Who should be Parra's coach next year? - in order of preference.
Frankie Fong just got voted head of Triads and is moving to HK. As a parting gift he will make anyone we want an offer they cannot refuse. Sometimes during negotiations with Frankie people have heart attacks or accidents so include some back-up.
IMO we need reputation ATM as well as ability. So as much as I hate Storm :
1. Bellamy
2. Cronk
3. Slatter
PS. this post is not meant as a slight on BA. BA has made us a finals side from being cellar dwellers. But can he take the next step?
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Would like to see Ben Te'o in the building, he is a difference-maker and a very underrated player and footy mind.
The previously mentioned Josh Hannay too, a silent assassin type, never really gets mentioned.
I think it's a fair point.
Are we in a position to give the reins to a coach with little or no experience?
I think we are, we are in need of some fresh ideas. We have a very experienced squad, infact we are lacking in youth if anything.
Maybe Hannay could spend some time in an assistant role to BA, then step up in 2025.
I'm all for Josh Hannay. He will be a great addition to a coaching roster but I think the club may be positioning Trent Barrett if in the unlikely event, they don't renew BAs contract.
Every coach has to start somewhere.
When clubs are desperate they take coaches who new to NRL. That is how coaches start out. Think Cleary at the Warriors.
The Eels are not that desperate.
Melbourne with Bellamy, Roosters with Robinson, Cronulla with Flanagan, Manly with Hasler, all premiership winners with coaches who had no NRL experience before the hired them.
Would you classify those clubs as being desperate ?
And besides, to listen to some of the talk here, that's exactly what we are.
There is always exceptions to the rule
Interesting talk, gents. Statistically, * the spread of coaches winning GF's within one tenure with a club is even: a third in the first 1-2 yr tenure (including plenty of rookies), a third after 3-4 yrs, and the next third up to circa 5 yrs. Roughly speaking.
Only one coach has won a grand final outside 5 years, 5 weeks (Flanagan, Sharks): Steve Folkes (Dogs) who took 7 seasons which included a salary cap scandal where the Dogs were stripped of points.
Is that due to Timing? Say, like Cleary with the Panthers who got into a grand final in his 2nd year and won in his 3rd year back after he returned (from 2019). Or is it because coaches and/or clubs lose patience beyond the 5 year plan to instill a title winning culture? Or, perhaps, a bit of both? Maybe, that's a reason Jack used to move clubs every few years. He wouldn't hang on for years and years.
BA, though, is in his 11th season in his tenure with us. History says, his chances of winning a title with us are not high. Closer to zilch (really close). He is in uncharted territory, where no man has ever been before. It's not the first man landing on the moon; it's beyond Pluto.
But, some will argue, there is always a first for everything. And sure, there is. One day. Maybe in a few years. Maybe a few decades. Maybe in the next century.
However, I'll back history as having the most likely say in our case; probabilities.
At best, we'll be lucky one season, where the players decide - in a thematic pact upon themselves as a collective - to put everything into the team, everything on the line for a title and change their habits on and off-field. And then, luck, and everything else conspires and galvanizes together (but it will be temporary based on history). So far, in BAs reign we have seen a team that is, culturally, still Jeckyl-Hyde, very capable of switching on-off and being defensively (attitude) vulnerable and falling apart at the seams from time to time. Plus, we've seen senior, highly paid players (Matto, Dylan for example) put themselves before the team and the club. That's reflective of culture issues that isn't heading to the top of the mountain. All that is symptomatic of a collective issue top to bottom within the club. The good news is it's better than where we were not too long ago. Frightening stuff really. To laugh, smile in an accepting surrender of realities, or cry?
* From the mid 1960s; before then there were too many captain coaches winning titles which would skew the stats towards the quick end of the scale. If anyone is interested, later (or one of these days), I'll post something on this stat when I'm at my laptop with all the data.
Brett if I had the energy I would compile a list of inexperienced coaches being elevated to Head coach and failing. Parramatta has had a few. Most recent being the water boy, former assistant to Bellamy.
But my point is every coach starts out with no experience as an NRL head coach. That has its drawbacks, but it also its benefits. Employing a coach who has been there, done that also has its pros and cons. There is no absolute right or wrong.
An inexperienced coach brings fresh energy and new ideas, but lacks experience. An experienced coach obviously has been tested but also is stuck in their ways, which may or may not be relevant to the current day.
Now you might say that we need an experienced coach who has been to the promised land, but you could just as easily say we need a young coach with fresh ideas.
Who's right and who's wrong ?
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