Panthers sack coach Anthony Griffin

Gould fires back at ex-Panthers coach Griffin


Chris Kennedy
Thu 9 Aug 2018, 11:35 PM



Penrith executive general manager Phil Gould has hit back at sacked coach Anthony Griffin by revealing assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo tried to resign twice because he could not work under Griffin.

Gould told The Footy Show on Channel 9 on Thursday night that he thought Griffin had embarrassed himself and disrespected staff members at the Panthers the previous night in his interview on NRL 360 on Fox Sports.

Griffin had claimed Penrith's junior pathways program needed to be fixed and the NRL players were not in peak shape.

"That's disrespectful in the highest," Gould said. "I don't think he should have rushed into this interview."

Gould said the fifth-placed Panthers had no chance of winning the Telstra Premiership this year if Griffin remained at the helm.

"They wouldn't have won a premiership the way he was coaching. He's got us nowhere near a premiership at the moment," he said.

"I have utmost respect for Cameron Ciraldo, he's been a wonderful ally for Anthony Griffin. He has assisted that man loyally without question.

"He did come to me and resign twice for the way he was treated by the head coach. Twice. Twice I talked him into staying. I'll just put that out there so everyone knows there is very much two sides to this story."

When asked if Griffin had lost the support of the players, Gould said the issue came to a head after the recent heavy loss to Brisbane.

"I interviewed them personally myself as a group after the debacle up in Brisbane where the coach had taken them on a three-day camp to the Gold Coast, completely cut out all the assistant staff and management and wanted to run the whole thing himself his way and they were beaten 50 points to 18 and the players came back very confused because when things were going good Cameron Ciraldo was giving a lot of the information, a lot of the work, Peter Wallace had joined him in that time and was doing a lot of the work, they were completely cut out the last five or six weeks and the players were confused about not being prepared well enough."

Gould said club officials and the players had protected Griffin from the media as word leaked out about the uncertainty over his future.

"A lot of my disagreement with Anthony was because I had to convince him we were trying to help him, not trying to hurt him. He felt he was being undermined which was the opposite of what we were trying to do. We were trying to help him. He had deficiencies," he said.

"Being brutally honest, he had deficiencies and as a club, we were trying to work through him. I run the club. I made some big decisions about Anthony Griffin. I employed him in the first place. I extended his contract.

"We've protected him in the media, stood up for him in the media, we've tried to help him in a football sense right across the board to help him through and I had full intentions of him seeing out his contract even though our own management has done reviews and said 'this is untenable he's got to go'. That's why he has embarrassed himself in this interview he's done out of emotion.

"Distaste of being suddenly sacked, I don't know. And I get it, I understand someone being emotional about that and I can forgive him for that, I can look past and say that's just him letting off steam but he's hurt a lot of people with that interview and embarrassed himself in front of people that know the truth so I'm not going to stand back and have our club and people denigrated like that."

Gould said he was prepared for criticism from the Wests Tigers and their fans about Penrith potentially luring Ivan Cleary back to the club.


https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/08/09...d-fires-back-at-former-coach-anthony-griffin/
 
If Gould wants to win a premiership all this talk and drama in the media isn’t going to get them very far, it’s only going to be a distraction.
 
Goulds got all the ideas and no Indians running what he wants. Easy solution. Gould to coach. All the dramas go away. Only one to lay the blame on then would be himself. His a Muppet.
 
Gould is the master of spin , no doubt about it.

Personally I watched the Griffin Interview on 360 and I was surprised that given the opportunities Griffen was presented with he didn't bag anyone especially Gould, near as badly as he could of.

There is one thing for sure we will never really know the full story, only the parts that get filled in is what the last person tells us , at he moment its Gould.
 
Gould is the master of spin , no doubt about it.

Personally I watched the Griffin Interview on 360 and I was surprised that given the opportunities Griffen was presented with he didn't bag anyone especially Gould, near as badly as he could of.

There is one thing for sure we will never really know the full story, only the parts that get filled in is what the last person tells us , at he moment its Gould.

I personally think Griffin did the opposite. He basically took a massive dump on the Panthers and Gould and made it sound as if he was the one who got their juniors and team and systems in place to where it was today (which it wasn't as I quoted from an NRL article). In the numerous interviews that Gould has done and written about the Panthers over the years he has not once said Me, me me, the way Griffin has, it has always been "the staff", "we" which is basically was the difference between the two of them and which is why Griffin looks second best coming out of those interviews. And which is why Griffin doesn't have a job at the moment.

Gould botched part of the coaching hiring/firing of Griffin because it has his name to it but it was probably a joint decision between him and the board.

If I am a Panthers fan, I'm absolutely filthy at the way Griffin went about his business on NRL360 which is unfortunate for him because of their agendas and all.
 
Some reports about Griffin's scripted interview
"There are also reports around the recording took near 3 hrs then re edit because he spoke such jumbled up Hook talk he didn’t make sense and they had to keep doing re takes"
'Hmmm so it has been reported that Hook spent 3 hours with the 360 team going over what his answers would be etc and not one of them did any due diligence on him taking the credit for the junior systems etc, and Assitant coach resigning twice"
 
lost a lot of respect for Gus over this he's just looked like a real prick, like he's the boss of everything, so why bother signing someone to run the show ie a head coach when he's just expected to do whatever Gus tells him to do? :shrug:
 
Was one of the more poo poo players running around but has done a fairly decent job coaching the Penrith juniors. Interested to see how he handles first grade.
 
Cleary to stay with Wests Tigers in 2019


Tanisha Stanton
Sat 11 Aug 2018, 10:05 AM



Ivan Cleary has ruled out a return to Penrith, confirming he will continue to coach the Wests Tigers in 2019.

After days of speculation, Cleary addressed a large media contingent on Saturday morning, insisting he had not received an offer from the Panthers and would honour his contract with the Tigers.

Never one to seek the limelight, Cleary appeared anything but comfortable as he read from a prepared statement and spoke of the "misinformation" surrounding his coaching future.

Cleary also made it clear he would not take any questions regarding the issue.

"When I was approached by the Panthers I had no idea it was about coaching their club," Cleary said.

"I was told at that meeting the club was looking at the head coaching position. I advised the Panthers of my ongoing contract status with the Wests Tigers.

"I advised the Chair and CEO of the Tigers of the discussions I had with the Panthers."

Cleary said he had no idea the Panthers were going to sack coach Anthony Griffin last Monday.

"I was as surprised as anyone on the announcement of the dismissal of Anthony Griffin," he said.

"I have not received any offer from the Panthers nor have I asked the Wests Tigers for a release. I am enjoying my contribution at this club and the club is growing nicely.

"I respect the contract I have with the Wests Tigers and I intend to honour this contract."

A move to Penrith would've allowed Cleary to coach his son Nathan. That won't happen next year but the pair openly admit they eventually want to be at the same club.

"It is common knowledge that my son Nathan and I have acknowledged our desire to work together at some time," he said.

"That remains the case."

Despite Cleary's request for no questions on the matter, a few reporters inevitably tried their luck anyway.

But Cleary politely refused to elaborate further and threatened to walk out unless the subject changed.

The Tigers face a do or die round 22 road game against the Raiders on Sunday to stay in the finals race.

"I'm only talking about the game," he said.

"We can't control what other teams are doing. We can only control our own destiny.

"We've won three of our last four and we'll go down to Canberra with a bit of confidence. We understand the challenge ahead and we're looking forward to it."

With the Cowboys defeating the Broncos 34-30 on Thursday night, the Tigers can pull within two points of eighth-placed Brisbane if they defeat the Raiders.


https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/08/11/ivan-cleary-to-stay-with-wests-tigers-in-2019/
 
When the Panther players came out and said after the win against the Raiders last week " we've followed the coach's game plan in the last 2 games, it wasn't working so we done our own thing in the second half " what did evyone think was going to happen ? Griffin was at cricket score odds to see out the year from that minute on.
 
Well the Panthers come back again. Must of been Griffin fault. Ciraldo did good things with pennies juniors???? Are you kidding yourself. That was all Garth Brennan.
 
And Barrett to go to the Pennies but who to the silvertails?

Traditionally they do like to have one of their own coaching. You available 88?
 
Ah good ol Ciraldo, one of the original forum whipping boys. He sure did cop it.

I'm glad Ciraldo is doing something with himself after footy. Top bloke when he was at the Knights.
Guy had one of the worst injuries I had seen in some time when his foot twisted sideways so I'm glad he was able to play again for a bit after that. Good luck to him coaching the panthers, seems to have a good effect on the players, more so then Griffin.
 
And Barrett to go to the Pennies but who to the silvertails?
Traditionally they do like to have one of their own coaching. You available 88?

Even though it was reported months ago that Barrett was seriously considering walking out on the Eagles because of the mess previous administration had put the team under, Buzz reports it as new news and 'breaking' last week lmao.

Still don't know if it will happen yet.
 
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