Sack Adam O'Brien

[The Axe of Druss]

He was a better footballer than Brooks. Way better kicking game especially.

His footballing ability in comparison is a matter of opinion

His career, and more importantly his mental state under pressure, is the important parallel here

 

[mozza91]

His footballing ability in comparison is a matter of opinion

His career, and more importantly his mental state under pressure, is the important parallel here

That’s a good point. I still feel Mullen was unfairly maligned.

Other than a handful of games with Johns he never has a quality halves partner. Played most of career behind a pop gun forward pack and when we finally put some quality around him in 2012 and 2013 he started to play to his ability consistently.

Then injuries totally ruined him.

 

[Woody90]

Mullen had one of the best long kicking, passing (particularly his left to right) and running games for a half I’ve seen to be honest. Injuries, weak mental resilience, poor coaching (you name it) though prevented him from ever putting it all together and reaching his potential.

 

[Apey]

Mullen had one of the best long kicking, passing (particularly his left to right) and running games for a half I’ve seen to be honest. Injuries, weak mental resilience, poor coaching (you name it) though prevented him from ever putting it all together and reaching his potential.

Yeah he was like Brooks except faster, stronger, a better runner, a better passer, a better kicker and a better defender.

 

[Zoidberg]

Yeah he was like Brooks except faster, stronger, a better runner, a better passer, a better kicker and a better defender.

And those biceps, mmmmm

 

[ryan.a87]

Bump

 

[Alex28]

Bump

This aged well

 

[Rod]

Extend Adam O'Brien

 

[Loose Cannon]

Extend Adam O'Brien

20 more years.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

I don't know who to blame for that performance and who to praise for that performance

 

[perverse]

I don't know who to blame for that performance and who to praise for that performance

Who could say? We start doing things we never normally do and we catch on fire. If we're all honest, it was the same in 2023. Suddenly we started doing everything competely differently, and it worked. Then it worked some more. It just kept working, so we just kept doing it.

How hard is it to just go out there and let the ball sing a bit? Compete for kicks? Christ it's not rocket science. We're a small side, so move the big boys around. Duh. It was a real joy to watch tonight. We just did a bunch of shit we don't normally do and it came off.

 

[Apey]

Hmm yes it's always fascinating when we come out and play a completely different gameplan than we do 95% of the time and all of a sudden look competent with the ball and even manage to win a game.

It was no different to the rest of our games this year except we started at the 40th minute mark instead of the 70th.

 

[Alex28]

The whole “AOB Ball” thing…

If you watch the presser tonight, he praises Fletcher Hunt. He said that someone in the press said something about Hunt coming up with 4 or 5 errors a game, and specifically said “he makes them going after the game, and I don’t mind if he is competing”

Doesn’t sound like a coach that wants to play conservative footy.

It does beg the question - why do they play like that at times? Why don’t they chase the game more often?

Don’t get me wrong - if AOB can’t motivate them to play more enterprising footy, he either needs to figure it out or get someone who can. It’s in them though.

 

[Rod]

I saw he had a crack at the fans booing in the the press conference as well. Honestly what does he expect after 8 scoreless first halves in 13 games. I'm not a big booing person myself but the team is lucky to have Knights fans, they're some of the most tolerant in the comp the way they keep showing up.

 

[perverse]

I saw he had a crack at the fans booing in the the press conference as well. Honestly what does he expect after 8 scoreless first halves in 13 games. I'm not a big booing person myself but the team is lucky to have Knights fans, they're some of the most tolerant in the comp the way they keep showing up.

Yeah, pretty rich when you've been dishing up dogshit for breakfast, lunch and dinner all year. And for sizeable chunks of every year. The Newcastle fans are more than entitled to voice their opinion of what they see on the field, you potato head. More entitled than most. Bloke should pull his head in.

 

[Woody90]

I saw he had a crack at the fans booing in the the press conference as well. Honestly what does he expect after 8 scoreless first halves in 13 games. I'm not a big booing person myself but the team is lucky to have Knights fans, they're some of the most tolerant in the comp the way they keep showing up.

Yeah surely he can work out that the booing was a culmination of unacceptable performances (especially at home) this season, and not specifically directed at the group of very young players that were out there tonight.

 

[Yosh]

Half time team talk that actually worked!! Hope he learned from it.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

AOB really has a habit of shooting himself in the foot during press conferences doesn’t he. He could have said something like “yeah I get why the fans feel that way given we’ve not played up to their/our expectations” but instead says something to the effect of “the fans who boo the team don’t know anything about RL” which is just nonsense. These people are mostly blue collar and pay their hard earned dollars to turn up and watch this team represent their town, and rightfully so they expect the team and coaching staff to do that in the right way each week, win/lose/draw. So it’s pretty disappointing for AOB to put the fans offside like that.

Just about every RL pundit and fan knows how bad we’ve been this year and basically for the last 5 years aside from a few well timed patches of form but AOB just doesn’t want to acknowledge that and in the process puts his own team’s fans on his case.

The only credit I can give him is that he is absolutely staunch in sticking up for his players no matter what. He really does put himself in the firing line and looks after them like a fatherly figure. I really don’t like a lot of his game plan & strategy but I can’t deny that he’s good at making this team a tightly knit group who want to play for him.

 

[Apey]

To be fair, they also booed in the first half when AOB was on the big screen, lol.

 

[Yosh]

AOB really has a habit of shooting himself in the foot during press conferences doesn’t he. He could have said something like “yeah I get why the fans feel that way given we’ve not played up to their/our expectations” but instead says something to the effect of “the fans who boo the team don’t know anything about RL” which is just nonsense. These people are mostly blue collar and pay their hard earned dollars to turn up and watch this team represent their town, and rightfully so they expect the team and coaching staff to do that in the right way each week, win/lose/draw. So it’s pretty disappointing for AOB to put the fans offside like that.

Just about every RL pundit and fan knows how bad we’ve been this year and basically for the last 5 years aside from a few well timed patches of form but AOB just doesn’t want to acknowledge that and in the process puts his own team’s fans on his case.

The only credit I can give him is that he is absolutely staunch in sticking up for his players no matter what. He really does put himself in the firing line and looks after them like a fatherly figure. I really don’t like a lot of his game plan & strategy but I can’t deny that he’s good at making this team a tightly knit group who want to play for him.

They only started booing after our 8th scoreless first half half of the season. Other fans would have booed following a single scoreless half. What a stupid thing to say.