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Leaked reviews, alleged player revolts and boardroom politics, these are the days of Michael Potter’s life.
While the Wests Tigers burn around him the inside out, Potter remains defiant, going about his job the way he has done since the first day he walked into Concord.
Sunday morning and it is game day, with the Tigers to face St George Illawarra at ANZ Stadium. As the day goes on, the rumours circulate that a decision will be made on Potter’s job at a meeting at Wests Ashfield that evening.
On top of it all Potter’s former teammate at the Dragons, Gorden Tallis, reports on Triple M that Wests’ skipper Robbie Farah told him in confidence last year that Potter wasn’t up to NRL coaching standard. Just another day at the office for Mick Potter.
Potter is no dummy and knew the rabble he was walking into after the club parted ways with premiership-winning mentor Tim Sheens (a man the club paid for a year after sacking him and are now being sued by), but you can’t blame the former Dally M Medal winner for wanting to ply his trade in the top rugby league competition on the planet.
What he walked into was a team run by the players. Benji Marshall, Robbie Farah and others. So he decided to change that and swing the balance back to where the power should always be, with the coach.
He made a tough but correct call by benching Marshall, and has since tried to go about moulding the new era for the dysfunctional club with Marshall gone.
In the early 1990s the Wests Magpies had a rift involving coach Warren Ryan and rising halfback Jason Taylor. A decision needed to be made – would it be the coach or the player? Taylor soon became a North Sydney Bear.
The absolute power should be with the coach and when the players start calling the shots, they won’t stop. They’ll take the inch and run a mile and keep running until the coach is a dead man walking. Then they’ll turn around and cite a “lack of support”, or it “just wasn’t working” or “it wasn’t us” when the coach gets the chop.
This is a club built on shaky foundations and old feuds. There was never any stability, only a short reprieve when a shock premiership came their way in 2005. While some officials and players know nothing about the volcano beneath their feet, it’s always building.
What Tallis did on Sunday was wrong but it doesn’t mean he’s a liar. It seems Farah is furious that a comment he made 12 months ago has been made public. But how can a comment like that ever be made by the captain of a club to a member of the media, whether it was yesterday or a year ago?
The fact that the Tigers’ board is again pandering to the same players who had Sheens sacked in 2012 is beyond staggering. It shows a lack of leadership at the highest level and they’re leaving Potter in the middle of the town square for public execution.
Yet look at the results of this team since Potter has been there and look at the playing roster he has had to work with. What coach could do more?
Brian Smith’s report said younger players had no faith in the rookie coach and media reports suggest Potter is too “dry” for these kids coming through. David Kidwell or Todd Payten are said to have the tools to do a better job. The fact that an external report was needed when the team is winning games of football shows where this club is at.
Aren’t results in a results-driven business enough anymore?
And what happens if Potter does get axed because of this report? Where does his next job come from, despite making this rookie Tigers team a competitive unit that put 40 points on competition frontrunners Canterbury no less than two weeks ago?
Wherever the backstabbing is coming from Potter knows that something remarkable is just around the corner for this talented batch of youngsters. A premiership is beckoning in the next five years, but it seems someone else might get the rewards of Potter’s groundwork.
Grow a set Wests Tigers and put the players in their place. Weed out the minorities and show them the door if they don’t want to play or coach under Potter, because if player power wins the day again and a new coach comes in, where does it stop?
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