OK, first up I for one will not be slitting my wrists if we miss the 8 this year, although I doubt that we will.
Having said that, & without wanting this to be a negative blog, on the recent blog dealing with the Boulos announcements some eels supporters are calling for a change in coach if we do not make the finals this year, so my questions are.
Is the call for a new coach a fari call, therefore sack BA & go for a new one.
Or should we keep him as the future coach?
When answering, would be good to think about this in a reasoned way, rather than a knee jerk reaction.
I for one would not be hasty in making a sacking call, as we know that the coach finally has a team he wants, & I do not believe that missing the 8 is a capital offense worthy of sacking, rather it will depend on just how the team itself performs.
If we see a lot of inept failure through the year then its one situation meaning the calls will be loud for change, even if that happens, who to replace him, & who in the playing ranks seriously would go, meaning what will it mean for some contracted players & clauses they may have.
If we miss by a point or two, & the team has lifted to such an extent that they have lost only games by the better side on the day, & certainly not the surrenders we saw a couple of years ago, but played well enough for the 80 minutes to have wone, I do not believe a change would be warranted.
Should a change be mooted all that will come out is the aspect of "here we go again" changing the pawns, & the aspect of club & coaching stability. No doubt there will be a big call for a change in the board, if the first scenario takes place, & rightfully so one would think.
Over to you the one eyed experts.
Replies
Successful teams retain and recruit more effectively because players want to play with winners and have a good chance to be winners.
Will be much easier to keep our promising juniors, retain players we want and get new recruits to plug our weaknesses or be more attractive than Rooster to JH if we finish top 4
I think barring catastrophic injuries, another salary cap fiasco (loss of comp points), a betting scandal or an earthquake, anything less than a top 8 position this season will place the coach in a difficult spot. If we don't make the 8 based solely from poor footy & poor tactics then we would still need to find an alternate that was going to be better, a concept we have failed miserably to grasp in the past.
Lets not forget the premiership wins when we had the late great Jack Gibson as coach was preceded by some years in the wilderness & in some ways a gradual build from 1974 onwards, especially when Norm Proven took over for a year, then Terry Fearnley, it was also the birth of a lot of our outstanding greats on the field. It also had us with a spoon the year before Gibson in 1980. For the long term sufferers we went though terrible failures, & interestingly when Jack Gibson took over Cronulla he did not get them a competition.
If we play up to our potential, meaning both new signings & existing players then as you say baring injury tolls, its not unreasonable to expect an 8 spot. We have improved, but I also think the top teams have also improved with their rosters, many needing just the one name added to do so, we have more & did need them. Its the way we win will be as important as how we lost, to rest on the laurels provided by wins is a fatal mistake, meaning there is still need to lift the week following the win.
I think that B.A should be allowed to finish what he started here, I would be disappointed if he got sacked, all that will happen is we get another coach who wants to change everything and then it takes another 3-4 years of this crap. And If we were to move him on who do you want to replace him? not another rookie I would hope.
We haven't made the finals since 2009 we have had 3 coaches since then, I know BA is going into his 3rd year now but he only now has the team he wants, last year went better than I expected once Hayne left, now we have more talent than when he was here, I have a great feeling about 2016, I trust BA will shut up all the doubters
BA has had his critics over his time but there's no doubt he has the players support as evidenced last year when rumours of his sacking did the rounds.
Bottom line is we have to be Top 8 this year or its failure. He has the team he wants and barring injuries there can be no excuses. That said it doesn't look like injuries were a good enough excuse for Cleary.
I "think" BA is the bloke for the job but if he was the CEO of a business and continually came under KPIs for 3 consecutive years he would surely be sacked.
Even coaches like Bennett with a proven track record at this level would not be exempt so neither should BA.
What he said ^
No argument other than we'd have to have a worthwhile, credible and experienced option to BA for consideration. Sacking him without such an option, is not an option.
If we do miss the eight and it is because of a massive injury toll, would you sack BA or the conditioning staff?
I would like to see a coach stay for some years and BA is as passionate a parra man there is, so make the eight BA and take the bullshitt and negativity out of the knockers hands!
Do some homework before you type, princess.
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