Why? Is this a purity test?
Magical thinking isn't going to change the situation the club finds itself in.
Sack Adam O’Brien
- Thread starter HarVeeGee13
- Start date
Magical thinking isn't going to change the situation the club finds itself in.
Chief Longhorn
Logan Campbell
This is 100% accurate!
Haha The West board aren't going anywhere . Unless they want to . You forget the Knights are prob the smallest part of the operation . They basically bought the Knights as a community service !
Tackleslikeagirl
James Goulding
Not straw manning at all. You’re the one who suggested AOB was causing all the points under your rant.
We get it. You hate AOB.
But to blame him for every issue you listed with the club, many which pre-date him eg having to pay overs for players is ludicrous
Good Times
Andrew Hodge
At least we're all (I assume) in agreement that a change is needed from Obi 
We have found ourselves in such a bad predicament
- The club seems hell bent on dying on the AOB hill and won’t sack him, even though it seems hourly, the calls for him to be sacked grow louder from around the game, not just knights supporters
- AOB won’t try our juniors so they can gain experience for next year as he is coaching for his future and may not be here next year
- Our juniors don’t seem to be ready for first grade for about 1 or 2 years
- We are having a difficult time recruiting new players, that may be because of the coach, maybe because of our location. Without asking players and getting an honest answer we don’t know
- The longer we delay the inevitable, the worse the problems become. Coach options dwindle, players leave and recruiting gets even harder.
- Basically the longer the club buries it’s head in the sand, the bigger the whole we dig ourselves into and the longer and harder it will be to get out of it.
- The club seems hell bent on dying on the AOB hill and won’t sack him, even though it seems hourly, the calls for him to be sacked grow louder from around the game, not just knights supporters
- AOB won’t try our juniors so they can gain experience for next year as he is coaching for his future and may not be here next year
- Our juniors don’t seem to be ready for first grade for about 1 or 2 years
- We are having a difficult time recruiting new players, that may be because of the coach, maybe because of our location. Without asking players and getting an honest answer we don’t know
- The longer we delay the inevitable, the worse the problems become. Coach options dwindle, players leave and recruiting gets even harder.
- Basically the longer the club buries it’s head in the sand, the bigger the whole we dig ourselves into and the longer and harder it will be to get out of it.
Does anyone know how to set up a go fund me page
If 20,000 people all put in $50 each, we’d have $1,000,000 to put towards the payout of AOB. The club can pay the balance
frankLauda
Ben Kennedy
How many members are there?
Grandpa Joe
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
At least we're all (I assume) in agreement that a change is needed from Obi
I think blind Freddy knows he is going to be sacked at some point.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
This may be over-egging AOB's impact a little bit.
It'd take a lot to overcome the issue of the Knights needing to overpay for new signings. That may just be a fact of life at the club. Nathan Brown definitely seemed to have more sway with potential recruits than AOB does I suppose, but it probably helped a lot that we'd cleared the decks cap wise first... and every player brought in under him, the secret sauce in getting that player over the line may have been the one weird trick of offering way more money than everyone else. Connor Watson got $600K on the back of a *pretty good* start to his career at Easts. Mitchell Pearce picked the Knights because we offered way more money than everyone else let's be real (in real terms, he got a higher % of the gap than Brown, by a fair bit). And signing Ponga, well, no one had offered that kind of money to a kid with so little experience before. That deal was a massive punt. I've also heard disturbing chat about the kind of money Brown offered old old Matt Scott & Paul Gallen to come to the club... but got turned down anyway. There just isn't a period in our history where the Knights are a destination club, unless we were ready to really open the chequebook, and even then that has often not been enough. That's just a fact.
I definitely don't think the style of footy we play right now is appealing to new signings, but I suspect the #1 reason AOB hasn't signed that many players, and the mixture of players he has signed is guys nobody else wanted + middle of the road experienced blokes on overs, is probably because he's coach of the Newcastle Knights, and the Knights pay overs for everyone.
This is the way it is for some clubs no matter who the coach is.
Isaiah Papali'i got overs to go to Penrith and that's four premierships in, led by what may now be regarded as the premier coach of the game, and the money they have to spend to keep their core players is higher than what say the Roosters (and Bulldogs) are allegedly paying their guys. Brian To'o makes over $800K I've heard, for example - I think he's worth it, but no other specialist winger in the comp makes near that. They had four players on a million or more, or thereabouts, in addition (Cleary, Yeo, Fish, Edwards). I wouldn't say any one player has really bent them over a barrell price wise, but likewise I'm not sure any players have "done them a favour" the way Roosters players always magically seem to. And this is the best team most of us will have ever seen. About as great a situation as a player could ask for. Yet they've haemorrhaged great players more than any other club I've seen... and make up the difference with their exceptional player development.
Ricky Stuart is this legend of the sport and has never been able to get an elite player in their prime to the club despite trying over and over again. He has good players in depth now but honestly I think the secret to that for them is that they've gotten guys in young, and clearly their recruitment guys have a great eye for talent. But they too aren't getting discounts from their long term players, and their new signings are expensive. Why did Joe Tapine and Hudson Young go there, fundamentally? Because the Raiders offered a lot more money than the Knights could at the time. They overpaid for young talent they really liked, betting on their ability to correctly identify a young player who would go on to be elite. So basically their signing philosophy is almost that they behave like they would if there was a draft - they chase high upside young talent, where it could be years before the signing pays dividends - they just "draft" their young players by poaching them.
Two clubs clearly doing a lot better than the Knights at putting their roster together, and it's in spite of it being very hard for them to sign new players, and usually needing to overpay to bring new signings in. Heaps of players just don't want to live in Penrith and Canberra, and heaps don't want to live in Newy. Newy should be more appealing than either of those towns but seems to be regarded about the same for whatever reason (hearing Dane talk about when he was signed, to him "Newcastle" just meant "mining" and "industry"... he didn't know there were any beaches for example).
I don't think a new coach fixes that and all of a sudden we're picking up Payne Haas and Jahrome Hughes in the coming months. The fix is internal development and savvier talent ID/recruitment of untried young players. Long-term decision making over trying to fix things immediately after every bad season.
Gees, must have been drinking more then usual. Did he mention it on his poddy with the 8th?
Message to ADAM.......ditch your stupid gameplan and let the ball sing mate, let them throw it around. What's the point in having strike players if they never get the ball. Your stupid high percentage one out crap doesn't work.
For the sake of us suffering fans, if we are going to keep watching our team lose at least let them be entertaining.
For the sake of us suffering fans, if we are going to keep watching our team lose at least let them be entertaining.
Yeah once apon a time going to the footy used to be an enjoyable day out .
frankLauda
Ben Kennedy
I really hope the media starts putting pressure on. The drums start beating louder. I really can’t see this side winning many games. Unless something miraculous happens.
krustykraz
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Ok so O'Brien isn't our only problem with recruitment but he and his game plan 100% make it harder
If I was a player I wouldn't come here to play AOB ball.
If I was a player I wouldn't come here to play AOB ball.
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Kurriboy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
The Knights have been a basket case for much longer than AOB has been here. Our issues are complex.
But they are trying to remedy some things. POS hire was a big step towards getting in quality recruits. Not working great at the moment but it was a step in the right direction.
The Knights not being a place players want to go to, want to play out of doesn't ring perfectly true for me though. There was that player poll done at some stage of clubs players would want to play for and Newcastle was ranked very high. This I think was during a period where the Knights were seen as being on the improve, good signings, bright future, players were interested.
Hasn't worked out that way, but the club can be attractive to players, in the right circumstances.
If the Knights don't resolve the coaching situation, we could find ourselves losing POS, before AOB is gone. And we are continuing the cycle.
Fix what can be fixed, and put the right staff in place for success. If that isn't AOB, then make the move. Not the fans fault Wests extended him on the back of one exciting season. Rookie error from them, time to pay the price to fix it.
But they are trying to remedy some things. POS hire was a big step towards getting in quality recruits. Not working great at the moment but it was a step in the right direction.
The Knights not being a place players want to go to, want to play out of doesn't ring perfectly true for me though. There was that player poll done at some stage of clubs players would want to play for and Newcastle was ranked very high. This I think was during a period where the Knights were seen as being on the improve, good signings, bright future, players were interested.
Hasn't worked out that way, but the club can be attractive to players, in the right circumstances.
If the Knights don't resolve the coaching situation, we could find ourselves losing POS, before AOB is gone. And we are continuing the cycle.
Fix what can be fixed, and put the right staff in place for success. If that isn't AOB, then make the move. Not the fans fault Wests extended him on the back of one exciting season. Rookie error from them, time to pay the price to fix it.
Sorry, didn't mean to have an opinion. I'll get back in my box now. Reality, is that where the Knights can't find their way out of the dressing sheds on there own at the moment.
Well you did ask if they would have to pay him out in that situation … sorry if my reply seemed harsh. I work in Employee Relations, so I know all too well what happens in these situations lol.
OnTilt
Sean Rudder
I don't get half your arguments.. AOB won't play our juniors, your next point you say they are not ready. But he has played McCarthy, Cant, Fletcher Hunt and Paul Bryant all young guys this year..We have found ourselves in such a bad predicament
- The club seems hell bent on dying on the AOB hill and won’t sack him, even though it seems hourly, the calls for him to be sacked grow louder from around the game, not just knights supporters
- AOB won’t try our juniors so they can gain experience for next year as he is coaching for his future and may not be here next year
- Our juniors don’t seem to be ready for first grade for about 1 or 2 years
- We are having a difficult time recruiting new players, that may be because of the coach, maybe because of our location. Without asking players and getting an honest answer we don’t know
- The longer we delay the inevitable, the worse the problems become. Coach options dwindle, players leave and recruiting gets even harder.
- Basically the longer the club buries it’s head in the sand, the bigger the whole we dig ourselves into and the longer and harder it will be to get out of it.
MBQLD
Sean Rudder
What I’d give to have the team that made the semis under Brian Smith. That was a thrilling team to watch, no one out s*** with them!