Sack Adam O’Brien

Les Misérables said:
Obviously the 6 seasons prior were worse. But that's half my point, Brown did his job. Stripped us down, rebuilt us and left with a 20 y.o. Ponga from which any heights were possible. That's trajectory.

The only positive to come of the last 6 years is that we've brought through juniors. But all in all we've gone sideways since Brown left.
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I’d then argue back AOB did his job. Playing finals 4/6 raised the floor of the club. We became a more professional organisation and put steel into our defence. The attack has always been an issue but he achieved a level of competency where before we were a laughing stock. This year has been an abomination and terrible as a Knights fan, but before AOB’s tenure, seasons like this were the norm.
 
waynesworld said:
I’d then argue back AOB did his job. Playing finals 4/6 raised the floor of the club. We became a more professional organisation and put steel into our defence. The attack has always been an issue but he achieved a level of competency where before we were a laughing stock. This year has been an abomination and terrible as a Knights fan, but before AOB’s tenure, seasons like this were the norm.
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Everything you can mention as positives AOB had achieved in his first 12-24 months at the club. We then waited another 4 years hoping something magical would materialise, it never came.

Also, if Id never watched the Knights play and didnt know their record in finals series under AOB and you told me they'd played finals 4/6 years, Id be absolutely blown away that AOB lost his job.
 
He needed to go as he’d lost the playing group over the last month but they were with him before that.

I think he did ok over all. 1 very good season, 3 pass marks and 2 terrible years. None of our rosters under him were elite or terrible, on paper we were a 8-12 side most years. I certainly think of him as a better coach than Brown.
 
Les Misérables said:
Everything you can mention as positives AOB had achieved in his first 12-24 months at the club. We then waited another 4 years hoping something magical would materialise, it never came.

Also, if Id never watched the Knights play and didnt know their record in finals series under AOB and you told me they'd played finals 4/6 years, Id be absolutely blown away that AOB lost his job.
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It never came? May I remind you that we hadn't played finals since 2013 when he took over, he then went on to make it 4/6 years. After struggling for so long I feel like that 6 year period was better than the previous 6 and you're sounding like recency bias has got you by the balls in this situation and you're going off the past season. Let's just remember we had a top tier halfback retire at the end of 2021, we struggled to recover from that in 22 and 23 we went on one of the best winning runs we have seen in the past decade with a spine that had Hastings and gamble in it. That's some good coaching if you ask me, you are starting to sound like one of the negative people I referred to yesterday 😂 😂
 
I'm with Les Misérables on all of this. We were set up after the Brown era, and the first season we did what we were expected to do, since then we haven't. Apart from the win streak we haven't continued on the trajectory we should have and weve definitely started to decline.
 
In Browns last year in 2019 we came 11th,
6 years later we are looking like coming 16th or 17th.
Brown cleaned out our squad and recruited a new prommissing team that we all had big hopes for.
6 years later our squad is worse.
Our style of play is attrosious.

If anyone thinks the head coach has no responsibility for the squad after 6 years they are delusional.
 
4 out of 6 finals in he's tenure
1 was a shortened season due to covid and we literally fell in
Just like 2 other finals we made
1 of those years teams like Brisbane had a shocker of a year that's literally the only thing that helped us fall into the final spot of the 8
And the other
was a ponga magical run that AOB took a back seat due to a family situation
We won 1 of those finals and 2 of those finals we got smashed the other was last year in which we could of won but fell short


As for the brown scenario took us from bottom dwellers to fringe of the 8
And let's not forget we were fighting for a top 4.spot when the strawberry milkshake incident happened
 
Thailands Novacastrian said:
And let's not forget we were fighting for a top 4.spot when the strawberry milkshake incident happened
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LOOOOLLLLL no we weren't! You can look up the date of the "strawberry milkshake" comment (August 21) and look at where the ladder was when that happened.

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It would have been some effort to make the top four from here, requiring (at the very least) for the Knights to win four out of their three remaining games, and for teams 4, 5 and 6 to all lose four of their last three...

Maybe a bit of Mandela effect going on here given all the chat about how Nathan Brown was 'sabotaged' at the time, but we'd just lost 6 in a row with the team he'd built. Had Ponga and Pearce all season long, both in great form. Probably the best run with injury we've had in the past decade+. He had his chance, he beefed it, the players were totally off him. It was right he got sacked. The next coach did way better the next season with a far rougher trot with injury. Fact.
 
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Thailands Novacastrian said:
As for the brown scenario took us from bottom dwellers to fringe of the 8
And let's not forget we were fighting for a top 4.spot when the strawberry milkshake incident happened
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Err … we were 10 points away from fourth spot with two weeks left in the season when Brown was sacked and Ponga said that?
 
jamesgould said:
Err … we were 10 points away from fourth spot with two weeks left in the season when Brown was sacked and Ponga said that?
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Technically just before that was when Kalyn said it, Brown leaving was announced before the third last game, then we got smashed by the Tigers and it sort of became "no the players really want him gone now", and in came the caretaker.

He sucks. He had arguably the best roster in the comp at the Dragons and they were mid. With average rosters he did diabolically. He fostered a bad culture. May he never darken the doors of our club again.
 
Brown was a very poor coach, but he was pretty decent at attracting players. Managing a salary cap wise he and Mooney possibly left a lot to be desired, but he obviously could sell a pretty good pitch to players
 
Brad tighe said:
I got some inside knowledge, AOB will go at the end of the season if not after this game. Blake green will be interim for the rest of the season. Josh Hannay is highly likely to be our next coach. This has come from someone employed by the club.
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Sauce wasn't perfect, May I suggest sour cream and sweet chilli??
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Technically just before that was when Kalyn said it, Brown leaving was announced before the third last game, then we got smashed by the Tigers and it sort of became "no the players really want him gone now", and in came the caretaker.

He sucks. He had arguably the best roster in the comp at the Dragons and they were mid. With average rosters he did diabolically. He fostered a bad culture. May he never darken the doors of our club again.
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True, I forgot he tried to see out the season.

Will be interesting to see how we go with AOB for the final two weeks in the same situation.
 
There seems to be a retcon thing going on with Brown from the perspective of what he did for the club and where the club was at when AOB took over.

When Brown came in he was clear about the work that needed to be done at the club, getting the salary cap back in shape meant getting rid of overpaid underperforming players and being very careful with signings. I'm sure he made it clear there would be pain before we come out the other side as well.

There is a sentiment on the forum now that Brown came here and ruined the roster, coached them to the spoons and was fired. Back when all this was going down I recall general acceptance from the forum that this was pain we had to endure, and the path to clear the salary cap was the right one.

I recall when AOB came in, and Brown left, the feeling was the team was on the turn in the right direction and ready to start pushing for finals appearances. So the comparison of look what AOB did here compared to Brown I'd say AOB was able to get us in to the finals because of the Brown era pain.

Anyway, I've no doubt AOB is a better coach then Brown, that I don't think can be debated.

But AOB did take us in to the finals off the back of the groundwork laid by Brown, but at the same time, we did only limp in to the finals and straight back out again. I recall one of those last round games I think vs the titans or perhaps the Cows, where we just had to win it to give ourselves a home final, and the team went out and shat the bed again, got belted and that was the form we took in to the finals.

If I were marking AOB's report card it would be a C+.
 
Kurriboy said:
There seems to be a retcon thing going on with Brown from the perspective of what he did for the club and where the club was at when AOB took over.

When Brown came in he was clear about the work that needed to be done at the club, getting the salary cap back in shape meant getting rid of overpaid underperforming players and being very careful with signings. I'm sure he made it clear there would be pain before we come out the other side as well.
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This is all true but I maintain he went too far in just accepting the team would be ****. I think that’s bad for the culture.

Also think burning it all down is the easy bit and I think he gets too much credit for that part. Along with signing players. Mooney says he had to twist his arm to get him to even talk with Kalyn for example (in a playful way). That’s the biggest Brown era signing and it was pushed on the coach, at least initially, because the recruitment manager knew we needed a foundational star, a Benji type, for fans & kids to get excited about.

The main thing Brown kept pushing for was replacing the previous grizzled veterans and former/fringe rep players with different grizzled veterans and former/fringe rep players. We got lucky he whiffed on so many of those. I don’t think he did a great job of developing the kids who came through pathways.

The main signing I give him credit for is Pearce, the incumbent Blues halfback is one of the biggest signings in our history, and he sold the dream. He did that well. We got unlucky that a 28 year old halfback had only four more first grade standard years in him. That’s the exception these days.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
This is all true but I maintain he went too far in just accepting the team would be ****. I think that’s bad for the culture.

Also think burning it all down is the easy bit and I think he gets too much credit for that part. Along with signing players. Mooney says he had to twist his arm to get him to even talk with Kalyn for example (in a playful way). That’s the biggest Brown era signing and it was pushed on the coach, at least initially, because the recruitment manager knew we needed a foundational star, a Benji type, for fans & kids to get excited about.

The main thing Brown kept pushing for was replacing the previous grizzled veterans and former/fringe rep players with different grizzled veterans and former/fringe rep players. We got lucky he whiffed on so many of those. I don’t think he did a great job of developing the kids who came through pathways.

The main signing I give him credit for is Pearce, the incumbent Blues halfback is one of the biggest signings in our history, and he sold the dream. He did that well. We got unlucky that a 28 year old halfback had only four more first grade standard years in him. That’s the exception these days
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Aidan Guerra was a massive signing for us.
Klemmer was huge.
Chris Highington
Tim Glasby
I rated Jamie Buhrer
You mentioned Pearce and Ponga
Rory Kostjasyn (unlucky injury)

Frizzel? Not sure exactly when he signed.

Not sure of any signings made by O'Brien that were on the level of these players with their experience. (Gagai?)

Did Best come through during Brown era? One of our best juniors in a long time
 
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