Stuart departs early as the Storm keeps raging
Roar Guru
By Steve Kaless, 21 Jul 2010 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- National Rugby League, News Ltd, NRL, Ricky Stuart, Rugby League
Former Australian rugby league team coach Ricky Stuart. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
I awoke to two of the least shocking headlines a rugby league fan can expect from the 2010 season. The first was that there are now suspicions that News Ltd knew a lot more, a lot earlier than what they had previously let and the second was that Ricky Stuart was calling time earlier than expected on his coaching career with the Cronulla Sharks.
It was hard to be that surprised by either.
Former acting chief executive (try saying that ten times fast), Matt Hansen, has told the Sydney Morning Herald “exclusively” that senior News Ltd executives knew of the breaches from as early as February.
His version of events contradict those of News’ boss John Hartigan. But it’s impossible to think anyone is going to come out of this smelling like roses.
I’d argue it is nearly impossible for News not to have a better idea than what they are letting on to.
Their argument that it was all concocted by the only employees that weren’t News employees is asking us to take a pretty big leap of faith. But then to defend themselves from the latest allegations by saying, “We were told, but not of exact figures,” smacks of the sort of double speak we’d expect from the worst of our politicians.
I’m really battling to come up with a scenario whereby two men would discuss this issue without figures being used unless one knew they were crook and didn’t want to be told so he could later on say “I wasn’t told the exact figures”.
It stinks.
Deloitte’s “independent” audit process is also starting to look a bit dicey when the blokes who were paying the bill somehow come out as clean as driven snow.
And while we are putting the boot into bean counters, let’s remember “Ernst and Young” never a spotted a thing the whole time they were looking after the books.
You get the feeling that it’s a story with a fair bit to run, especially when there is a further subplot of Fairfax getting to put the boot into News Ltd. So you can expect no stone unturned as Fairfax journos strive to uncover the truth.
And all so Victorians can have a rugby league team.
Meanwhile, Stuart’s coaching reputation has been dying a death by a thousand cuts over the past two seasons and the disgraceful performance by the Sharks on Saturday night was clearly the anvil that broke the camel’s back.
Fox Sports unintentionally spared me from the full horror of that match.
After having watched Parramatta’s stunning victory against Penrith, I was toying with the idea of switching off and doing something more productive with my evening.
Thankfully, a transmission error or the act of a merciful god then suddenly showed the players trudging off the field with the super reading “Half Time: Sea Eagles 36 Sharks 0.”
I was briefly concerned I’d lost consciousness, but sure enough, after the ad break the match then started with the scores at 0-0. Not for the first time I’d wished that you could bet in play during delayed matches.
So thanks Fox Sports, you spared me having to watch the full horror of the final 80 minutes of Ricky Stuart’s coaching career at Cronulla.
It’s hard to know whether the former halfback has given incoming coach Shane Flanagan a text book hospital pass by handing him a side wallowing near the foot of the ladder and with no prospect of playing finals footy, or has been incredibly charitable in giving Flanagan every chance to improve on their most recent results.
Let’s face it, he can hardly do any worse.
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oikee said | July 21st 2010 @ 7:21am | Report comment
Apart from that game Steve, the sharks have been doing ok with the cattle they have. Look the main reason i am commenting is to say that this rugby league site looks very good today, with nice pictures of stuart and Campo, not to mention that juicy number down below.
Rodney McDonell said | July 21st 2010 @ 8:55am | Report comment
I don’t understand why everyone is blowing up about all this talk about News knowning more about it earlier than was said. It is a complete beat up. News LTD directors of the Storm were told of the breaches in Feburary… by then, what could they do? The investigation was already underway, so just let the investigation go through it’s paces.
Beowulf said | July 21st 2010 @ 9:51am | Report comment
Long term I fear for the Sharks, unless this ‘pot of gold’ development dream eventuates fairly soon. Even it it were to happen, they would become the same as the Roosters – few fans, few juniors, little TV interest, kept alive by cash injection only. Aside from Cronulla and the Roosters, I can see room to grow for all teams in the NRL, plus the 4 pending expansion areas of Central Coast, Perth, SEQ, CQLD.
Its a good discussion topic for the long term (say 10-15 years)….strategically, should the NRL deny access to teams from Adelaide, PNG or Wellington to prop up teams with little room to grow revenues? i was in favour of them perhaps relocating to Adelaide, but D.Gallop has said he hates relocations and prefers local start-ups….so long term, what do you do with Cronulla and the Roosters?
Hutchoman said | July 21st 2010 @ 9:54am | Report comment
Steve … I would have thought you would have loved nothing more than watching the Eagles romp in 9 tries!
Steve Kaless said | July 21st 2010 @ 3:00pm | Report comment
All I’ll say it was more of a stroll to the nine tries rather than a romp.
M1tch said | July 21st 2010 @ 10:31am | Report comment
Little over it now gotta say, they cheated the cap, people knew (administrators, players, news ltd) , they been punished and now they gotta get under the cap
Stuart was no real shock, Flanagan deserves a chance to see what talent he has for 2011 and make the decisions now to either keep or axe players
Willy said | July 21st 2010 @ 10:33am | Report comment
The Storm salary cap saga is just the latest in a long list of reasons why News Limited needs to either give up partnership of the NRL or ownership of NRL clubs.
In particular, Melbourne must be allowed to stand on their own two feet, or die.
Even before their salary cap breaches came to light, the idea that the dominant team in the NRL was artificially propped up by one of the owners of that same competition was so ridiculous it could only exist in Rugby League World.
How can we really talk about the Sharks going under while Melbourne Storm have been supported for so long by the NRL – or at least half the NRL?
In short, a News Limited owned Melbourne team in a News Limited owned competition is a complete farce. If a team in Melbourne is so commercially important, surely it should be able to survive on its own. If not – thanks for the (bad) memories Melbourne. Thanks and goodbye.
Dan said | July 21st 2010 @ 11:48am | Report comment
do you know anything about economics? 4million people in melbourne mean that the NRL MUST have a team there our that promise-land of the next TV deal will be worth nothing…
Willy said | July 21st 2010 @ 11:56am | Report comment
I’ve never quite understood the argument that a Melbourne team is essential is ensuring a bumper TV deal.
If the Melbourne rugby league TV audience is so massive, why do Channel Nine continue to show games in the middle of the night?
And, further to my argument about News Limited needing to get out of ownership… how can a New Limited owned NRL possibly hope to negotiate a decent TV package with a News Limited owned Foxtel?
I can assure you, you don’t need any business qualifications to see the problem there…
(By the way – I have both Undergrad and Postgrad business qualifications… my understanding of economics is reasonably solid as a result!)
M1tch said | July 21st 2010 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
Channel 9 Melb is AFL, why would they promote RL?
Its same as why Rugby wants a melb team, why AFL wants syd/bris teams..many a people live in these areas and the sports want to number 1
its clear news shouldnt be anywhere near ownership of a club or the game
The Link said | July 22nd 2010 @ 11:16am | Report comment
Willy – re ownership, exactly, RL has been getting “unders” on its TV deal as a consequence.
However, you’ll find that the next TV deal will be negotiated by an independent NRL (2013 rights to be decided in the next 18 months, current IC due date is Nov 2010)
oikee said | July 21st 2010 @ 10:47am | Report comment
The Storm will always be part of the comp, you dont allow for 12 years of development to go down the drain, like we did with Adelaide and Perth.
The Storm has alot of juniors being developed, and has a future. They are 1 team locked into a 4 million population. If you wish to throw this away, then i think its nuts.
They are now in the rebuilding stage, next year they are back in the comp. Everyone will get over the cap issues, and they will still be a team to beat.
Hopefully Perth gets into the comp by 2013, build up a strong rivalry with those 2 cities as well.
Willy said | July 21st 2010 @ 11:43am | Report comment
My problem is not with the Melbourne Storm oikee.
It’s with the ownership structure that has seen one half of the NRL propping them up financially – to the tune of millions of dollars every season.
It’s an abject farce.
And if Melbourne are as essential and potentially successful as everyone says, then they should be left to fend for themselves and prove it.
If they’re viable, surely a decade of support is enough to ensure their long term survival?
If they’re not, they should go the way of every non-viable enterprise in the country. I doubt they’d be missed.
Altona Rebel said | July 21st 2010 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
Willy your right Melbourne should Stand on its own two feet, So when they negotiate the next TV rights deal they should do two (we pretty good at doing two Contracts LOL) one without Melbourne and one with and any extra money goes straight to the VRL, this would guarantee the storm survival and give VRL war chest to compete with AFL
ScottWoodward.me said | July 21st 2010 @ 11:26am | Report comment
Steve,
The tragedy of the Ricky Stuart sacking ( he was originally pushed but then said I will hang in for the season) is that he is likely to be appointed as the NSW coach by his mate Geoff Carr, who should also be sacked.
Carr and his mates will do everything possible to delay the IC so he can maintain his cushy job, and one of his parting gifts to the Rugby League community will be to lumber us with a coach who looks fly blown.
His last 2 years as coach of the Roosters and the Sharks yielded a 32% win strike rate, oh, did I mention that he also found a way to lose the World Cup to an under strength Kiwi side?
How does a man with poor credentials like this even be granted an interview for such an important job?
Jay said | July 21st 2010 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
Yup. The great ricky stuart coaching myth.
Its also worth nothing that in one of his first years at the sharks (possibly his first year) he took them to one win of the gf with an inherited squad, only to make his own changes, getting rid of noddy, brining in matuia, toupou etc to change them into wooden spoon contenders.
He inherited a good squad at the roosters as well and managed to stuff that up before walking away.
Steve Kaless said | July 21st 2010 @ 3:01pm | Report comment
I agree Scott his record from 2005 offers little to be proud of.
apaway said | July 21st 2010 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
Scott, where did it start to go wrong for Stuart? When he coached the Roosters to the 2002 premiership and then 2 more GF appearances, it seemed he was the blueprint for a successful NRL coach. When I read your stats over his win-loss record I was stunned. It appears to me that he has come to truly detest coaching in the last few years – but that happens to most coaches who are lumbered with the Sharks. Even Jack Gibson couldn’t help them.
Willy said | July 21st 2010 @ 1:35pm | Report comment
Maybe Adolf Fittler really was coaching Easts all those years…
Steve Kaless said | July 21st 2010 @ 3:03pm | Report comment
Question wasn’t directed at me, but I just think the game changed and he didn’t. Its the same way Warren Ryan’s coaching tactics dated after being very succesful in one era.
This also highlights Wayne Bennett’s class through his longevitity.
ScottWoodward.me said | July 21st 2010 @ 7:43pm | Report comment
apaway
A few things.
I honestly think I could have coached the Roosters to win the comp that year as it was a hot side led by Fittler and moulded by Gould. The Blues side was similar and was like the current Maroon side.
He has had a rails run from day 1 and as soon as Gould and him split he started to struggle and the Roosters went backwards. He was lucky when he went to the Sharks as Kimmorley is a coach in his own right as we will see officially one day, but Ricky had the great idea to replace him and finally settled on Tim Smith.
I analyze the NRL for a living and I have constantly shook my head at some of the players he has sacked and brought in. Also, you can only scream at players for so long before have get a gut full. I did a rating for coaches at the start of the year and rated Ricky 5/10 which copped some flack, but I made the rating based on what I see.
Any club that hires him I would have to question that they know what they are doing and as for Geoff Carr, he should have been gone long ago, but he is the CEO of the NSWRL and Ricky is his mate.
apaway said | July 21st 2010 @ 10:49pm | Report comment
Thanks Scott, and Steve, that was insightful. I just remember thinking on Stuart’s emergence as a coach that he was a good mix of “old school” and modern but he has definitely gone wrong since I thought that.
Crosscoder said | July 21st 2010 @ 1:36pm | Report comment
Few juniors at the sharks! surely someone jests.They have a far bigger junior league than Manly,the Roosters barely make a quorum.they have similar numbers of juniors to the Dogs and not that much less than the Rabbitohs.
I will name a few Sharks juniors running around in other NRL clubs ATM
Rogers,Hilder,Scott,Best,Stuart,Mitch Brown,Galloway.
In fact they are getting sweet fanny adams from the league’s club,whereas other clubs need decent cash injections form those sources.
it should be noted,when the sharks are going well and they play the likes of St george,the grounds are packed.Even this year when they played the Saints at toyota,the crowd was nearly 16,000 and the Sharks were then down the pecking order.The fact they get 9,000 to a game9against Manly who bring no one) when they are tres ordinaire,suggests they can get far bigger crowds when they are constantly competitive.
The development is a must as it will reduce substantially the debt if not erase it,and give the football club accessibility to more funds.They will in fact be utilisiing the full salary cap in 2011.
bazza667 said | July 21st 2010 @ 1:41pm | Report comment
The best option for the Sharks would be to play in the NSW cup