Stone sacked, Buderus caretaker

[Burns]

Stone sacked effective immediately, Danny to fill in til year end.

Breaking all over Twitter, source is Daily Telegraph.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/newcastle-knights-to-sack-coach-rick-stone-appoint-danny-buderus-as-stand-in-boss/story-fnp0lyn3-1227458750674

Gee, this will make Wednesday's Members forum interesting.

 

[Haffa]

Had to happen. There really was no other course of action they could take.

 

[otori]

Wow. I'm surprised. I thought they wouldn't cut the cord until early next year. Obviously the Souths game was the straw that broke the camels back

 

[Nuffy]

He forced them to make a decision through drifting along for months re team performance.

I feel sorry for him on a personal level but he didn't save himself and allowed the under performing players to sink him.

Credit to the club for making the tough call.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Finally some accountability. I get the impression there has been a riff between Stone and some players for a while.
Be interesting to see how Buderus goes.
Also feel sorry for him but a stand needed to be taken. Good luck Stoney.
Now for the speculation .....

 

[gUt]

[youtube]6Sih9OVokuQ[/youtube]

 

[Sacrolishes]

Also feel for him personally, but not seeing any improvement just forced hand I guess. Problem is though, as much as it pains to say it, I f Bennett couldn't change the culture of this club, whats a another coach going to do?

Maybe this dreadful season was the wake up call the board etc needed to make the changes necessary. There is apparent clean out happening, but bringing in Lowrie is not the over-hall I was looking for.

Will be an interesting next few months, I'd love Gareth Brennan (sp)? But I feel the ship has sailed with that one, Gould won't let him go. Not sure on Brown, Guess we know he won't take shit as he'll slap it out of you.

 

[Dave_]

Nice clear message sent here. Don't perform and face the spear. Ruthless. Good to see.

 

[slotmachine]

Tied his own noose.

 

[Elephant Hunter]

Nice clear message sent here. Don't perform and face the spear. Ruthless. Good to see.

Not quite clear enough. Take Hagan with him and the message would be

a) clearer
b) more effective for the future of the Newcastle Knights

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

I'm going to agree that I don't think just changing the coach is a solution. We proved that with Bennett. I've also thought that throwing new players in isn't a solution.
I do agree that both are positive steps and if they are part of a change that includes accountability and cultural change then they are major stepping stones (no pun intended).

 

[Burns]

What team will Bedsy name tomorrow?

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Probably copy and paste tomorrow. Possibly changes later.

 

[Dave_]

Not quite clear enough. Take Hagan with him and the message would be

a) clearer
b) more effective for the future of the Newcastle Knights

Ok yes, I thoroughly agree.

Excellent start though. I'd love to see more heads roll.

 

[Noname36]

Happy the club did something but I doubt it will make much difference sadly. This group of players were also epic failures under Bennett.

This is a good start but the clean out needs to go much further. I have a feeling though Stone will be made the scape goat for the whole problem like Bennett was.

 

[Frederick]

My fear is that this is another case of the inmates running the asylum. Ricks clear and public criticism of the senior players has probably put a few noses out of joint around the club, ultimately culminating in Rick losing his job, rather than the players taking responsibility for their poor form.

 

[Burwood]

I'm really torn on this one. On one hand, Stone only has himself to blame because he spent the best part of the season refusing to learn from his mistakes.

On the other hand, I really hope it wasn't a case of senior players going to the board and giving an ultimatum. It is dangerous to give players that sort of power, especially when it is clear to everyone that they are a big part of the problem.

I hope that the new coach that comes in isn't connected to the club and has the background info needed to continue to clean out that senior group of players.

 

[ryana87]

Nathan Brown tipped as favorite to take over next year. Didn't really follow him too closely at dragons. What are peoples thoughts on him?

 

[Swarzey]

Obviously it's all up in the air until they make another decision. If they cut the usual dead wood like rumours suggest then I'll be confident they're taking a step in the right direction but if they don't and we're stuck with a shit bench next year (starting 13 really isn't that bad) then the board needs to come under fire.

It's a good first step but hopefully the internal review leads to Hagan following him out the door along with Roberts, Houston and Fa'alogo joining Gidley and Scott on the departures list. Then we can start singling out certain people IMO.

On Brown, I feel he had the very same issues that have plagued us. One of the old boys, didn't have the guts to drop under-performing players. He's done well in the ESL with two titles (I think, or just St. Helens last year) but both Huddersfield and St. Helens don't seem to have benefited from his arrival. It's hard to gauge whether or not he's become a solid coach over there like Trent Robinson did or if he's like Hagan and the QLD side, able to take credit for nothing.

 

[Burwood]

I'm hoping that someone like Brown can open up the player market overseas to us if he were to be coach. I'm still amazed that despite Midley playing overseas for years, we haven't targeted any English players. It really is bit of an uncapped market for us that other clubs seem to be discovering.