Adam O'Brien replacement?

The best Knights junior side I've ever seen was the 2019 Mathews side. They set records in defence and the only game they lost all season was when Pezet was out injured they had a 2 point loss to the Suaali led Rabbits - but smashed them in the finals a week later.
1 Vea'ila - Cronulla
2 Charlie Thompson - Manly
3 Fletcher Myers - has been at Manly, back to Knights this week
4 Travis Petersen - Knights
5
6 Mitch Henderson - Canberra
7 Jonah Pezet - Melbourne
8 Noah Reed - Parramatta
9 Noah Naigolivia - Knights
10 Jake Crouch - Cronulla
11 Oryn Keeley - Knights
12 Max Bradbury - Cronulla

Those are the ones who have already played reserves or firsts, but they are all still Flegg aged. They were so good that recruiters from all over the NRL snapped them up.
that's sad
 
In regards to AOB. He should have been gone last year. It's been obvious for a long time he isn't up to it. The fact that the Wests group and Phil Gardener in particular have just sat on their hands is a huge problem. The whole success starting in the front office thing. I thought Gardener was supposed to be retiring.

The team has gone backwards under AOB. Remember all the 'getting comfortable with being uncomfortable' stuff. You've made me unbelievably uncomfortable Adam. And the 'you won't make this team if you aren't a good defender.' Seriously?

AOB has driven out so many good juniors or promising juniors and has a thing for rubbish players like Mann and Tuala.
The whole moving KP to 5/8 was ridiculous. It was never going to work. That was just dumb.
Paying KP $1.4 Mil was just stupid. The roster is a mess... Again...

The team list for this week sums up part of AOB's problem. Tuala back in. Seriously. What is AOB's obsession with trundlers.
Dylan Lucas out of the 17. Lucas has been one of our best the past few weeks and was a far better option to replace Gagai than Tuala.

For the love of GOD get rid of AOB. Give the pommy guy the rest of the year and see what replacements are available.
We missed out on the best two because of the Wests Group.

I don't know who to go with as a new coach at the moment. Not another recycled failed coach like Maguire or McGregor or Morris.
The Walker brothers would completely stuff the club for years to come.
The club needs to get the coach right this time so they need to start looking at the options seriously now.
We need to find an Andrew Webster. There must be one out there. Why wasn't Kristen Wolfe given the job after Brown!!
Could'nt agree more except I would not throw John Morris with the other two. He was not a "failed" coach. I thought he did a good job thrown in as an interim coach. Cronulla had Fitzgibbon lined up for a while when Morris come in. I think he could be our Andrew Webster.
 
The best Knights junior side I've ever seen was the 2019 Mathews side. They set records in defence and the only game they lost all season was when Pezet was out injured they had a 2 point loss to the Suaali led Rabbits - but smashed them in the finals a week later.
1 Vea'ila - Cronulla
2 Charlie Thompson - Manly
3 Fletcher Myers - has been at Manly, back to Knights this week
4 Travis Petersen - Knights
5
6 Mitch Henderson - Canberra
7 Jonah Pezet - Melbourne
8 Noah Reed - Parramatta
9 Noah Naigolivia - Knights
10 Jake Crouch - Cronulla
11 Oryn Keeley - Knights
12 Max Bradbury - Cronulla

Those are the ones who have already played reserves or firsts, but they are all still Flegg aged. They were so good that recruiters from all over the NRL snapped them up.
The ones that stand out for me on the list is Jonah Pezet, and Max Bradbury. We could have maybe brought them in this year.
 
Could'nt agree more except I would not throw John Morris with the other two. He was not a "failed" coach. I thought he did a good job thrown in as an interim coach. Cronulla had Fitzgibbon lined up for a while when Morris come in. I think he could be our Andrew Webster.

Morris inherited a side and club with systems he was familiar with, limiting the learning curve.

Morris as Sharks Coach - 50 games 47% W% - sacked
Fitzgibbon - 36 game - 67 W% - building a side to challenge for a Premiership

Morris would get eaten alive by the Knights, probably devouring his heart while still conscious.
 
Happy for AOB to get sacked but Morris cannot be the guy. I’m not sure how everyone is portraying that the Sharks had this terrible roster. They looked better under Hannah the interim and then much much better once Fitz took over (admittedly with some big recruits). The recruits mentioned however only committed once Fitzgibbon was made the head coach.
 
Nick Meaney, Josh King and Jonah Pezet - Storm

Zac Hosking, Jack Cogger - Panthers

Hudson Young, Pasami Saulo, Joseph Tapine, Danny Levi, Zac Woolford, Tom Starling, Simi Sasagi - Raiders

Max Bradbury, Chris Veaila - Sharks (both will probably end up playing first grade)

Jock Madden - Broncos

Beau Fermor, Chris Randall - Titans

Starford To'a - Tigers

Tallis Duncan - Rabbitohs

Kurt Donoghue - Dolphins

Jirah Momoisea - Eels

Billy probably knows of most of the juniors that where at Newcastle and now are elsewhere and are likely to make the NRL.
That is depressing. Many of those on AOB's watch. Seriously, I've never seen a more inept coach when it comes to recognising talent and potential. AOB is hopeless in all aspects. And you can add Ben Talty and Jacob Kiraz to that list. I only just saw Talty joined the Bears last weekend. That is pathetic. He played well in the trials but like so many of the others AOB would never give him a go. Just kept recycling proven duds.

Has there been a worse coach than AOB in the NRL era? Everyday he stays he does more damage to the club and Wests sit on their hands and Peter Parr is missing in action and I don't know where Bedsy is or what he's doing.

If there was at least some sense of hope for the future, I'd take that. It just seems hopeless and pointless with AOB around.
 
Nick Meaney, Josh King and Jonah Pezet - Storm

Zac Hosking, Jack Cogger - Panthers

Hudson Young, Pasami Saulo, Joseph Tapine, Danny Levi, Zac Woolford, Tom Starling, Simi Sasagi - Raiders

Max Bradbury, Chris Veaila - Sharks (both will probably end up playing first grade)

Jock Madden - Broncos

Beau Fermor, Chris Randall - Titans

Starford To'a - Tigers

Tallis Duncan - Rabbitohs

Kurt Donoghue - Dolphins

Jirah Momoisea - Eels

Billy probably knows of most of the juniors that where at Newcastle and now are elsewhere and are likely to make the NRL.
Don't know much about those kids but they could not have been worse than fringe first graders like Mann, Crossland, Fitzgibbon, Hunt, Tuala,

To make matters worse AOB went out and recruited more derp in Hetherington and Elliot. Upgraded and extended a hooker made of glass and only had a fringe first grade utility as replacement back up.
 
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The ones that stand out for me on the list is Jonah Pezet, and Max Bradbury. We could have maybe brought them in this year.
All those guys are technically in their first year of Flegg aged. 2025 or 2026 is the year they'll either be firstgrade prospects or they should be cut.
 
Happy for AOB to get sacked but Morris cannot be the guy. I’m not sure how everyone is portraying that the Sharks had this terrible roster. They looked better under Hannah the interim and then much much better once Fitz took over (admittedly with some big recruits). The recruits mentioned however only committed once Fitzgibbon was made the head coach.
Agree 100% with you and Area51. Morris is obviously a nice bloke but not the guy to get the Knights out of this mess.

I really think the only option now is to give Brian McDermott the rest of the this year and next year with an option for another year or two after that. But he has to be given the full support of the club and the players have to know that. Him and Parr have to work together to stop the player drain, start to fix up the cap, again and get the team consistently competitive. Realistic expectations.

And Gardner needs to get his axxe back here and let the players know that McDermott and Parr are running the show and have Wests Groups full support. We've had too many changes in support staff and assistants so we might have to run with what we've got with someone to replace McDermott as an assistant. Not sure who. Someone with some mongrel in them to help fire this lot up.

I'd love to see Butts have some time with our forwards and get it through to them how a forward is supposed to play. Him and Steve Simpson sorting out the attitude of our current flock of forwards.
 
Agree 100% with you and Area51. Morris is obviously a nice bloke but not the guy to get the Knights out of this mess.

I really think the only option now is to give Brian McDermott the rest of the this year and next year with an option for another year or two after that. But he has to be given the full support of the club and the players have to know that. Him and Parr have to work together to stop the player drain, start to fix up the cap, again and get the team consistently competitive. Realistic expectations.

And Gardner needs to get his axxe back here and let the players know that McDermott and Parr are running the show and have Wests Groups full support. We've had too many changes in support staff and assistants so we might have to run with what we've got with someone to replace McDermott as an assistant. Not sure who. Someone with some mongrel in them to help fire this lot up.

I'd love to see Butts have some time with our forwards and get it through to them how a forward is supposed to play. Him and Steve Simpson sorting out the attitude of our current flock of forwards.
Yeh I think so. 4 yrs is enough to show that he at least has the ship pointed in the right direction. I'd let him finish the season though and appoint McDermott.
 
Pezet is already playing FG
I have to say he was always going to play firstgrade someday from when he was playing Mathews a year early as a 14 year old.
When he was 15 he was training with Flegg and helping Scott Dureau run the Flegg side through their drills before a game. Same year he was the youngest guy picked for emerging blues camp and training with Johns and Fittler.
 
I have to say he was always going to play firstgrade someday from when he was playing Mathews a year early as a 14 year old.
When he was 15 he was training with Flegg and helping Scott Dureau run the Flegg side through their drills before a game. Same year he was the youngest guy picked for emerging blues camp and training with Johns and Fittler.
is this kid potentially our biggest loss in many years? I saw an interview where a storm player was raving about Pezet's ability.
 

Thats a great article. Hits the nail on the head.

Every position in the club should be held accountable for their performance. Setting the standards in the club should be right through from top to bottom. For too long the club has seemed to have an attitude problem, a culture problem. Coaches come and go and the club continues to struggle and look disinterested on field.

The only question to ask is, is OB getting a performance from the squad that would be equivalent to a par performance expected of them. I'd personally rate them well under performing for the squad we have, considering the rep talent we have and not too shabby back 5. We should be higher, and yeah goal kicking improvement would have us higher on the ladder, that pnly means we are converting close losses to close wins.

But many of our games we have looked mediocre but somehow find ourselves not too far behind at the end. Goal kicking may have improved our wins, but not what we are doing with ball in hand, which is not good enough.

I don't know how to run a footy team, or coach one, but I've been watching RL for 40 years, and I know what I like to see. The **** we dish up on the weekly isn't it, save for a few good performances.

If we change coaches, we better get the right coach, that is focussed on culture, and effort, then focusses on attacking football.
 
is this kid potentially our biggest loss in many years? I saw an interview where a storm player was raving about Pezet's ability.
I was gutted when he left and I spent a few years trying to kid myself that he wasn't physical enough to make it, but he defends very well. Damn it.
 
I say we need an entire coaching staff of former Knights halves and hookers.

Head coach - John Morris
Assistant coaches - Kostjaysyn, Holbrook
Specialist coaches - Johns, Buderus
Fitness - Kurt Gidley
Reserve grade coach - Michael Dobson
Recruitment - current Cowboys recruiter Dane Campbell.
Pathways coach - Scott Dureau
CEO - Robbie Tew
Luke Walsh and Brett Kimmorley to coach Flegg and Ball

You know it makes sense.
A lot of that makes sense Billy, but I don't think Morris is the answer. Just my HO of course.

What has been going on with Michael Monaghan and the reserve grade side this year. Selections have been all over the shop.
He had no interest in giving Talty a go either and there's been a constant reshuffling of players in the squad. Don't know how much
influence he's had on the retention of players coming through reserves but it's been very poorly managed.

Actually, who is the Knights recruitment office now? I've lost track. Whoever it is, I don't know what he's been doing...
Robbie Tew is a bit of a left field suggestion but a very good one. The Knights exist today because of him and the deal he struck with Tinkler.
Make him the club supremo with full authority to run the football club with full support from the Wests group who can go back to working out how the people to play pokies for longer. Would he be interested I wonder....
 
Happy for AOB to get sacked but Morris cannot be the guy. I’m not sure how everyone is portraying that the Sharks had this terrible roster. They looked better under Hannah the interim and then much much better once Fitz took over (admittedly with some big recruits). The recruits mentioned however only committed once Fitzgibbon was made the head coach.
Under Morris:
2019 - 12-12 record, lost week 1 finals
2020 - 10-10, lost week 1 finals
2021 - 2-3, sacked after round 5

Under Hannay:

2021 - 8-11, no finals

How is that “better”?

In terms of the quality of his roster, the thing he gets credit for is maintaining respectability while overseeing a huge roster turnover.

Only 6 of the players who lined up for Cronulla’s finals game in 2020, played in their finals game in 2019. This includes an entirely new back 5, a new hooker and a different starting middle. Furthermore, Shaun Johnson was comfortably the best and highest-paid player on that team, and Morris only had him at full fitness for about 60% of the games while he was there.

You wouldn’t be prepared to call him the second coming of Craig Bellamy based on that resume, but the dude oversaw a total rebuild of a first grade team, and dealt with a lot of adversity, without using it as an excuse to lose like Browny did.
 
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