Any word on when they might have a crack at a premiership? Or is it baby steps?
Mate, it's very easy to hate Ricky Stuart, and it's fun and enjoyable to criticise him, but the reality is that, since Brian Smith left this club, ALL his good work went straight to hell.
Brian Smith is considered a choker, but what he did to this club cannot be denied:
* We made the Finals 8 out of his 10 years at the helm;
* He set up a great junior retention and recruitment system;
* He was always able to attract either decent names to the club, or average players that played out of their skins for us (Adam Peek, Brad Drew, Lee Hopkins, etc. - all solid for us).
Smith left, Hagan arrived and immediately he set plans in motion to f**k everything up. He let go of several talented youngsters (including Trent Hodkinson) and brought in Brett Finch; he refused to attend our lower grades to scout our talent and attracted questionable players to the club; and he instilled no discipline at the club, often leaving it to Nathan Cayless and Nathan Hindmarsh to discipline ill-mannered youngsters.
And when he let the pressure get to him, he f**ked off, and Daniel Anderson came in. Now, he knew what he was doing, but he seemed to offer no clear plan - but even if he did, the board wanted nothing to do with him and kicked him out before he could make any tangible changes.
Enter Steve Kearney. I think that, at a club that wasn't a basket case, Kearney could have made a decent coach. But it was all too much for him as a rookie and he failed miserably. Even though he was asked to stand down, he did some good things - Morgan, Loko and Sio all got their NRL starts under him, and he brought Peter Nolan to our club to look after our young recruitment.
Ultimately, though, it was for nought.
But my point is that, love Stuart or hate him, he has a mammoth task ahead of him, and I think he is 100% right to say that to fix the f**k-ups of coaches after Smith will take time.
