Sack Adam O’Brien

Mooney having to "twist" Browns arm to talk to Ponga makes total sense though.

Brown is in there trying to fix the cap, and Mooney comes to him with this whiz kid from up North that likely Brown didn't even know about at all. First time he likely heard Ponga name was when Mooney spoke it to him.

So yeah, I can imagine Mooney coming to Brown going hey there is this kid up North that could be a generational talent, and we need to pull all the stops to sign him. Brown in the midst of getting the cap back in order fairly cautious on splurging it again asks why, why should I talk to him, convince me.

Makes perfect sense from both roles angles. Mooney of course was also and likely more in charge of getting the cap back in shape, but Brown still would have wanted convincing on an relative unknown from up North.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
The main thing Brown kept pushing for was replacing the previous grizzled veterans and former/fringe rep players with different grizzled veterans and former/fringe rep players. We got lucky he whiffed on so many of those. I don’t think he did a great job of developing the kids who came through pathways.
Click to expand...

You can't really peg that on Brown alone though, Mooney would have been on board with those signing as well, might have even been driving some of them.

Hardly fair to say Mooney had to push Ponga on Brown, but it was all Brown signing the veterans.
 
Kurriboy said:
You can't really peg that on Brown alone though, Mooney would have been on board with those signing as well, might have even been driving some of them.

Hardly fair to say Mooney had to push Ponga on Brown, but it was all Brown signing the veterans.
Click to expand...
Also wasn't it Mrs Browns Butter Chicken that got him over the line?
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
LOOOOLLLLL no we weren't! You can look up the date of the "strawberry milkshake" comment (August 21) and look at where the ladder was when that happened.

View attachment 7741

It would have been some effort to make the top four from here, requiring (at the very least) for the Knights to win four out of their three remaining games, and for teams 4, 5 and 6 to all lose four of their last three...

Maybe a bit of Mandela effect going on here given all the chat about how Nathan Brown was 'sabotaged' at the time, but we'd just lost 6 in a row with the team he'd built. Had Ponga and Pearce all season long, both in great form. Probably the best run with injury we've had in the past decade+. He had his chance, he beefed it, the players were totally off him. It was right he got sacked. The next coach did way better the next season with a far rougher trot with injury. Fact.
Click to expand...
Is anyone making the argument that Brown was a better coach that AOB? Im not. I dont think he was a better coach. I think he did his job better than AOB.

That said, AOB had the harder task. Which was to take the team from where Brown had it and continue to grow. Something Brown certainly wasnt capable of. AOB fortified our defence and largely stifled our offence. Im arguing that we went sideways for 6 years and shouldve cut AOB lose in 22'

They made the wrong decision to keep him. They were too cautious and it cost us 3-4 years of our lives, watching the team play on repeat week in week out. Now we're heading into 26" with Ponga likely leaving. Great job Gardner
 
Les Misérables said:
Is anyone making the argument that Brown was a better coach that AOB? Im not. I dont think he was a better coach. I think he did his job better than AOB.

That said, AOB had the harder task. Which was to take the team from where Brown had it and continue to grow. Something Brown certainly wasnt capable of. AOB fortified our defence and largely stifled our offence. Im arguing that we went sideways for 6 years and shouldve cut AOB lose in 22'

They made the wrong decision to keep him. They were too cautious and it cost us 3-4 years of our lives, watching the team play on repeat week in week out. Now we're heading into 26" with Ponga likely leaving. Great job Gardner
Click to expand...
Some people have made that argument.

I agree with you.
 
krustykraz said:
Aidan Guerra was a massive signing for us.
Klemmer was huge.
Chris Highington
Tim Glasby
I rated Jamie Buhrer
You mentioned Pearce and Ponga
Rory Kostjasyn (unlucky injury)

Frizzel? Not sure exactly when he signed.

Not sure of any signings made by O'Brien that were on the level of these players with their experience. (Gagai?)

Did Best come through during Brown era? One of our best juniors in a long time
Click to expand...
That’s great if he was our recruitment manager. Although the majority of those players were here for their retirement fund, only one or two years.

The message when Brown came in was that we had a great crop of juniors. I remember him talking a lot about players only being true first graders when they’d reached 50-100 games, and that investing in these players would reach fruition as we hit that point.

In reality I think the only players he brought through that went on to have a meaningful career with us were the Saifitis and Fitzgibbon.

The tactic then changed to sign a load of experienced hardened pros with a year or two left … and unfortunately he also failed in getting them anywhere near the finals.

Ironically AOB has proven much better at bringing junior talent into the side.

The legacy of the Brown years for me was a middle of the road team which he couldn’t get to perform. For all the pain, it needed a much better outcome than that.
 
jamesgould said:
The legacy of the Brown years for me was a middle of the road team which he couldn’t get to perform. For all the pain, it needed a much better outcome than that.
Click to expand...

I think that fairly sums up AOB's time here as well.

Win half and lose half is by definition average. Middle of the road, couldn't get them to perform (that one run exception).
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
LOOOOLLLLL no we weren't! You can look up the date of the "strawberry milkshake" comment (August 21) and look at where the ladder was when that happened.

View attachment 7741

It would have been some effort to make the top four from here, requiring (at the very least) for the Knights to win four out of their three remaining games, and for teams 4, 5 and 6 to all lose four of their last three...

Maybe a bit of Mandela effect going on here given all the chat about how Nathan Brown was 'sabotaged' at the time, but we'd just lost 6 in a row with the team he'd built. Had Ponga and Pearce all season long, both in great form. Probably the best run with injury we've had in the past decade+. He had his chance, he beefed it, the players were totally off him. It was right he got sacked. The next coach did way better the next season with a far rougher trot with injury. Fact.
Click to expand...
What I was meaning was by around
round 16/17 we were not far of the top 4 and inside the 8 and our season was going alright when **** started to hit the roof that led to the strawberry milkshake incident and Browns release
 
The most surprising thing I've found out in the last week is that O'Brien is only 47.
I'd have guessed 10 years older.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top