NRL Coach Ladder

Whilst a few are ready to send BA to the knackery, I thought I'd contribute, instead from a data point of view and draw some conclusions from it..I've tried to avoid joining the BA assessment committee and stuck to what the performance data is saying..

In my opinion, the coach's performance should be measured by what happens on in the paddock, not by player popularity, passion for your club or about how tough you are. This analysis is purely based on number of games and win% per coach.

I've created a current NRL coach ladder of sorts below using the data from rugby league project (http://www.rugbyleagueproject.org) and added a few coaches raised/discussed in other blogs whom aren't currently coaching an NRL team. I've assumed the data to be accurate.

			Games	W	L	D	Win %
1	Storm	Craig Bellamy	398	271	125	2	68.1
2	Broncos	Wayne Bennett	791	491	286	14	62.1
3	Roosters	Trent Robinson	134	83	51	-	61.9
4	Cowboys	Paul Green	112	68	44	-	60.7
5	Panthers	Anthony Griffin	156	85	70	1	54.5
6	Sharks	Shane Flanagan	161	86	73	2	53.4
7	Dragons	Paul Macgregor	90	44	46	-	48.9
8	Eels	Brad Arthur	107	52	55	-	48.6
9	Raiders	Ricky Stuart	347	168	177	2	48.4
10	Tigers	Ivan Cleary	274	129	142	3	47.1
11	Sea Eagles	Trent Barrett	52	23	29	-	44.2
12	Knights	Nathan Brown	202	88	113	1	43.6
13	Rabbitohs	Anthony Seibold	3	1	2	-	33.3
14	Bulldogs	Dean Pay	3	1	2	-	33.3
15	Titans	Garth Brennan	3	1	2	-	33.3
16	Warriors	Stephen Kearney	69	20	48	1	29


		Des Hasler	361	210	151	-	58.2
		Geoff Toovey	105	61	43	1	58.1
		Michael Maguire	153	85	68	-	55.6
		Brian Smith	601	305	285	11	50.7

"The Newbies" - early days for Seibold, Pay and Brennan so too early assess their performance.

"Number 1" - Bellamy by a country mile, win % speaks for itself, even after their salary cap dramas, he remains the win % benchmark for all other NRL coaches and unfortunately will probably be at the Storm until he retires.

"The Next 3" - Bennett, Robinson and Green - should be on our next coach target list, winning consistently to be finalists year on year, a bunch of premierships between them, Green in particular would be the future number 1 coach, and a great acquisition if we could lure him but would warrant big $$$$.

"The Peloton" (position 5 to 10) - the average coach group, not winning consistently to get beyond top 8, maybe a top 4 in a good year, no super coaches here. This is where BA sits for mine, he got us away from the dark days of back to back wooden spoons but probably isn't quite there performance wise yet to threaten the top 4 coaches.

"Not Yet" - Barrett and Brown, probably unfair to put them this group but early in their coaching careers, still have a season or two ahead before being considered as good coaches but the signs are good. Brown sacrificed his win % to go blooding a junior team for a couple of seasons.

"No Way" - Kearney should be on everyone's do not hire list… I'm not surprised he needs coaching himself to get his footy team sorted out.. A week to week proposition. Been there, done that.

"The Centrelink Queue" - Hasler, Toovey, Maguire, Smith - all have their negatives, Smith is a premiership choker, Hasler took the bulldogs backwards, Maguire and Toovey were booted suddenly and haven't found a job since. If we had an immediate desire to move BA on (say this / next season), Toovey and Maguire would make sense first to approach only because they both have had recent success, got their teams to grand finals.

I haven't considered Walters because he hasn't coached first grade yet, good origin coach with a cracking side to play with doesn't prove much at a club level for me. Obviously worth considering....

I agree this data is very basic. Perhaps in time better stats on coaches will be available.

But you have Hasler, Maguire & Toovey on the scrap heap for one reason or another. When any of their teams made Grandfinals, these coaches had the very best players at the time in their positions. Great halves, great forwards as the Roosters & Storm still have. Bennett also has had a wonderful career having the best qld talent available. Green took over a team full of internationals that Henry had assemble. Hasler struggled after leaving the Sea Eagles, he managed to get the Dogs into the finals & Grandfinal yes, but if you use the Parramatta way of judging success, it's no better than Brian Smith. Bellamy, I'll never knock this guy, the only times I've seen him struggle is when he coached NSW. The best in the state at his disposal, but just couldn't do it. But the Qld'ers, were out of controls, winning everything with the same players Bellamy, Green & Bennett use to have so much success. I do believe in BA, no he ain't the best coach, the best coach not available but I do believe Parra will come good under his leadership.

"Kurupt…there’s a great article in the magazine below about the Eels and Rabbits getting down and dirty. Final score 31-20, however, I won’t spoil who dominated who."

Replies

Snakey - Sack Dylan Brown March 27, 2018 at 3:45pm

Good blog
Longfin Eel March 27, 2018 at 3:50pm

Interesting stuff. Probably buts BA where everyone would expect really, even those calling for his head. Considering we spent the first few years at the bottom of the ladder under BA, his figures are not too bad. A couple of good years and the winning percentage would reach Griffin and Flannagan. At 107 games, he is still learning the trade, especially considering there are many coaches with a lot more games under their belt.
HKF March 27, 2018 at 4:06pm

The biggest problem with these stats is it doesn't factor in how strong a roster was when a coach had that particular team, Bellamy, Bennett and Robinson have always had extremely strong rosters, apart from when Bennett was at the Knights and we all know how that went for him.

Then you have a coach like Brian Smith who almost always started with very poor rosters, yet in a few short years he was able to build those clubs up from the foundations and get them into premiership contenders. If I was rebuilding a team Smith would be the first coach on my list, if I already had a strong roster Bellamy, Robinson and Green would be top of my list, I wouldn't go after Bennett these days as I think he is getting past it.
- fake midget pseudoachondroplasia > HKF March 27, 2018 at 4:34pm
  
  Hasn't BA rebuilt the roster over past 2 years. We would have been top 8 if didn't lose points and then top 4.
  
  Fact our roster isn't as great as the roosters, storm Cowboys etc.. But BA took us from bottom 4 to contenders last year. Why is Smith better then BA
Wild_Eels March 27, 2018 at 4:20pm

Very good blog.
Offside March 27, 2018 at 4:41pm

That supports my argument that BA is good but if we want to go the nextvsteo he isn't the guy
Tin Tim March 27, 2018 at 5:42pm

But you have Hasler, Maguire & Toovey on the scrap heap for one reason or another. When any of their teams made Grandfinals, these coaches had the very best players at the time in their positions. Great halves, great forwards as the Roosters & Storm still have. Bennett also has had a wonderful career having the best qld talent available. Green took over a team full of internationals that Henry had assemble. Hasler struggled after leaving the Sea Eagles, he managed to get the Dogs into the finals & Grandfinal yes, but if you use the Parramatta way of judging success, it's no better than Brian Smith. Bellamy, I'll never knock this guy, the only times I've seen him struggle is when he coached NSW. The best in the state at his disposal, but just couldn't do it. But the Qld'ers, were out of controls, winning everything with the same players Bellamy, Green & Bennett use to have so much success. I do believe in BA, no he ain't the best coach, the best coach not available but I do believe Parra will come good under his leadership.
HKF March 27, 2018 at 7:54pm

What are you talking about Fake Midget?, where have I compared BA to any of these others?.

I simply pointed out the faults of this comparison, although I do think it is a pretty good one.

Since you asked the question i'll give you a reason why I think at this point in time Smith is a better coach than BA, The recruitment and junior development under Smith for a 10 year period was second to none in the history of the eels, he developed so many good juniors we were filling up half the NRL teams with players that couldn't fit in our squad while at the same time Smith always recruited players to fill holes that we had in certain positions, something BA has failed at so far.
carrion March 27, 2018 at 9:39pm

Good Blog. Thank you for making the effort