Adam O'Brien replacement?

Think we are stuck with Obi for now, don’t see a change coming in 2025 especially with our superdoop new recruitment and a new assistant coach will unlikely change what is happening now.
Unfortunately I think the Knights success or failure is in Obi’s hands for at least another season.
Tapping players on the shoulder doesn’t mean they will leave, someone has to want them and then they may not want to move to where they are wanted. The big change is likely to come in 2026.
 
Think we are stuck with Obi for now, don’t see a change coming in 2025 especially with our superdoop new recruitment and a new assistant coach will unlikely change what is happening now.
Unfortunately I think the Knights success or failure is in Obi’s hands for at least another season.
Tapping players on the shoulder doesn’t mean they will leave, someone has to want them and then they may not want to move to where they are wanted. The big change is likely to come in 2026.
It definitely doesn't look like there's much demand for any of these shoulder-tapped players we've got signed long term.

Hopefully we consider that when re-signing players in future.
 
Problem is that no decent player is coming to the knights for market value. The club and it's coach are not going to convince a decent player that there is a Premiership coming anytime soon, so we will have to continue to pay more for players unless they are castaways.
 
We absolutely fell prey to a bit of a cognitive bias thing with some of those contracts for our long-standing mainstays like the Saifitis. We’d invested so much in them, so we HAD to keep them at any cost. They had never done enough to deserve that degree of attachment.
To be far Dan was rated as one of the best props in the game at the time and looked like he could have improved further ,sadly he has gone far in the other direction .
 
Problem is that no decent player is coming to the knights for market value. The club and it's coach are not going to convince a decent player that there is a Premiership coming anytime soon, so we will have to continue to pay more for players unless they are castaways.
Yeah what decent half would want to come to a team whose coach likes them to play ugly . Hardly a good career move
 
We absolutely fell prey to a bit of a cognitive bias thing with some of those contracts for our long-standing mainstays like the Saifitis. We’d invested so much in them, so we HAD to keep them at any cost. They had never done enough to deserve that degree of attachment.
Yep they basically won the lottery !
 
We absolutely fell prey to a bit of a cognitive bias thing with some of those contracts for our long-standing mainstays like the Saifitis. We’d invested so much in them, so we HAD to keep them at any cost. They had never done enough to deserve that degree of attachment.
Yes same with the coach. If they’d played Penrith round 18 last year instead of the Bulldogs he probably would’ve been sacked that week.

Yes the winning streak was really good but it also needed to be viewed in its full context (half those teams season was already over). Ultimately they ended up being smashed in the second week of the finals.

There was no need to rush to re-sign him. No club was desperate to get AOB. They could’ve just waited to see how they started off this year and go from there.

Same with Brailey. They re-resigned him the same year he came back from an ACL for 3 years. Why? He was good player but he was never the second coming of Cameron smith. Why not just wait a bit?

Nobody at the club has earned or deserves anything.
A top spine player like KP, sure, do what you have to but unless they are on that level stop they don’t need to hand out such long contracts.

The club is already handicapped by having to pay overs, don’t make that situation worse by giving out so many long term deals.

With PVL in charge who knows what the game is going to look like in two years time let alone five.
 
As far as I am concerned the only seasons that can be counted ones where the team wins a premiership or has achieved better results than the previous season.

Yo yo results such as finishing in the bottom of the 8 and losing in the first week of the finals and then not making the 8 the next year and continuing these type of results year after year aren’t good enough for me.
 
I don't really even take the view that we should be top 4 necessarily, or even top 8 to be fair.

I've said I believe we have the squad to go top 6, or even finish 4th.

What I want to see, is consistent devotion to winning. I want to see them busting a gut to get there on every play, every defesive set, kick chase etc etc. Just play the damn game like you realise it is a battle over your opponent that you need to dominate. Just playing forcem backs hoping you come out on top just isn't going to cut it!

It just kills me watching games where they appear just not interested in being there. And that is half our games easy. And sure, even playing like that we can beat some other poor teams and chip our way to near 8th place.

I come from the Joey era, from the get go, we were tough uncompromising and hard working team from the coalfields. Through the Joey era we had better talent and the goat, but there was always that keenly honed killing machine running the show which Joey played off the back of.

Last season we went on that run, playing an exciting brand of football and they wanted to be there. We had finally found it and learned what it takes to compete and win, as OB has said over his tenure here, they need to learn this or that lesson, and last season it appears to click.

And that is what makes this season so hard to cop. It seems every off season the squad has a lobotomy and it's back to playing depression football. OB early season was trying to push the line that this is a new squad and they need time, no it isn't it's the same squad less 1 player essentially.

Then the ugly team comment was the last straw for me regarding OB.

If I can see them busting a gut, desperate to win and putting in the required effort, but we miss the 8 I can cop that. But I can't cop this rubbish we got this year.
 
I feel like it was worth the risk, we needed to win for our season and a recurrence of the existing injury would just have meant another strain, with a bye coming up to recover. Pretty unlucky that he did the other one, and much worse.
 
I feel like it was worth the risk, we needed to win for our season and a recurrence of the existing injury would just have meant another strain, with a bye coming up to recover. Pretty unlucky that he did the other one, and much worse.
We have needed to win a lot of games.
He hasn't taken the risk of changing his crap game plan.
But risks a players health who was a big chance of playing for Australia.
Just more reasons for good players to not sign here
 
Did they have years of hamstring issues?

Best is our 2nd most important player imo. Not worth the risk. Especially with his history.
Always a risk of injury in any game. It was an important game for both sides, Best probably felt good enough to play, and medical staff would've cleared it. Poor decision in hindsight though. It is what it is.
 
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