Adam O'Brien discussion

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Robinson is the guy who was a toiler in reserve grade for a very long time - I think he only played 1 game of firstgrade.
He went to France and was captain/coach of a lower grade side and did very well as a coach - got a chance as an assistant and reserve grade coach at Newcastle under Brian Smith, got a job as head coach of Catalans because he could speak fluent French from his time playing and coaching there, did very well and got a job at the Roosters as head coach.
Basically a reserve grade toiler, but a very smart guy.
 
Billy said:
Robinson is the guy who was a toiler in reserve grade for a very long time - I think he only played 1 game of firstgrade.
He went to France and was captain/coach of a lower grade side and did very well as a coach - got a chance as an assistant and reserve grade coach at Newcastle under Brian Smith, got a job as head coach of Catalans because he could speak fluent French from his time playing and coaching there, did very well and got a job at the Roosters as head coach.
Basically a reserve grade toiler, but a very smart guy.
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Good point, he’s securely one who never really reached the top grade!
 
There are two head coaches right now who were absolutely brilliant, skillful, attacking players: Benji Marshall & Ricky Stuart.

Ricky has been a notably questionable coach of halves his whole career. Interesting parallels between the two in that they’re both always glowering on the sidelines atm and the hallmark of both teams is just trying to absolutely bludgeon the **** out of the other team through the middle.

Nothing wrong with that per se but it’s kind of interesting isn’t it. The attacking flair came so naturally to Benji as a player, as a coach his go to move is ranting about standards and effort.

Then you’ve got Foran who was a great, great player, but you wouldn’t say he was a flair merchant or a top tier athlete. He was just tough as ****, really smart, and amazing at organising his option runners and pulling the right rein. And as a head coach his Manly team… plays with heaps of attacking flair and freedom.
 
Does make you wonder whether teams see Blake Green as a head coach. Definitely starting to feel they don’t. Of course nothing wrong with going to multiple teams and learning your trade as an attacking coach until the day possibly comes either.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from my understanding AOB never coached a team at any level in the NRL until we gave him our first grade team. For me that is a major red flag and I would think you would have to have some success coaching in the lower grades before being given a first grade team.
 
sherpa said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from my understanding AOB never coached a team at any level in the NRL until we gave him our first grade team. For me that is a major red flag and I would think you would have to have some success coaching in the lower grades before being given a first grade team.
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I mean, he had like 10+ years as a Storm assistant coach and a year or two at the Roosters. Not outlandish that an assistant gets their first head coach start somewhere.
 
Ironically enough AOB replaced Jason Taylor I believe at the Bulldogs, who also had a pretty polarising coaching career and never seemed to recover from that Souths sacking.

Like Rick Stone he benefitted from a team flat out not wanting to play for their coach whatsoever as he was initially meant to be an assistant at South Sydney but they were impressed enough and Souths poor results in 2006 forced their hand.

He since seems to have found his thing floating between assistant coach in first grade or coaching lower grades with some success.
I do wonder whether AOB would have benefitted coaching lower grades as someone with zero playing experience as well the way others (even former players) did

And again an accomplished halfback maybe not in the Ricky Stuart mould but somewhere between him and Ivan.
 
sherpa said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from my understanding AOB never coached a team at any level in the NRL until we gave him our first grade team. For me that is a major red flag and I would think you would have to have some success coaching in the lower grades before being given a first grade team.
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Yep that’s right, he’d never actually coached any team at all himself. I’d say it showed as well.

He might be a fine assistant coach but he clearly doesn’t have the temperament, people skills, or personality to be a head coach. Certainly has the required ego though, maybe too much
 
I still think it was a major mistake hiring AOB by the Knights as I don't think he had a proven track record as either a coach or a player. Being an assistant coach still doesn't prove you have what it takes to be in charge of running the whole show and clearly he couldn't.
 
sherpa said:
I still think it was a major mistake hiring AOB by the Knights as I don't think he had a proven track record as either a coach or a player. Being an assistant coach still doesn't prove you have what it takes to be in charge of running the whole show and clearly he couldn't.
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I disagree that it was a mistake at the time. Clearly, he turned out to be a dud. That's with the benefit of hindsight though. He was an assistant coach for a long time of successful teams and seemed like a good fit to take the reins for us. Very happy so far with the pivot to Holbrook though. Good luck to AOB, although I'm quite enjoying watching him and the Pooches flail.
 
sherpa said:
I still think it was a major mistake hiring AOB by the Knights as I don't think he had a proven track record as either a coach or a player. Being an assistant coach still doesn't prove you have what it takes to be in charge of running the whole show and clearly he couldn't.
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I think it was a good signing at the time. I agree with Billy that we kept him a few seasons too long. He took us from Brown and we moved up the ladder and did make finals consistently to his credit.

But it became clear quickly that he didn't have the skills to take us further. The Knights knee jerk signed him off the back of a good run that went against his coaching ethos and the next season we returned to boring AOB ball. AOB has his style of play, and refuses to change from that. Regardless of the reality of the team he is coaching, it's grinding percentage boring football against last place or griding specialists. The game plan never changes.
 
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