Adam O'Brien

mozza said:
I heard Frank Barrett talking about him on the radio and he said that he’s a hard task master in the Bellamy mold. If you’ve ever listened to him commentate a Knights game you’ll see that he’s very reluctant to say anything to positive about the club so he must be a huge wrap on Obi.

Side note: I’m gonna call him Obi.
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How about Adobi ?
 
mozza said:
I heard Frank Barrett talking about him on the radio and he said that he’s a hard task master in the Bellamy mold. If you’ve ever listened to him commentate a Knights game you’ll see that he’s very reluctant to say anything to positive about the club so he must be a huge wrap on Obi.

Side note: I’m gonna call him Obi.
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Yes, Obi's the wan

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Kurriboy said:
Was on Nrl360 or online news article.

Cant recall now but that was the word.
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He was as in the mix as Griffin, Toovey and all the others who were rolled out. I don't think they targeted anyone other than O'Brien.

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Lord of the Skraelings said:
Had this bloke been mentioned as a head coach before now? Hadn't heard of him before 10 days ago.
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I said back in April in the Nathan Brown thread when Brown was balls deep in his first losing run the Knights should consider him.

The only thing that worries me is he has been an assistant for a decade when blokes like Green, Arthur, Seibold etc were picked up and promoted to head coaching positions much quicker (although this may be because they had more playing experience) so if he is so highly regarded and an exceptional prospect why has it taken so long? Hopefully he just loved the Melbourne weather and was happy to bide his time for Bellamy to move on or retire.
 
Matty23 said:
He’s been Bellamy’s apprentice for a decade and now a year under Robinson and everyone whose worked with him has him on high regard. Cronk came out and said he’s great at getting the best out of his players including junior talent.
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So he has been lauded because of who he has served under... Gee whiz he is as likely to be another Steve Kearney, Steve Price or a Ivan Henjak then as he is likely of being a success.

If I were the Knights I would of done everything to get Toovey in. He is the hard a*s that the Knights could of done with.

But you never know. He could be a revelation at first and win a premiership just like Paul Green.
 
cowboyman said:
So he has been lauded because of who he has served under... Gee whiz he is as likely to be another Steve Kearney, Steve Price or a Ivan Henjak then as he is likely of being a success.

If I were the Knights I would of done everything to get Toovey in. He is the hard a*s that the Knights could of done with.

But you never know. He could be a revelation at first and win a premiership just like Paul Green.
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Toovey would have been excellent, I think. O'Brien will be a risk obviously, but it sounds like a measured risk with the process the club has gone through to pick him (Canavan supposedly drawing up a spreadsheet of candidates and so on). My concern is that O'Brien is coming from clubs which have excellent head coaches (Bellamy and Robinson) and that an assistant should no doubt do better there than somewhere like Titans. Those clubs might make him look better than he is (Seibold was in the same boat going from Bunnies to Broncos). O'Brien apparently has a lot of support for a starting gig from players and coaches so I think the club will have made an informed decision. We won't know until we get some results next year I guess.
 
Toovey, Sheens, Furner, Hasler are not wanted here. All right to say this young guy comes from the Storm and the Rooters, both salary cap rorters.

Personally I would have gone for an experienced coach, but let's wish this young fellow well and support him when he arrives. That will be a problem as we hav e a huge numnber of termites in our fans.
 
He'll get a year to prove himself, and a bit of a free pass for the first 10 games or so, but getting a free pass for years in a row is not something any coach should get again.
 
cowboyman said:
So he has been lauded because of who he has served under... Gee whiz he is as likely to be another Steve Kearney, Steve Price or a Ivan Henjak then as he is likely of being a success.

If I were the Knights I would of done everything to get Toovey in. He is the hard a*s that the Knights could of done with.

But you never know. He could be a revelation at first and win a premiership just like Paul Green.
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Kearney should be applauded for still having a first grad coaching job in the NRL :lol:
 
cowboyman said:
So he has been lauded because of who he has served under... Gee whiz he is as likely to be another Steve Kearney, Steve Price or a Ivan Henjak then as he is likely of being a success.

If I were the Knights I would of done everything to get Toovey in. He is the hard a*s that the Knights could of done with.

But you never know. He could be a revelation at first and win a premiership just like Paul Green.
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Your current coach was fairly unknown and a risk to take on an NRL side. Was only coaching reserve grade and being an assistant coach prior to being appointed at the Cowboys. Took your lot to a premiership win in his second year. Isn’t much of a difference with O’Brien. Plenty of people rate him and his ability to take players to another level, especially juniors and he is also spoken very highly of to people like Bellamy, Cronk, Robinson. The similarities are uncanny.
 
Matty23 said:
Your current coach was fairly unknown and a risk to take on an NRL side. Was only coaching reserve grade and being an assistant coach prior to being appointed at the Cowboys. Took your lot to a premiership win in his second year. Isn’t much of a difference with O’Brien. Plenty of people rate him and his ability to take players to another level, especially juniors and he is also spoken very highly of to people like Bellamy, Cronk, Robinson. The similarities are uncanny.
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Yes I said that at the end of my post...

But my coach had succeeded a lot more then what O’Brian has done. He took a Q-Cup side to back to back titles and then took the roosters U20’s to a prelim I believe before being an assistant to the Roosters FG title so he did have some sort of head coaching boxes ticked with titles.

Kearney, Henjak and Price were all highly touted by Bellamy or Bennett and they never payed off. Being an assistant for someone like them can just be a blessing in disguise like someone else pointed out. Be much easier being an assistant to them and looking good then being an assistant under a lower quality head coach at the Titans for example.
 
O'Brien needs an experienced coach as a mentor for at least his first year.
Wests mentioned they were looking at Sheens, Hagan and Allan Bell in one article.
I suspect the role of whoever gets this job will simply be to keep up to date with what is happening at the club, and give the new coach some tips about how to deal with slacking players, disruptive staff, media noise or things like that.
I doubt they'd have any input on game plans or training methods, other than maybe Hagan or Bell could point him towards good sandhills to run the guys up or similar.

Bell and O'Brien could have some very good conversations you'd think, if both have the "encyclopedic" knowledge of the game they are both supposed to have. In fact, Bell and O'Brien might have a lot in common - both long term assistants to big name coaches who are credited with improving young players by going above and beyond. Bell famously spent hours every week putting together videos of the great playmakers and talking the Johns brothers through the skills shown by guys like Terry Lamb, Ricky Stuart, Peter Sterling, Steve Mortimer etc. Matty Johns wrote a great tribute to him when they made him a life member of the club.

Bell has also been a longtime mentor for Mitchell Pearce, even before he came to the Knights, so might have some good insights to share on our structure gong forward.

https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/...chell-pearce-will-thrive-as-a-knights-leader/
 
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cowboyman said:
Yes I said that at the end of my post...

But my coach had succeeded a lot more then what O’Brian has done. He took a Q-Cup side to back to back titles and then took the roosters U20’s to a prelim I believe before being an assistant to the Roosters FG title so he did have some sort of head coaching boxes ticked with titles.

Kearney, Henjak and Price were all highly touted by Bellamy or Bennett and they never payed off. Being an assistant for someone like them can just be a blessing in disguise like someone else pointed out. Be much easier being an assistant to them and looking good then being an assistant under a lower quality head coach at the Titans for example.
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I’ll reserve my judgement until I can see what he can do with this team. But I’m more than confident after a pre-season with several fresh faces around the club and a horrid end to the season with the media and coaching fiasco that he can get this team firing. This season was a fail having not made the 8, so next season there is minus one excuses. Do I think things will drastically change and become a Storm or Roosters like team overnight? No. But I expect this team to be in the 8 at the start of September next season.
 
Simon Templar said:
I hope this is a red herring - Sheens is a dinasaur.

His old world approach is not what a new age coach requires.

Didn’t it take Greens fresh approach to put the polish on the Cowboys after their Mr Sheen experience?
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Sheens was long gone by the time Green turned up but yes he is a dinosaur and has done nothing but achieve one flukey season this century which ironically had to finish the Cowboys season in 2005.
 
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