and you literally can’t beat any other NRL side playing like that. Then when we do have the ball we look out of sorts because we’re either too fatigued from all the defending we’ve done or we’re dropping more ball because we are desperate to score because we’re already chasing the game.

Let’s say if AOB was sacked. I really don’t think McDermott is the guy to take over either because he’s part of the mess already. I would want someone with a totally different voice to come in. But we’d either be bringing in another rookie coach or dragging in someone experienced who hasn’t coached at NRL level for a long time. There really aren’t a lot of options. Flanagan might have been a good one but that ship has sailed, so who else is out there?

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Honestly, I don’t know where we go from here as a club. We seem to dig ourselves a hole every year and most of the time we’ve managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat towards the end of the year and somehow crawl out of the hole and into the finals but I feel like our luck may just run out in that regard.

Our team is shit, and obviously many people think the coach is shit too. I struggle to think of what meaningful difference people think another coach would make right now, outside of a few of the really top coaches but none of them would ever come here.

Oh and btw we did have a top coach here back in 2012-2014 with a better team than this and he didn’t get us anywhere either, yes we made a prelim but we followed it up with a terrible year the following year and 3 consecutive wooden spoons just to really rub salt into the wounds.

So after all the shit we’ve been through as a club over the last 20 odd years I really find it hard to be that excited about coaching changes because basically every coach we’ve had since Hagan has been a complete disaster one way or another. The one we probably shouldn’t have let go of was Brian Smith and even he didn’t get us into the finals (but probably should have in 2009 if the club didn’t completely botch his contract negotiations) so yeah I really don’t see much point in sacking AOB right now.

If POS can get a couple more decent first graders to the club for next year + Brown then I might start feeling optimistic about 2026 but our forward continue to get rolled over every week none of it makes a difference.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

AOB is definitely a problem but we've also wedded ourselves to a KP, Sharpe, Brown, Crossland spine for a few years which is also going to be a big problem.

If there was some way we could send KP packing, play Sharpe at 1 and pay an actual halfback we'd be a better side going forward

get rid of arguably the best player in the game? Now I've heard it all

 

[Nuke]

I've said this before, but I really would love to see what Gus Gould could do with our club. He'll never come to the Knights, but nonetheless, I'd love to see it.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

In my opinion we've over achieved in recent seasons (and a lot of luck) + 2023 was on the back of a freak.

We have a crap spine, powder puff forwards and a lot of inexperience out there.

I've been critical of the recruitment for some time and copped a lot of flack for stating so. A lot of fans love average cap killers, well enjoy the feeling of today guys. That's what average feels like. That's a roster with misallocation of cap and we're only just starting to change that.

Being happy that a fringe first grader is back and playing in the jersey once worn by an immortal. It's insane.