Firstly I want to say that after a few loses we can be an emotional lot and we do sometimes forget about the good that has been before. BA is a very good coach. You dont last 11 years in the NRL as head coach, if you can't coach. One way to measure him is - has he improved players? The answer is yes - Gutho, Moses, Hopgood, Penisini etc have all improved under BA. He has made the club into a consistently competitive team and anyone denying that is just hurt because of where our footy team is right now.
But now is the time to move on from BA. Why? For 11 years we have seen a coach who loves effort and having a go. He is an underdog coach because he is the ultimate underdog. A reserve grade player who retired to take up coaching, he captain coached bush footy sides until he got a crack helping out NRL sides. He then becomes a hard nosed defense coach and finally cracks it as a head coach at one of the big clubs. So he is an underdog and he loves to use that in his coaching. So chasing the collision, being tough and winning all the effort areas are all his catch phrases and they suit what he stands for. He strikes me as a bloke that would not ask you to do something that he wouldn't do. He is a guy that I imagine works super hard to improve this team and he expects the same from the others in the team.
And here is the thing, do you need effort and toughness and hardnosed competitiveness to win footy games?
Heck yeh you need them in spades. But here is why we now must part ways with BA and start again. Effort and some skill will win you the odd game as you rise on emotion and think you are Braveheart and will run through walls to win. That's origin stuff. BA is relying on the team to do that every week right now and they simpy can't rise each week.
To win consistently you need more than effort and toughness. You need tactics (that change every week according to opposition), you need a high level of skill, you need speed (especially in your back 5), you need power and you need a few blokes who can make something out of nothing ... think Reece Walsh and Kalyn Ponga. And when you think about these things we simply don't have enough of it in our footy team right now. Sure we might find that huge effort game and win next week again, but you cant sustain it for 26 rounds. There are games where the skill and tactics rise to the top. The dolphins showed that on Friday with some brilliant tries. We scored pretty easy ones.
Hold on though because I dont think change is coming real soon but it needs too. BA, thanks for the memories. Well done good and faithfiul servant but it's time to pass the batton onto a new leader!
I know there aren't manysupporters who would keep BA on? I'd like to hear if there are supporters who think BA should stay? I haven't heard any yet
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There seems to be a very strong consensus across most fan groups that I'm reading .
finally
Media are following too.
On the podcast i do my mate, Wests fan, brought up this discussion and he mentioned coaches are scape goats and players are the ones who once on the field it is their job. There is a point to that but in the lead up the coach is responsible in some to most elements of having them mentally ready and having the right attitude to play.
I respect that opinion more than most but still a take that i feel is flawed from most. Is sacking or blaming BA a scapegoat approach? It can be, are the players the real issue? They are apart of the issue as is the coach, it is a collective effort. BA has ran his course and even though there is no guarantee we improve when he is gone, it is apparent clearly that we wont win a comp with BA and BA wont win a comp with us so why keep going as neither are going to reach their end goal.
Like an old married couple trying to make it work. Have constant ups and downs and barely hang in there but both know they will never be 100% happy with each other so why not just move on and see what happens from there, if it doesn't work well what we had before didn't work either.
After a couple of seasons, calling for the coaches head can definitely be seen as him being the scapegoat.
After 11 years, I don’t think that label should be used.
I can understand the aspect. Tactically coaches can get it wrong on game day, but mentally in terms of trying is on the captain and players. I disagree with that, as yes the players are at fault for that but the coach needs to prepare the attitude. As Paul Kent said once, i do not understand why coaches say we were ambushed. How were you ambushed? You knew who you were playing, what time you were playing, where you were playing, nothing about the match ups catch up off guard. He is 100% right, that is on the coach mainly to have them mentally prepared. If the players do not listen then that is a sign.
God no !!!!
he has to wear some responsibility
if you were married for ten years and it failed - there is some personal responsibility for your choices involved for sure
scapegoat I don't think so at all
he's had a fair run imo with some very decent players
You can last 11 years as head coach when you have a spineless gutless board and incompetent CEO
Has anybody got a box of tissues. Farewell good and faithful servant. Just get rid of him. You can hold his hand on the way out.
I am on the edge as to if we should move on from BA. If Wayne is available there is no doubt we should pursue him for 2025. If Wayne is not available then it becomes more complicated, BA is a very good coach and the qualities you have listed make him the best option for this playing group than any other coach on the market. If we make the 8 and we cannot hire bennet I think keeping brad is the best option, if we do not make 8 consider Holbrook and others, make major roster changes and possibly fire BA.
Emotional after a few losses isn't what it is. It is fed up with Groundhog Day. Same defensive issues every year, a team clueless on the try line, soft underbelly. The list goes on. The problems never get fixed.
Some say the art of leadership is delegation. But BA never brings in anyone that could potentially compete for his job. Good leaders bring in good assistants and delegate. You cannot do it all. But given the same issues keep recurring, the buck stops with BA.
Like 2018, if we finish at the bottom of the table, he will just say this year we didn't have a connection or some other BS and we go around next year. Anything to shift blame away from what ulitimately is his responsibility. Some could argue that the R&R committee don't get him the players he wants, but does that save the coach at any other club?
I've been done for a long time. Time to bring in some fresh air.
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