Sack Adam O'Brien

[Knight Tales]

I doubt Sully’s appetite to extend Kalyn is as strong as it was 2 months ago. He won’t say it publicly, but he knows that the money being forked out is not seeing returns. And you cannot just keep blaming the other 16 players for that alone. He is our leader and he is completely uninspiring. His post match interview with the ABC was a shocker. No disppointment. No real emotion.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

AOB looked like a defeated man in the presser. Honestly I feel sorry for him. He’s trying his best but he’s done the best he can do at this club and to his credit we made 4 of the last 5 finals series under his watch. But he needs to pass the baton to someone else now because things are going backwards at an alarming rate and the team need a fresh voice in order for us to get moving in a positive direction again.

If moves aren’t made now to put AOB out of his misery and at least open applications for a new head coach then we start to lose any momentum we have for 2026 too.

 

[slotmachine]

lose any momentum we have for 2026 too.

Huge huge question marks about the 2026 squad, you don't want a dud coach as well

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Perhaps his worst indictment is the consistency in which a featuring Ponga, Best, Sharpe, Gagai, Frizell etc look totally lost with the ball. It's like natural instinct is coached out of them.

The team doesn't take risks, play naturally, contest kicks, offload, run support players, run decoys... nothing. It's the worst and most boring side you'll ever watch play. This coach does one thing and if it doesn't work, he refuses to adapt or try anything new. He hasn't improved the team at all. His time at the club has all been a waste of time and we have gained nothing for having him here.

I wouldn’t say his time at the club has been a waste of time. At the very least we made 4/5 finals series until this year, and the 10 game winning streak in 2023 was the biggest highlight since the 2001 premiership and gave me the most joy I’ve had as a Knights fan in a very long time. This is my personal opinion of course.

But it’s clear that the flame has burned out and whatever loyalty he has with the players has gone cold or at least the message isn’t getting through anymore.

Time to move on from AOB unfortunately. I think he’ll get another head coaching gig somewhere, maybe in the ESL or another NRL club that is struggling. But I just don’t think he’s having any positive impact here anymore.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Huge huge question marks about the 2026 squad, you don't want a dud coach as well

The 2026 squad is still evolving and we have an elite recruiter to shape it the way we need it but the bloke at the helm needs to know what he’s doing and right now AOB looks like he’s cooked.

 

[Yosh]

Not many NRL gigs out there and chance to coach generational talent in Ponga must be a huge draw. Also the club is sound financially and any success will mean you are adored and loved by a whole city. Anyone please!

 

[Woody90]

AOB looked like a defeated man in the presser. Honestly I feel sorry for him. He’s trying his best but he’s done the best he can do at this club and to his credit we made 4 of the last 5 finals series under his watch. But he needs to pass the baton to someone else now because things are going backwards at an alarming rate and the team need a fresh voice in order for us to get moving in a positive direction again.

If moves aren’t made now to put AOB out of his misery and at least open applications for a new head coach then we start to lose any momentum we have for 2026 too.

That’s exactly it. Credit where it’s due he’s taken us from a consistent spoon side to a consistent bottom of the 8 side, but we’re going backwards rapidly, and if the board don’t stop it by making the change the bad habits will become ingrained and we’ll be right back to where we were under Brown.

If it wasn’t for the financial aspect it’s in his best interest to stand down. We’re 100% heading to a spoon. He leaves now and after a few years he might be remembered as AOB who took the Knights to the finals 4/5 times and get another gig, he stays and it’s AOB that took the Knights to the spoon.

 

[slotmachine]

The 2026 squad is still evolving and we have an elite recruiter to shape it the way we need it but the bloke at the helm needs to know what he’s doing and right now AOB looks like he’s cooked.

It's 90% locked in and the elite recruiter is bringing in players like Annan and Will Sullivan who look miles off first grade.

 

[Woody90]

For what it’s worth, I was just reading the other forum and one of the posters said that the board have called an urgent meeting tonight.

I don’t read the other forum that often so not too sure of his validity.

 

[Knight Tales]

I highly doubt that. It cannot just stop at getting rid of AOB. Hastings has been made a pariah and yet we have little option but to pick him. But one player has been able to stop that! That is absolutely laughable. Especially if that player is close to retirement as rumoured and looking at other options.

 

[Apey]

Hastings is shit. He's marginally better than Gamble and Cogger. If you think we're going to look good all of a sudden with him in the side, you're dreaming. I still would have picked him over Cogger though.

 

[Knight Tales]

Hastings is shit. He's marginally better than Gamble and Cogger. If you think we're going to look good all of a sudden with him in the side, you're dreaming. I still would have picked him over Cogger though.

Cool story. My post has nothing to do with him making us a better side. It is a reflection of how stupid we are that we actually pick others out of spite when the other options are not up to it either. if he is the best of the lot then he starts. If Frizell, as alleged, is such a whipped sook that he actually thinks this is how you operate in a mature world where millions dollars are at stake, then he can hit the road.
Jackson’s mental health is no secret. And yet his partner can upset another’s wife and he gets shafted. What is this? MAFs? Or professional RL club?

 

[slotmachine]

Hastings not playing isn't because of some high school WAGs BS.

The senior players went to AOB last year and said they weren't going to play with him. That was the end.

 

[ALX25]

Inevitable.

 

[HarVeeGee]

I doubt Sully’s appetite to extend Kalyn is as strong as it was 2 months ago. He won’t say it publicly, but he knows that the money being forked out is not seeing returns. And you cannot just keep blaming the other 16 players for that alone. He is our leader and he is completely uninspiring. His post match interview with the ABC was a shocker. No disppointment. No real emotion.

At the very least there needs to be a firm salary ceiling.

$1.4 million for an oft-injured player whose quirks lead to the roster constantly being bent into weird shapes to accommodate him. We don't need to be desperate for him now because we have a natural fullback who can step into his spot + a marquee five-eighth. No sensible team in this position would pay whatever it takes to keep him. Any talk of deals which could go up to $2 million with the cap increases are nuts.

 

[Rod]

Hastings is shit. He's marginally better than Gamble and Cogger. If you think we're going to look good all of a sudden with him in the side, you're dreaming. I still would have picked him over Cogger though.

Hastings not getting a look in to first grade this season has actually been better for his reputation. People are forgetting how bad he was last year and now even media people are saying he should get another crack.

 

[Walk On Home Boy]

I wouldn’t say his time at the club has been a waste of time. At the very least we made 4/5 finals series until this year, and the 10 game winning streak in 2023 was the biggest highlight since the 2001 premiership and gave me the most joy I’ve had as a Knights fan in a very long time. This is my personal opinion of course.

But it’s clear that the flame has burned out and whatever loyalty he has with the players has gone cold or at least the message isn’t getting through anymore.

Time to move on from AOB unfortunately. I think he’ll get another head coaching gig somewhere, maybe in the ESL or another NRL club that is struggling. But I just don’t think he’s having any positive impact here anymore.

The way in which we've scraped into the finals only to get launched right out in unceremonious fashion never really gave me hope or optimism though. The 10 game run was fun but that wasn't coaching. It was the rare form of an elite player. Think Hayne '09, a whole team playing off the back of one guy.

 

[Apey]

Cool story. My post has nothing to do with him making us a better side. It is a reflection of how stupid we are that we actually pick others out of spite when the other options are not up to it either. if he is the best of the lot then he starts. If Frizell, as alleged, is such a whipped sook that he actually thinks this is how you operate in a mature world where millions dollars are at stake, then he can hit the road.
Jackson’s mental health is no secret. And yet his partner can upset another’s wife and he gets shafted. What is this? MAFs? Or professional RL club?

Lol never underestimate any alleged WAGS drama. See: Tapine & Smith/Cronk.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The way in which we've scraped into the finals only to get launched right out in unceremonious fashion never really gave me hope or optimism though. The 10 game run was fun but that wasn't coaching. It was the rare form of an elite player. Think Hayne '09, a whole team playing off the back of one guy.

It’s a fair improvement on what we got for a number of years prior to AOB being here.

Whether people want to admit it or not he’s contributed a fair bit to this club. The idea that he’s been an failure over the last 5 years or so seems very harsh. Yeah he hasn’t taken us beyond week 2 of the finals but he brought a number of guys into the NRL and turned them into half decent first graders (Crossland/Croker/Jones being good examples) whilst Best has played rep football under his tenure and Lucas looks like a SOO player of the future (or maybe this year who knows) and he somehow managed to get a team with a halves pairing of Cogger/Crossland/Gamble into the finals last year.

I know everyone attributes the 10 game winning streak to KP being on fire but literally the whole team was on fire for the best part of 3 months and whatever AOB and the coaching staff were doing at that time was working. They figured out the magic formula and managed to keep it flowing for that period of time which is hard to do. In hindsight they probably got a large proportion of our squad to play out of their skins for a good chunk of time and now the actual real life talent level for a lot of those players is starting to show, and it ain’t up to NRL standard.

He was brought here with the expectation that he would take our team forward after the dumpster fire of the Tinkler/Bennett era followed by the self-sabotaging but somewhat necessary reset of the Brown era, and he has done that, but obviously we all wanted a premiership or at least for the team to threaten for a premiership after all that hardship. That was a pretty high bar to set for a coach not named Bellamy/Robinson/Cleary over the last decade.

I think AOB has taken us as far as he can and I have a lot of respect for him and the way he had this team playing for him. It’s time for him and the powers that be to mutually decide that now’s the time for him to leave gracefully (with a handsome payout I’m sure) and he gets to leave with some part of his reputation in tact. If he somehow clings on for the rest of the year it makes it very hard for him to get another coaching job after this, unless we hit another miracle run like 2023.

 

[aqua_duck]

We’re in such dire straits that a change of coach isn’t necessarily going to fix anything.
As great as Ponga is on when he’s on I think spending all your money on a fullback is not the answer these days because the gulf between a superstar fullback and someone who can do a great job (eg Connor Tracey, Will Kennedy, Keao Weekes, Isaiah Iongi, CNK, etc) just isn’t that big a gulf compared to an elite halfback and an average or below average halfback.
Another huge issue that has been ignored is that we just have not had a decent NSW cup side for years now, as a result the top guys get comfortable knowing that there’s usually no one pushing to take their spot and juniors that transition from Ball and Flegg start developing a losing mindset. If you look a side like the panthers, Sharks, Warriors and raiders their NSW cup sides have been very consistent for a few years now.