2023 Recruitment & Retention Thread

Les Misérables said:
The problem we've now got with a coach in the position that Aob now finds himself is that our juniors will likely be denied opportunities behind mediocre but yet more experienced players like Tuala, Mann, Fitz etc.

Aob will be desperate to give himself every possible advantage, even at the expense of the club, careers of young players and the medium to long term future of the club. That's half the danger with Gardner's decision to give Aob a 4th.
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The pressure on O'Brien last season was immense. He will be desperate for results this year, meaning he will do desperate things, such as moving your biggest player from one spine position to another (even though I think that's the correct thing). I don't reckon he'll have a problem dropping players and promoting others this year if things aren't going well, his job, livelihood, career literally depends on it.
 
Joshhh said:
The pressure on O'Brien last season was immense. He will be desperate for results this year, meaning he will do desperate things, such as moving your biggest player from one spine position to another (even though I think that's the correct thing). I don't reckon he'll have a problem dropping players and promoting others this year if things aren't going well, his job, livelihood, career literally depends on it.
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Do you really think so? He did none of these things this year when he was under a lot of pressure. I think he is very conservative and will go with whatever percentages give him the best chance, and not change that. He doesn't seem flexible at all, and he thinks copying the Storm and Roosters with that grinding style of play will answer all our problems, even though it hasn't for the three years he's been here.
 
jamesgould said:
Do you really think so? He did none of these things this year when he was under a lot of pressure. I think he is very conservative and will go with whatever percentages give him the best chance, and not change that. He doesn't seem flexible at all, and he thinks copying the Storm and Roosters with that grinding style of play will answer all our problems, even though it hasn't for the three years he's been here.
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Two years he made the finals, this was his first really bad year. It was just a downward spiral all year where he blamed having an interrupted pre-season, losing Pearce, not getting Brooks etc. If we're still losing games to start next year, the pressure will be way more intense. You think possibly moving Ponga to five-eighth is conservative? I don't necessarily think he's going to change the game plan, but I don't think he's going to hold back on bringing in new guys if everyone isn't performing again. Otherwise he'd just be stupid, accepting the inevitable sacking that will come.
 
Danny Weidler reported in the Sun Herald today that John Bateman was offered to the Knights and some other teams but they all declined as he has had run-ins with other players and he is not afraid to tell coaches what he thinks. Weidler said Bateman has a problem with Hastings but Hastings is not believed to have an issue with him.

Weidler also reported that it is likely that Newcastle will be the team left out of the Magic Round next year. I’m not concerned about the Knights not being included in the Magic Round, the concept does not do anything for me, it only works for fans that go there and attend several games.
 

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Joshhh said:
The pressure on O'Brien last season was immense. He will be desperate for results this year, meaning he will do desperate things, such as moving your biggest player from one spine position to another (even though I think that's the correct thing). I don't reckon he'll have a problem dropping players and promoting others this year if things aren't going well, his job, livelihood, career literally depends on it.
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His desperation will manifest itself in toxic ways, not good ways. I expect, for example, for any young players to be given considerably less opportunity to grow and learn. God help any debutantes who have a poor game. Aob can't afford to give them the time they'll need to slowly fix things. Though, maybe he will and im being cynical.

All I know is, it's been 3 full seasons, and he's always shown bias to high percentage outcomes, even at the cost of effective outcomes. That's his ruling philosophy. I'd be very shocked if that suddenly changes.
 
I think it would be foolish of AOB not to make changes if things aren’t going well next season.

I agree that so far he has been cautious about selection changes. Our tactics don’t seem to change much but this also be caused by the team not executing the game plan, but I think it is more likely that our game plan is to play an attritional type of game.

We need to work on our attack so we can challenge defences more. Our attack this year was very basic.
 
Rupert Murdoch said:
Your damn right he will stick to the same **** he done so far.

He's been In 4 grand finals because of It. 🤣🤣🤣
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A reader's digest type extract of Brian McDermott's coaching credentials below...

McDermott coached Leeds to several major trophies including the 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017 Super League titles, the 2012 World Club Challenge, and the 2014 and 2015 Challenge Cups.

Anyone else feel like we have a very good coach contingency should AOB turn into Humpty Dumpty quite early next season???
Is that a coincidence or did Peter Parr possibly have this in mind also?
Also, last time we had a hard-nosed English coach we were a very tough team to beat.
 
Rough Night said:
A reader's digest type extract of Brian McDermott's coaching credentials below...

McDermott coached Leeds to several major trophies including the 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017 Super League titles, the 2012 World Club Challenge, and the 2014 and 2015 Challenge Cups.

Anyone else feel like we have a very good coach contingency should AOB turn into Humpty Dumpty quite early next season???
Is that a coincidence or did Peter Parr possibly have this in mind also?
Also, last time we had a hard-nosed English coach we were a very tough team to beat.
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either way, could shape to be the assistant coach we need but will also be there if things go sideways with AOB. I'm sure that AOB can turn things around, only time will tell.
 
Rough Night said:
A reader's digest type extract of Brian McDermott's coaching credentials below...

McDermott coached Leeds to several major trophies including the 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017 Super League titles, the 2012 World Club Challenge, and the 2014 and 2015 Challenge Cups.

Anyone else feel like we have a very good coach contingency should AOB turn into Humpty Dumpty quite early next season???
Is that a coincidence or did Peter Parr possibly have this in mind also?
Also, last time we had a hard-nosed English coach we were a very tough team to beat.
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McDermott is a head coach, not an assistant. That's exactly why he came.

He was on the short-list when the club selected Aob. I'd speculate that McDermott was runner up or close to.

Gardiner will get another cheap head coach, without NRL experience in that role. He is gambling with the clubs future to save a few bucks.
 
slotmachine said:
Outside of Bellamy and robbo is there a can't miss head coaching candidate worth throwing bank at?

Those guys are never coming to the knights.
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They don't need to be 'can't miss'. They just need to be proven to be successful. They should be the starting point. There are half a dozen of those types of coaches floating on and off contract.

I hope McDermott can fix us. I just don't like the odds. Good things rarely come cheap. Coach and players alike.
 
Les Misérables said:
half a dozen of those types of coaches floating on and off contract.
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Like who?

Des obviously has the best resume but he's been run out of the dogs and manly now. MacGuire took the tigers backwards. Flanagan is a cheat no one wants to touch. We already tried Bennett. Green passed on unfortunately. I can understand wests not wanting to throw money at those guys tbh.

That's probably the list (with Bellamy/robbo/cleary) of anyone who's won the comp on the last 20 odd years.
 
Rough Night said:
A reader's digest type extract of Brian McDermott's coaching credentials below...

McDermott coached Leeds to several major trophies including the 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017 Super League titles, the 2012 World Club Challenge, and the 2014 and 2015 Challenge Cups.

Anyone else feel like we have a very good coach contingency should AOB turn into Humpty Dumpty quite early next season???
Is that a coincidence or did Peter Parr possibly have this in mind also?
Also, last time we had a hard-nosed English coach we were a very tough team to beat.
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I like the line of thinking, the only spanner In the works would be Phil Gardiner from my point of view should the season blow out early on.
 
slotmachine said:
Like who?

Des obviously has the best resume but he's been run out of the dogs and manly now. MacGuire took the tigers backwards. Flanagan is a cheat no one wants to touch. We already tried Bennett. Green passed on unfortunately. I can understand wests not wanting to throw money at those guys tbh.

That's probably the list (with Bellamy/robbo/cleary) of anyone who's won the comp on the last 20 odd years.
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Lets take those three. Flanagan is a premiership winner. McGuire is a premiership winner. Des is a premiership winner. All of them, if given a strong roster are almost certain to maximise success.

McGuire was cast with mission impossible at the Tigers. No money, a dying squad, an overpowering and toxic board. If McGuire is given a roster like ours, he needs only a few select signings to really transform the squad. The Knights have a lot of cash to spend, have many good and loyal players. We're not a bad proposition.
 
Les Misérables said:
The Knights have a lot of cash to spend, have many good and loyal players. We're not a bad proposition.
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I feel like we've been saying this about the club for over a decade. It's not a bad proposition for the right coach. But for whatever cultural reason, everyone that gets involved goes backwards, players and coaches, year after year after year. We've definitely reached the title of a fully fledged career killing club now. At this point, I've become so cynical that I will only believe we can be successful when I see it with my own eyes.
 
Billy said:
Or, we just damn near won Flegg after using 45 players and ending the season with half the team SG Ball aged, and a big chunk of that team is now doing a firstgrade pre season.
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Penrith case in point, they have apparently lost almost there 6,7,9 & 13 from their sg ball,jersey flegg,and reserve grade sides to other teams
Obviously they have Cleary and Jarome and we don’t have that quality, but other teams are happy to raid the top teams from those comps and it’s always going to be a battle to keep half of those sides
 
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