Adam O'Brien discussion

If Ponga comes out round one and ****s around. I’m off him. The knights need to start having some hard conversations and accept he’s not as good as he actually is and pull his finger out.He’s probably got the highest ceiling in the game as far as ability but he plays like he’s untouchable. Go watch a turbo highlights package of you need to see an elite level full back
 
cowboyman said:
I mean it’s not as if the rest of the comp have all year to study film as the season progresses…

Heaven forbid you practice them in a trial.
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Yeah and on top of that, let’s say you’re bedding in a new halves combination, surely you want as much “in” time as possible with them in defence, playing next to the guys they’ll be defending next to in live games. If they do swap Clifford & Clune around in round 1, they’ve given them less continuity in the defensive line for no god damned reason lol.
 
packo said:
If Ponga comes out round one and ****s around. I’m off him. The knights need to start having some hard conversations and accept he’s not as good as he actually is and pull his finger out.He’s probably got the highest ceiling in the game as far as ability but he plays like he’s untouchable. Go watch a turbo highlights package of you need to see an elite level full back
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Because this is an AOB thread I will say I had high hopes of him bringing some Storm/Roosters juju to the club. I can’t see this has happened though. If you asked me to name his best coaching attributes I couldn’t really name one. Not saying he,s a bad coach but just hard to pinpoint any real strengths. Whoever idea it was to bring Joey back needs to be thanked, but I don’t think it would be AOBs idea. Basically saying “ I can’t come up with a decent game plan and we can’t score points-someone else can fix that “.
I also think the fact he is one of the only current coaches never to play NRL ( apart from Demetriou at South’s and Griffin at Dragons ) must make the players question his knowledge and understanding of the game at NRL level. Again it doesn’t make him a BAD coach ,but I just wonder what the players respect levels for him are.
 
Gutsy said:
Basically saying “ I can’t come up with a decent game plan and we can’t score points-someone else can fix that “.
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That's a common thing these days I think, large staff all working on individual aspects of coaching. Bennett is the most famous example, the guy basically just man manages while he has all the staff he needs working on the finer details.
 
I think there’s been clear improvement in the majority of our players, and AOB has guided us to consecutive finals appearances with the worst injury toll of any club over a two year period. That’s won him a lot of rope in my book.

FFS you guys do realise that the majority of first grade coaches have losing records, yeah? It’s a hard job and the fact that AOB doesn’t have more losses than wins despite all the adversity indicates he must be doing something right.

I honestly think that if we can just get a proper string of even a dozen games together with the same 17, there’ll be a bit of humble pie being eaten on here.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I think there’s been clear improvement in the majority of our players, and AOB has guided us to consecutive finals appearances with the worst injury toll of any club over a two year period. That’s won him a lot of rope in my book.

FFS you guys do realise that the majority of first grade coaches have losing records, yeah? It’s a hard job and the fact that AOB doesn’t have more losses than wins despite all the adversity indicates he must be doing something right.

I honestly think that if we can just get a proper string of even a dozen games together with the same 17, there’ll be a bit of humble pie being eaten on here.
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Yes im with you there i think AOB is going ok .
 
I still think it's too early to tell, our defence is muched improved and right from the start he has said that is what he wants to focus on. Last year our top squad was defending well, but put one or two fringe guys in and it all went to poo. Going off the trial games we seem to have good defensive structures across the whole squad so I think Obi might be happy with where the defence is at.

Who can say if some of the improved attack we have also seen is all Joey or if they have just spent more time on it then they have before. Maybe a little of both? I don't expect the attack to be brilliant right from the get go but let's home it improves as the season goes on.
 
A few players have said he is a lot calmer this year.
In the Toohey interview yesterday he was talking about new staff and said something like the old staff had been involved in a total of 6 grandfinal teams and the new staff 26. He then made the comment that he was now able to "stay in my own lane".
What I take from that is that he was trying to do everything for the last 2 years because he really didn't have faith in the staff he had.
He talked about having get togethers at the Sunshine coast camp last year and discussing a "dream team" of support staff and going after them.
He also talked about knowing the players much better now, and not just their playing strengths and weaknesses, but also their backgrounds and character.
Another thing he said was that his target was to get a home final this year because "we'll be hard to beat at home, and anything could happen from there".
 
I find it puzzling that people are questioning AOB and his job security. His the first coach to take us to back to back finals since Hagan, his job is as safe as houses for mine. The only reason he would be moved in is if Bellamy or Robinson was coming here.

His getting more out of players, plus our defence has improved over his tenure. The core of our team is not only young but missed a fair bit of footy over the past two years, yet the club has continued to push up the ladder.
 
Billy said:
A few players have said he is a lot calmer this year.
In the Toohey interview yesterday he was talking about new staff and said something like the old staff had been involved in a total of 6 grandfinal teams and the new staff 26. He then made the comment that he was now able to "stay in my own lane".
What I take from that is that he was trying to do everything for the last 2 years because he really didn't have faith in the staff he had.
He talked about having get togethers at the Sunshine coast camp last year and discussing a "dream team" of support staff and going after them.
He also talked about knowing the players much better now, and not just their playing strengths and weaknesses, but also their backgrounds and character.
Another thing he said was that his target was to get a home final this year because "we'll be hard to beat at home, and anything could happen from there".
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Yeah this is all good to hear. Bellyache is the first to tell you that the most important ingredient in his success as a head coach is having the right staff & being able to delegate.
 
Well after tonight's hopeless performance I'm beginning to have my doubts about him. He came here as having absorbed all the coaching wisdom of Bellamy and Robinson but that hasn't transferred to results. Yes we made the semi's for the last 2 years but we were only making up the numbers. We were never any chance of playing in October.
I watched the press conference tonight with him and Ponga and all I heard from AOB was excuses. No sign of these guys were poor tonight and they need to lift their game, just excuses after more excuses. What sort of sign is that sending to these young players. Don't worry if we lose there is always AOB and his bag of excuses to cover for us.
He was bought here to produce results and so far I'm not seeing any. As for Ponga, I've seen reserve grade fullbacks at Kurri or Cessnock contributing more to the team, and they certainly aren't on the $$$$$ that Ponga is but we can't expect AOB to ever read him the riot act it might upset him or his dad.
 
Our goal line defence appears great at the moment. He said pre game that their passes were going to be shorter to combat the wind etc. I really think we saw that and it was like watching us last year. Even with 20 to go they were still playing one out. The sharks beat us comprehensively, in the early stages when the game was in the balance we really need to apply scoreboard pressure. Anyway I am hoping to see a response next week
 
O'Brien made the point in the post game presser that we had Klemmer, Barnett and Fitzgibbon in the first round and said we miss them - implying that the replacement forwards are doing their best, but we are very down on quality in the forwards.
Sharks are a very good side and almost at full strength and playing in conditions that very much suited them because they are used to playing at that stadium that is very exposed to the coastal winds.
I'd still be confident of beating the Sharks if we played them in our backyard and had a few more troops on deck.
It isn't the end of the world to be beaten by one of the better sides with the rub of the green favouring them.
 
I’ll be very surprised at this point if the Sharkies aren’t at least in the top 6 at the end of the year. The media are crediting Hynes but honestly he might have been their worst player last night. That pack is gonna win them a lot of games if they can keep their troops on deck.
 
Warbs said:
I watched the press conference tonight with him and Ponga and all I heard from AOB was excuses. No sign of these guys were poor tonight and they need to lift their game, just excuses after more excuses. What sort of sign is that sending to these young players. Don't worry if we lose there is always AOB and his bag of excuses to cover for us.
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You don't know what's going on behind closed doors, he isn't going to sit there in his presser and skewer guys, especially the Captain sitting next to him. I dont think that's the right way to handle it.
 
Our defence is much improved and I thought that was evident last night. The scoreline was still only 8-0 deep in to Doms sin bin stint and we'd stayed in the game on the scoreboard.

However, completion rates are the key indicator in the early rounds and we were woeful with that last night, despite not running with the intent we have had in the early rounds. This let us down badly. This meant early ball to Braddy was non existent and to Gagai almost the same. The few times Gags got quality ball he had Tulalaki all over the place. In the end his centre got more ball and had a better game.

On Ponga, I agree he had a shocker. To me, the effort was there in as much as wanting the ball, he was following the play everywhere and not getting the pill. It was very disjointed when he did get it and I dare say that running across field looking for runners before taking the defence on is the exact opposite of what Joey wants from him. But it was really only his second game under this style and I expect that to improve out of sight as the season goes on.

Cronulla were very good in conditions that aren't foreign to. They look very slick and have adopted Melbourne's attacking structures from last year, so Hynes has slotted right in and isn't expected to be a dominant half. They ran a lot harder and wanted it more.

To be really honest, I think last night was an effect of the Barnett elbow still. It certainly had a high impact on last week's game and the fatigue and confidence carried over to this game. It really has derailed a promising start to the year. But we will recover.

To Manly, it is the sort of game of I'd expect a response in. But now injuries (and suspensions) are really biting in to our back row spots. I'd go with two guys who are going to tackle everything that goes near them and leave the attack to the spine and centres.

A bad performance last night but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.
 
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