Adam O'Brien replacement?

The stuff about Craig Fitzgibbon, master recruiter, is a bit of revisionist history too.

Nicho Hynes was not this hugely sought after recruitment target, he was the fallback after they failed to sign Adam Reynolds. They massively overpaid what everyone else was offering to get him, and it was seen as a blunder at the time. Obviously it worked out well but he was not their first choice and it was a big risk.

Similarly, they got Finucane by offering way more money and more years than everyone else, and their fans are combing Shark Park trying to find the receipt every week now.

Which other big splashes in the player market have we seen from Cronulla?
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
The stuff about Craig Fitzgibbon, master recruiter, is a bit of revisionist history too.

Nicho Hynes was not this hugely sought after recruitment target, he was the fallback after they failed to sign Adam Reynolds. They massively overpaid what everyone else was offering to get him, and it was seen as a blunder at the time. Obviously it worked out well but he was not their first choice and it was a big risk.

Similarly, they got Finucane by offering way more money and more years than everyone else, and their fans are combing Shark Park trying to find the receipt every week now.

Which other big splashes in the player market have we seen from Cronulla?
Click to expand...
None, because Morris out together a handy young squad.
 
Unemployed CoachWhisperer said:
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....
Click to expand...
That is supposed to Parr's position
 
slotmachine said:
The reality is if there was a can't miss replacement for AOB he'd probably already be gone. Every candidate has a question mark on them
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s not like Morris has won a bunch of comps, but he sticks out as the best of those question marks, purely because he’s the only guy who’s been sacked in recent years where I thought he was really, really hard done by.

Could make a case for Hook too (the Dragons board seemed to think they’ve furnished him with an elite roster when in reality he’s done well to avoid the spoon) but he seems like a prick, so **** him.
 
Billy said:
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.
Click to expand...
Saw Petersen is lining up for Souths in Jersey Flegg as of the last couple of weeks too.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yeah it’s not like Morris has won a bunch of comps, but he sticks out as the best of those question marks, purely because he’s the only guy who’s been sacked in recent years where I thought he was really, really hard done by.

Could make a case for Hook too (the Dragons board seemed to think they’ve furnished him with an elite roster when in reality he’s done well to avoid the spoon) but he seems like a prick, so **** him.
Click to expand...
Definitely no to Hook, he will just buy random QLD cup players and old Broncos rejects.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
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.
Click to expand...
He also had to contend with salary cap penalties from the previous Shane Flanagan regime. He couldn’t spend 100% of his cap for the entire time he was coach.
 
Unemployed CoachWhisperer said:
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!!
Click to expand...
I agree with most of what you say but why do you think the Walker brothers wouldn’t be beneficial? That team they coached to grand final glory a few years ago was outstanding to watch, play was unorthodox but ball movement and high energy style was too much for opposing teams. I don’t know what they’ve done since but that team was exceptional to watch. I absolutely hated Chris Walker as a player though he was a rat.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
The stuff about Craig Fitzgibbon, master recruiter, is a bit of revisionist history too.

Nicho Hynes was not this hugely sought after recruitment target, he was the fallback after they failed to sign Adam Reynolds. They massively overpaid what everyone else was offering to get him, and it was seen as a blunder at the time. Obviously it worked out well but he was not their first choice and it was a big risk.

Similarly, they got Finucane by offering way more money and more years than everyone else, and their fans are combing Shark Park trying to find the receipt every week now.

Which other big splashes in the player market have we seen from Cronulla?
Click to expand...
Have you ever listened to Hynes talk about signing for Cronulla? I actually agree with you about Finucane, but also a leader that strong is probably worth what he has brought to the Sharks.

I guess for the record I would not be excited if AOB was sacked Monday and Morris was appointed on Tuesday. Are you Harvee?
 
Morris has a hell of a cv
300 NRL games across multiple clubs and multiple positions
Several Uni qualifications. He was studying at Uni when he was playing lower grades for us and he's kept studying.
He started coaching juniors at Cronulla when he was still playing firstgrade as an assistant coach, and when he stopped playing he coached NYC to a minor premiership and got NYC coach of the year.
In firstgrade he got into the finals both times he coached for a full year.

O'Brien - 0 tertiary qualifications
Morris - 2 degrees and a masters

O'Brien - 0 NRL games
Morris - 300 NRL games in all the key positions except fullback

O'Brien - 0 head coaching experience before joining the Knights
Morris - NYC Minor premiership - NYC coach of the year - two top 8 finishes in NRL
 
Billy said:
Morris has a hell of a cv
300 NRL games across multiple clubs and multiple positions
Several Uni qualifications. He was studying at Uni when he was playing lower grades for us and he's kept studying.
He started coaching juniors at Cronulla when he was still playing firstgrade as an assistant coach, and when he stopped playing he coached NYC to a minor premiership and got NYC coach of the year.
In firstgrade he got into the finals both times he coached for a full year.

O'Brien - 0 tertiary qualifications
Morris - 2 degrees and a masters

O'Brien - 0 NRL games
Morris - 300 NRL games in all the key positions except fullback

O'Brien - 0 head coaching experience before joining the Knights
Morris - NYC Minor premiership - NYC coach of the year - two top 8 finishes in NRL
Click to expand...
www.perthnow.com.au

John Morris underrated in NRL coach debate: Demetriou

Jason Demetriou has suggested John Morris should be in the mix for a head coaching job as St George Illawarra continue sounding out candidates for 2024.
www.perthnow.com.au www.perthnow.com.au
 
MBQLD said:
I agree with most of what you say but why do you think the Walker brothers wouldn’t be beneficial? That team they coached to grand final glory a few years ago was outstanding to watch, play was unorthodox but ball movement and high energy style was too much for opposing teams. I don’t know what they’ve done since but that team was exceptional to watch. I absolutely hated Chris Walker as a player though he was a rat.
Click to expand...
I would love to see the Walker brothers coach a team in the NRL too. Just not the Knights.
The whole style would stuff an NRL team IMHO. Not just with results but the roster and juniors and... everything.
They won a GF in 2015, but they coached the club for 9 seasons. The overall results are not impressive.
  • 2011: 5th
  • 2012: 5th
  • 2013: 5th
  • 2014: 5th
  • 2015: 3rd (Premiers)
  • 2016: 7th
  • 2017: 7th
  • 2018: 6th
  • 2019: 9th
It came off in 2015 and never again and no other club has been willing to go there. I don't think that style of play would work at NRL level.
I think it would be a disaster. They worked out how to beat that style of play in Q Cup. I don't think NRL teams would have any trouble dismantling that. Maybe I'm wrong... But I don't want the Knights to be the guinea pigs. I'm barely coping with 4 years of AOB.
 
Unemployed CoachWhisperer said:
I would love to see the Walker brothers coach a team in the NRL too. Just not the Knights.
The whole style would stuff an NRL team IMHO. Not just with results but the roster and juniors and... everything.
They won a GF in 2015, but they coached the club for 9 seasons. The overall results are not impressive.
  • 2011: 5th
  • 2012: 5th
  • 2013: 5th
  • 2014: 5th
  • 2015: 3rd (Premiers)
  • 2016: 7th
  • 2017: 7th
  • 2018: 6th
  • 2019: 9th
It came off in 2015 and never again and no other club has been willing to go there. I don't think that style of play would work at NRL level.
I think it would be a disaster. They worked out how to beat that style of play in Q Cup. I don't think NRL teams would have any trouble dismantling that. Maybe I'm wrong... But I don't want the Knights to be the guinea pigs. I'm barely coping with 4 years of AOB.
Click to expand...
Fair enough mate, thanks for the breakdown too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top