Andrew Johns joins Knights as Coaching Consultant

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Knights legend Andrew Johns re-joins club as specialist coaching consultant

"Andrew has agreed to come back and help out not only with our NRL squad, but also with...
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Article from the Herald

States Johns is coming because his good mate Bedsy asked him.

Says Johns has agreed to work with the firstgrade halves and the juniors.

Quotes Gardner saying Pearce is still contracted and he'll let us know when that changes, but also says we plan to ask Catalans for a transfer fee because it's common practice in the ESL and we had to pay one to get Bedsy back.

Lists the halves he will be working with in this order - Jake Clifford, Phoenix Crossland, Simi Sasagi, Kurt Mann and Adam Clune - I don't know if that order is random or not.

Says Green will also be working with them as an assistant coach.
 
Watson must be thinking that life takes some funny turns.
He says he was a Knights fan as a kid because of Joey and wanted to play in the halves like him.
With Pearce leaving and Joey coming, there is a very good chance that Watson would have walked into 5/8 with Joey coaching him if he'd have gone through a different sliding door.
 
Could also be that they know Pearce is going, and want to attract a better half. Knowing they will be coached by Joey massively makes us more attractive to the halves in the game at the moment I would imagine.
 
Nothing has been said about Ponga.
Johns was coaching Gutho at Parra, so coaching Ponga to kick better and maybe improve his playmaking is a no brainer, even if Ponga remains at fullback.
If Ponga moves to the halves, I think he'll be the main man for Johns to work with.
 
I think this potentially sets up a whole lot of dominoes to fall:

* moves our calendar up 12 months with Pearce looking for an out to see Ponga transition into halves this season
* Joey to push for Tex Hoy to be retained and be maintained as fullback...Joey's argument will be at least until Hodgson has sufficiently developed to play at NRL level
* Cash freed up by Pearce move(may even include a transfer fee from Catalans :) ), allowing us to go to market for a gun second rower now address that part of our recruitment strategy

There are obviously potential benefits through his coaching role...but I agree his drawing power may also give us opportunities to attract players who might not have given us due consideration in the past.

Overall, I think it will be one of the smartest moves O'Brien (Buderus and Gardiner) have made for the next phase of the club's rebuild. I think we are starting to see the longer term strategy of O'Brien in his development of the Knights as a sustainable power in the NRL. Seibold served a purpose for his tenure, he has now grabbed Garth Brennan and Andrew Johns is the next duck to line up.

Great head coaches don't have to be the best at tactics or all the other elements that make up a successful club, they recognise and surround themselves with the best people who do have the elements needed to compliment each other and facilitate them contributing their piece to the puzzle.
 
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Craig Bellamy will be the first to tell you he’s not this great tactical mind. His brilliance is in setting standards from top to bottom in his organisation, in delegation/listening to advice - there’s no ego involved - and in man management, his players always love him even though he’s such a taskmaster. Oh and cheating, that too. But yeah, just being a good X’s and O’s man, that’s only part of the puzzle in the modern game. The job is so much bigger and involves so many more moving parts beyond what we see in the 80 minutes out there on the field.

Can only hope we’re finally putting standards and systems in place which will allow us to catch up.
 
Hmm so I wonder if the club actually want Brooks......he can go back to the running style of play he was touted for as a junior and cliff can lead the team around. Get mullo into brooksies ear about his little attention to detail parts of his game and the adlib stuff that worked for him. Could be a great combo but I still feel Crossland can do what Brooks does without the paycheck.
 
The concern I have with Brooks is that we'll put him into the senior role since he's older, more experienced, literally been playing halfback for years. Clifford is still a bit of a rookie. The coaching staff needs to encourage him to step up, take control, be the main man. If we were to give Brooks that role then it's no different to what he's been doing at the Tigers, which has not worked.
 
Joshhh said:
The concern I have with Brooks is that we'll put him into the senior role since he's older, more experienced, literally been playing halfback for years. Clifford is still a bit of a rookie. The coaching staff needs to encourage him to step up, take control, be the main man. If we were to give Brooks that role then it's no different to what he's been doing at the Tigers, which has not worked.
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And it would be a repeat of the Pearce/Clifford combo this year. I can definitely see history repeating with weird hierarchy things like that.
 
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