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
Wests have spent a lot of money on all sorts of things that should make us more competitive, but for some reason won't chuck in an extra million a year to find the head coach that could bring all the pieces together and make us a premiership chance.
Sporting infrastructure are assets. Coaches are liabilities. Coaches wages are discretionary spending, new buildings have value and are tax deductible, they just also happen to improve sporting outcomes.

Unfortunately, Wests arent as interested in sporting outcomes as they are interested in managing a business. Outside of mandatory spending i.e. the Cap, everything they spend money on can be considered an investment independent of sporting outcomes.
 
SMH reporting Michael Cheika has been sounded out for the coaching role.
So this, if the club were to appoint Cheika as head coach, then pay big money for gun specialist assistant coaches while Cheika drives standards and culture I'd be stoked. That would be an example of making a play for success.

@Billy is right on this point. Aiming for some assistant coach and hoping to strike a bullseye isnt aiming at success, its aiming at a dart board and hoping it lands somewhere good.

Cheika has won major trophies all around the world, took the Wallabies to a world Cup Final that, arguably, they had little right competing for with the squad they had. That's pedigree. And I definitely think its transferable. For what its worth, Joey is backing him in.
 
Cheika would be a huge mistake, I'm close to a person who was part of the Wallabies set-up at that time. My friends words exactly are, you will get a sugar hit for one season and then it will go to ****e very quick. Cheika is very arrogant and never wrong in his own mind.
The last Wallabies coach who tried league was Allan Jones, he was more successful than Cheika, didn't work out for Balmain.
 
Cheika Is a bold move. But I like the club is considering all possibilities. He would rely heavily on the assistants. I don’t think this has been done before, code crossing coach.

Edit. Allan Jones, forgot about him.
 
Signing Cheika would create a media circus, a poor start to next year and the clubs decision makers would be straight in the spotlight. Hard pass for me.
 
I think Cheika would work if he had the correct assistants.

Head Coach: Michael Cheika
Assistant Coach: David Kidwell
Defence Coach: Brett White
Kicking and halves coaches: Jarrod Mullen and Brett Kimmorley
 
Head Coach: Michael Cheika/Justin Holbrook
Attacking Coach: Brett Kimmorley
Defence Coach: Brian McDermott
Specialist/Consultant Coaches: Blake Green, Steve Simpson, Michael Ennis
 
Cheika with Hagan as an adviser and Green and Dobson and Andrew Ryan as assistant coaches would work for me - as long as it was only a short contract.
That would shake up the place.
I don't want Hagan anywhere near a coaching role
 
The article says he’s been asked to apply like everyone else, so not as though he’s been offered the job.

I’ll be surprised if he gets it. Maybe one day there’ll be a team that’s in the perfect position to give him a year or two, but I don’t think a team building from the bottom is a good fit for either party.
 
The article says he’s been asked to apply like everyone else, so not as though he’s been offered the job.

I’ll be surprised if he gets it. Maybe one day there’ll be a team that’s in the perfect position to give him a year or two, but I don’t think a team building from the bottom is a good fit for either party.
Everyone at the club from the ball boys to the CEO needs a rocket up the backside.

Sounds like a job for Cheika, but he'd wear thin after a year or two.
 
Michael Cheika was good with the Wallabies at first but by the end of his time, I think they were glad to see the back of him.

Possibly a Brian Smith type coach in terms of losing the room after awhile. Pass anyway, I don't think he should our next coach.
 
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