I was in full support of sacking DA for a few reasons, however what is clear now from my perspective is the high regard held by players for our new coach.
If we relate Sk in race horse terms, he has a great bloodline....actually he is the "grandson" of Bennett (if WB was at stud somewhere in the Hunter Valler)
SK obviously has been mentored for some years by quality coaches who have learned from the best coach still coaching.....and even though Bellamy has been playing with a massive massive unfair advantage, it's clear he can copach, and develop players.
I'm glad we signed SK, he could prove to be one of the great modern coaches and the "Bennett Bloodline" may continue to produce grand final winning teams, wouldn't it be great if he made that come true at Cumberland Oval.
I'm going to make a bold prediction, another GF appearance in 2013 hopefully a winning one, they say it always takes a new coach 2-3 years to get his team built to that level of performance.
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I feel he's got some of Bennett's qualities, that rare mix of being able to inspire and discipline, of charisma and substance, with arguably more refined 'soft' skills to deal with club politics and ability to avoid polarising the media (perhaps even better than the great man). Also, from player feedback it appears he's also a shrewd tactician. Other than many grey hairs built over decades of coaching - what more would you want from a coach ?
First step is to allow SK to coach, afford him full reign as eels coach, which appears to be happening. Second step is to give him time & not expect miracles. Only time will tell, but the sky's the limit with SK.
Look, I'm pleased we signed Kearney and hope he succeeds but if you're looking to compare, you might conclude:
1. DA is a tough disciplinarian whose uncompromising style did not accord with the Polynesian players in our team; vs
2. SK, being a Kiwi himself, establishes a rapport with the Polynesian players and is able to extract the best performance from them.
Bottom line is that DA was frogmarched out of Parra because some of our players are lazy. As much as I'm loathed to admit it, Parraeels outlined this 'big head syndrome' even before round 1 and perhaps he was right!
A bit harsh fella.
I agree with much of your response, however ultimately it was DAs job to extract the best from his squad, or make changes.
can I pose a question, if we all think players like mateo were lazy, why them was he not sent back to wenty to pull his finger out?
Another point, I think you are underestimating the pulling power that the NZ national coach will have, are you suggesting that national coahes over the years have not attracted players to their clubs because of their dual post?
Its increasingly clear that NZ is a close 2nd if not as good as Aust nowadays, and surely you would have to admit that having the NZ coach is an advantage that DA could not offer?
Time will tell on SK of course, but he has the right pedigree, I suppose we could have said the same things about Bellamy when he started out after serving his time under Bennett, which was my point.
I think SK will more than provide just good rapport with polynesians, I think he'll prove to be a far better coach than DA was ay Parra, results don't lie Bourban man.....worse attack in NRL this year, it can't all be the players fault otherwise why do we employ coaches if not to coach.
As for DA not sending Mateo back to Wenty, can you imagine the problems that might have caused? It appears DA was already having trouble with a certain faction of players in the side and not only was Mateo one of our genuine stars, he was also well liked amongst the group. This could have created further rifts. Not to mention the howls of protest from the fans and general public alike!
This, in my opinion, was where DA failed because for whatever reason, he was unable to win the trust of all the players in the side due to what probably was a personality incompatibility. The fact we had so much trouble attracting players while DA was head coach might add further weight to that argument. And I'm still very much of the belief that certain people in the club's management were 'playing politics' and that didn't help either.
As others have pointed out, DA is a good coach and has the runs on the board. As angry as I was at the time of his termination I now accept that it was the only real outcome for both DA and the club. As such I fully support the appointment of SK and accept that through his connections as Kiwi coach, may prove to be a magnetic force in attracting several high profile Kiwi players over the next few years.
Nonetheless, in the same way people put overtly burdensome expectations on junior players and rip into them when they falter, I fear that if we get too carried away with SK and what he'll bring to the table, there's only one likely outcome - we'll end up disappointed.
1. been mentored by high quality coaches
2. experience in knowing what structures and systems need to be in place to have prolonged success
3. man management by all accounts seems excellent
4. is taking over a team that under performed awefully last year so its hard to see it being worse
5. has already rceived the endorsement from many of the current squad
6. lazy elements have left club, better squad to take on
just my thoughts, i will eat my own car keys if we have a worse year than this year, and I still maintain that we will play in another GF in 2013
Whilst Brian Smith started well, towards the end of his tenure, he was consistantly voted the coach least likely other players would want to play for. This could have been due to the bad wrap he got from the media, player leaks or poor results.
It appears DA sort of carried that same aura. im sure after the way he went out coaching NZ, parra players were in 2 minds about his appointment. Whether he is a good coach or not, DA has now left 2 clubs before his contract expired. It appears player unrest was the main reason for both of his sackings.
in SK, we now have the complete opposite of these 2. whether or not players like Isaac Luke will sign for us or not is not important. the mear fact that they are actually thinking about joining parra because of the coach has to be a positive for us. I believe SK will succeed and i think he will have a positive impact on players who might be reaching the end of the careers such as Grothe, Burt and Hindy
Bennett also taught Bellamy and the Storm do have a similar culture to the Bronx under Bennett.
Lets not get into the other crap about the Storm and objectively look at the team and it's attitude.
SK has been trained by the best people managers.
We do NOT want the Eels with an abnormally high Kiwi content because during 1 off tests etc we could be losing a high number of our players.
Eg. Bennett at ther Broncos supplying 7 Qld players and 1 or 2 to NSW. for SOO.
My major concern is just how much autonomy Ozclown and the board will in fact allow SK in running the team.
Our failure in 2010 (IMO) had more to do with the interference from the ringmaster and his performing clowns than in DA's failure to man manage the team.
As others have said in other blogs - now we wait and see what happens.
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