Our next head coach

Who should be the head coach in 2026?

  • Blake Green

    Votes: 5 5.9%

  • Brian McDermott

    Votes: 14 16.5%

  • Brad Arthur

    Votes: 13 15.3%

  • Willie Peters

    Votes: 40 47.1%

  • John Morris

    Votes: 18 21.2%

  • Justin Holbrook

    Votes: 42 49.4%

  • Des Hasler

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Sam Burgess

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Billy Slater

    Votes: 6 7.1%

  • Other (name below)

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • Total voters
    85
Gets a lot of praise for his work with St Helens, their fans will tell you he took them from under-achieving to back on track and he deserves most credit for the fourpeat.

The Titans were 4-20 in 2019 when he was appointed. 2nd last in attack and dead last by a mile in defence. No one cares about the Titans enough to remember but that was an all time bad team.

His results there:

2020: 9th with a 9-11 record, improved to 13th in attack and and 9th in defence. That was the year where they really caught fire in the back end if people remember and there was hype about how they'd do in 2021.

2021: 8th with a 10-14 record, 6th ranked attack, 10th in defence. 6th ranked attack with a spine of Brimson-Taylor-Fogarty-Rein/Peachey most of the year mind you, something for believers to point to.

2022: Regression year, 13th, 6-18, 12th in attack, 13th in defence. This was the year he made his big blunder: Okaying the release of Jamal Fogarty to the Raiders, so Sexton could go into halfback, AJ Brimson to 6, which let them move Campbell into the squad at 1. He's stated that letting Jamal walk was his worst mistake in the job & he gave up on Brimson in the halves after 8 weeks (except when there was injury), which meant he had to find another role for Campbell. I suspect this is a clue as to how he'll look at our spine options but feel free to disagree.

2023: Sacked with the team in 9th, 7-7, =5th attack, 12th in defence. First choice spine for the 5th ranked attack in the NRL: AJ Brimson, Kieran Foran, Tanah Boyd, Chris Randall...

-----

If you're a really anti-AOB person, you'd point to him inheriting a team with a 42% win rate and winning at 43% with them. If you're anti Holbrook you'd say he won at 37% at the Titans. If you believe in Holbrook you'd say he inherited a team that won at 16% and won at 37% with them, and the 2 time premiership winning coach that followed him won at 25%.

None of this tells you how good or bad he'll be, but I suspect the fact that with context and time, it actually looks like he was doing a good job with the Titans overall, has sealed the Knights job for him.
 
The interesting thing for me is that his reputation is around attack, but the defence was the thing that improved most drastically to begin with.

But it also plateaued. I don't know if that's a Titans thing or it's a limitation of his.

My suspicion is that he's a little bit of a "defence is about personnel" guy. This is the bloke who okayed the Marzhew/Randall swap. Didn't trust Greg and his #1 thing he wanted in a hooker was someone who'd lead the line and tackle his guts out. If he doesn't trust a guy's reads he's not picking them. You could counter that by saying that your defence might be better overall if you can get someone like Greg up to passable in D, and extract the huge benefit of his yardage game. But between the defensive liability who's great in yardage, and the meh yardage back who's a better defender, he tended to pick the latter.

It will be interesting to see how that goes with us because in Bradman and Dane he has much better defensive backs than what was available at the Titans.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Dane’s still playing really well but right centre is next on the list of positional importance beyond spine & middles IMO.

Moving him to the wing gives us an opportunity to groom a successor there with a “coach on the field” giving instant feedback on what that player is doing right and wrong.

That to me is a better argument for it than anything to do with his own performance levels.
Click to expand...
How would young DeCoursey go in the centres. He has physicality and speed, something like Best & Stag on either side of the field would be lethal.
Thoughts?
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I think Blake will stay on.

I wouldn't fret about McDermott leaving, there are apparently enough assistants to go around that Hannay can fire the entire support staff except one guy as his first act at the Titans and appoint a totally new regime from top to bottom. Great signs from the Gold Coast that their "we just need the right head coach to save us and we always have to put them in charge of everything" management approach isn't going anywhere. There are plenty of coaches who understand the principles of defensive systems who McDermott can be replaced with. There are enough around that a few clubs have four of them.
Click to expand...
Thought! ( and I’m not mad on the guy), but Jason Taylor has the reputation and results of a very good defensive coach.
He is currently at the Dogs.
It is a cringe thought, but he is effective.
 
Defence wins games said:
Thought! ( and I’m not mad on the guy), but Jason Taylor has the reputation and results of a very good defensive coach.
He is currently at the Dogs.
It is a cringe thought, but he is effective.
Click to expand...
Heaps of notoriously poor head coaches were great assistants, that's why they got the head coaching gig. I wouldn't be opposed to someone like Taylor at all.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
The interesting thing for me is that his reputation is around attack, but the defence was the thing that improved most drastically to begin with.

But it also plateaued. I don't know if that's a Titans thing or it's a limitation of his.

My suspicion is that he's a little bit of a "defence is about personnel" guy. This is the bloke who okayed the Marzhew/Randall swap. Didn't trust Greg and his #1 thing he wanted in a hooker was someone who'd lead the line and tackle his guts out. If he doesn't trust a guy's reads he's not picking them. You could counter that by saying that your defence might be better overall if you can get someone like Greg up to passable in D, and extract the huge benefit of his yardage game. But between the defensive liability who's great in yardage, and the meh yardage back who's a better defender, he tended to pick the latter.

It will be interesting to see how that goes with us because in Bradman and Dane he has much better defensive backs than what was available at the Titans.
Click to expand...
Will be interesting to see if Marzhew leaves early now.
 
I'm pretty sure he would have learnt a lot from what happened at the Titans and hopefully he can turn our team around.
 
Predicted Holbrook first choice lineup:

1. Kalyn Ponga
2. Dominic Young
3. Dane Gagai
4. Bradman Best
5. Fletcher Sharpe
6. Dylan Brown
7. Sandon Smith

13. Trey Mooney
12. Dylan Lucas
11. Tyson Frizell
10. Pasami Saulo
9. Phoenix Crossland
8. Jacob Saifiti

14. Matthew Arthur/Harrison Graham
15. Tyson Gamble
16. Jermaine McEwen
17. Very hard to say but Lachlan Crouch feels like a very Holbrook bench forward


Pure speculation going by the kinds of teams he picked at the Titans, obviously it's different personnel here, but expect a few pretty conservative selections which may annoy some fans. But you're always judged on results first and foremost.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top