Senior playing groups at footy clubs can be pretty powerful. But it’s never a good idea for them to be too powerful.
You can’t have players making decisions on the coach and the running of the club. That’s not good business, nor is it a good business model.
Senior players are very important in terms of the footy the team’s playing and the standards at training. Senior guys drive culture. Set standards.
But in terms of front office, as soon as players have too big an input it’s bound to fail.
Players have a job: play footy. They’re not there to decide who the coach is. That can cause big conflict.
Wests Tigers? What makes you think this is a story about Wests Tigers?
Ha. Of course it is, after a fashion. For the saga of Wests Tigers is a case in point.
Wests Tigers have sacked Jason Taylor and kept a ‘big four’ playing group of whom one is a superstar (James Tedesco), one is the NSW Blues prop (Aaron Woods) and two (Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks) are over-paid and over-rated in terms of the actual ‘winning’ that their footy club does.
Ricky Stuart said it a few years ago, that halves ‘own’ the results of games, a bit like quarterbacks get the gongs in the NFL.
By that rationale, Brooks and Moses own very little. Wests haven’t made the top-eight since 2011 when Tim Sheens was coach and Benji Marshall was bopping about in the six.
The club sacked Sheens in 2012 and then Mick Potter in 2014. And people blamed Robbie Farah.
There was a famous stink on the radio when Gorden Tallis talked out of school about what Farah had told him off the record, that he didn’t rate Potter the coach.
It was bad form by Tallis – stuff like that isn’t for public consumption, even if Farah’s manager was telling porkies. And there was much angst, and gnashing of teeth.
Yet Farah didn’t sack Potter. He was asked by the Wests Tigers board about Potter and gave them his opinion, as he’d given it to Tallis. Farah didn’t decide who the coach should be. The board asked, he answered. Up to them what they did with it.
So much of the Tigers present malarkey is on the board. It’s on the board to understand the football side of it. To see Farah’s advice for what it was – advice. They have to own the decision.
What if, at players’ behest, they’d brought in a coach who all the players loved but whose results were rubbish? Who would the board ask then? The players think the coach is a great fellah! But the job’s not getting done.
Same if there’s a coach who blokes might not like personally, but on the field they’re tearing it up. Should the board take the players’ opinion into account then? “Sack this bloke. We’re winning but we don’t like him.”
Smart coaches will try to get the leadership group on side. Not necessarily so they can keep their job or be sweet with the board. Most of them aren’t that Machiavellian.
It’s more so the senior players can influence the rest of the team and get everyone going the coach’s way. Smart coaches seek input from the best players, and give them ownership.
But the buck has to stop with the coach.
A coach can’t always be the players’ mate. If you’re in that role – dropping blokes, making calls – not everyone’s going to like it. That’s part of the job.
But you can’t be undermined by players deciding your future. Whether you live or die, that’s got to be a front office decision.
Where did it go wrong for Jason Taylor? One day he and/or Robbie Farah may write a book, and Aaron Woods might write one, too, and we may learn some of the minutiae.
But it’s the head office that has to cop the majority of the blame.
Having four of your best players off contract in the same year, all managed by the same bloke, and paying over a million dollars out of your salary cap for blokes who are playing for someone else, well… has there ever been such a state of affairs?
There’s also the increasingly-accepted wisdom that the young Tigers halves, Brooks and Moses – who held out for Big Money and then tested the market and found the market wasn’t going to spend Big Money upon them – that they aren’t, you know, extremely good.
One day, maybe. But not now. And they’ve played over 50 games each. When are they no longer boys?
Talk to old boys of this greatest game of all rugby league and the accepted wisdom of the ages is that coaches don’t make players but rather the other way around. Good players make teams – and coaches’ CVs.
But there’s a bit both ways.
Those coaches who do have prolonged success, they’ve got something that gets the best out of blokes. If a coach can sustain success – think Wayne Bennett, Des Hasler, Craig Bellamy and there’ll be people guffawing but read this first Ricky Stuart – then he’s got the right mix of tactical nous and man-management.
There’s two sides to a good coach: there’s footy knowledge – game plans, tactics, skills, how to play footy. And there’s man-management – being able to get the best out of people with different personalities.
The good coaches understand that a rocket up Player X will fire him up but could cause Player Y to lose confidence.
Good coaching is about explaining things simply. They’re footballers, they’re not all Joey Johns geniuses.
A coach can have a feast of footy knowledge but if he can’t get it across, blokes eyes will be rolling – what’s he talking about here?
A lot of players speak highly of Bennett and his man-management.
“He cares about blokes, he’s like their favourite uncle,” says one senior NRL man. “And blokes do respect his footy knowledge.
“Conversely, I’ve been at clubs, and I’ve heard it happening at other clubs, where players have run out thinking their coach knows nothing.
“At one footy club, this new coach came in and straight away blokes were like, ‘Mate, that’s bullshit.’
“Players know football. You can’t bullshit players.”
Players work well if they’ve given a clear role within a clear game plan. That also helps when things aren’t going right – there’s no hiding, there’s no grey area. Here’s the thing you needed to do – did you do it? Yes or no?
Obviously, players questioning a game plan and tactics, it’s not conducive to success. And if the coach isn’t as good as players were hoping for, and players start falling out with the coach and not believing what they’re hearing, they can start doing their own thing.
So it’s on the coach to keep everyone in the same direction.
But then you can’t flog a dead horse. If some blokes think you’ve got no idea and other blokes are doing what you say, you can have everyone pulling in different directions. And the footy team suffers.
A smart coach will make use of smart assistants. There’s a lot of knowledge around. John Cartwright is great for Trent Barrett at Manly. Ricky Stuart delegates plenty to Dean Pay (defence) and Mick Crawley (attack). One of Mal Meninga’s major roles as coach of Australia is to be Mal Meninga.
It’s about getting the right mix. Good coaches understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and can bring guys in to complement them.
But if you ever read that a coach has “lost the change room” that usually means through man-management rather than tactics or footy knowledge, according to my man.
“Man management is the biggest challenge for a coach,” he says. “It’s about being able to understand blokes and get the best out of so many personalties. Coaching is more about how to talk to blokes than what you know about footy.”
Tim Gore
Expert
Totally from Simpsons. Miss Hoover to ms krabappel, in regard to the word 'embiggens' "I don't know why, it's a perfectly cromulent word." Stuart, even then. If people you chat with see their name in print they may stop chatting with you. I always ask before I use.
JoM
Guest
For all the denigration of Robbie Farah, one thing he always said was that the Tigers had probably the worst defence in the comp and that was what they needed to be working on. Nobody ever listened and they are still in the same place.
JoM
Guest
I just want to throw something in here. I know/knew Luke Brooks through another sport that he was very very good at. I totally disagree that he is egotistic and self centred. His family would never have allowed that and it isn't who they are and it isn't who he is. He might follow the leader, but the kid I knew is far from an egotist and far from self centred. Shy and quiet are two words, humble is another. He is just a kid that grew up being very good in his age group at one sport, outstanding in another and throwing athletics in makes 3 sports. He made a choice between the two sports and has ended up doing what he dreamed of which was playing for Balmain. Get the kid a good coach and see what he does.
Dixie Normous
Roar Rookie
Tell me this. Is there a club in history who have give away as much talent as the tigers? Andrew Fafita, Blake Austin,Te mari Martin, Chris Heighnington, Sitilitki Akoula, Maritka Koribeti, Josh Ado Carr, Martin Taupau, Robbie Farrah. Probably more but all I could think of atm.
Sean
Guest
I live in Cunnamulla. ?? no team here atm.. Though wed still beat tigers prob ??
Kramer
Guest
Andrew if anyone is going to come up with such obvious humour he ain' no rocket scientist. Back to the drawing board pal...
gc dave
Guest
Cunnamulla competition, Quilpie, Augathella Charleville and Cunnamulla. That's as far out as they play footy in Qld and that's about the Tigers standard right now.
Sean
Guest
Why did you use Cunnamulla as an example?
gc dave
Guest
Yeah rookie, it goes a bit deeper than that. The Holden Cup boys are second last and the NSW cup team is last. The NRL team have let 100 points in, in 3 games, that's 33 points a game. They have scored an average of 2 points a half of football in the last two games, That in itself is a major problem and cannot be allowed to continue. Taylor said he had the team he wanted. If that's the team he wanted he must have been looking at playing in Cunamulla or the like. The NSW Cup side have hemorrhaged 133 points in the 3 games this year, that's 43 points a game...surely there is a case for a mercy rule here, This is where the replacements for injury and to cover Tedesco and Woods in Origin is coming from. God help us please. Then the Holden cup team leaks close to 30 points a game. Wests have had a great under 20's system and have always been competitive in NYC since its inception, We aren't going to rely on these for the future of the club are we? So now look at those statistics and we see a culture of not giving a rats about the defensive part of a football game. We see the club in turmoil not only the NRL team. Not only that we see that not one of the Footy sides is in the least way competitive. We desperately need a Ricky Stuart whiteboard trick. Write the names in three columns, required, not required and playing for a contract. Let the big headed halves be in the playing for a contract not worrying about the size of a contract. Tigers need to invest heavily in four areas.. Recruitment and talent identification, coaching, defensive coaching and getting someone on the board that knows a little about footy. 1 out of 3 isn't that bad but the those two and the strength of football in the club is unacceptable.
Stuart McLennan
Expert
Disagree Tim. In this case it is general comment. As Matt said is fair cop in this instance. No one is revealing secrets. We all get told things.
gc dave
Guest
Mate, leaving the contracts this late will probably work out pretty well. Brooks value is diving by the minute, Moses is on a downward trajectory as well. To have signed the "Next Big Things" on the NRL scene would have cost an arm and a leg. Now to sign the "Players who couldn't deliver on their early promise" will cost them peanuts and a peppercorn if the Tigers have any brains. If they want more, sack them and look at the footballers that play half in ther clubs "Nickorima" Hastings etc. Tedesco has shone and increased his value and whatever he is seeking they need to pay. To sign that winger on a $1m+ deal is pretty silly when they let Koribete and Addo-Carr go. Woods needs to be paid at the top of front rowers, he is the only consistent forward in the pack. They should invest is a team of defensive coaches. Maybe some will learn to tackle.
Matt
Guest
Armchair, Benji didn't steer the Tigers to a premiership. Prince did. Look at how Benji went after Prince left. He has only played finals footy twice. The Tigers have been perpetuating myths since they were formed. 1. We are going to do the best byboth of these proud foundation clubs. 2. Off the back of this premiership success we will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years 3. By signing Benji and Farah to long term big money deals the clubs' performance on the field is secure 4.Tim Sheens has the support of the board 5. Mick Potter has the support of the board. 6. Woods, Tedseco, Moses and Brooks are the future of this club.
Magnus M. Østergaard
Roar Guru
I have little doubt Tim gained it from the Simpsons.
John
Guest
You probably meant, Board 3 coaches & fans 0
Bugs
Guest
Spot on gc Dave. I reckon they HAVE to cut at least one of them. Moses looks good at times, which is more than can be said for Brooks. As I said in another post, which teams would be better off with either of these two added to their starting 17? Maybe the Dragons...? That's about it. I'd offer Brooks about $200k a year, and see what happens. Look at the excess halves the Roosters have - Watson and Nikorima, and to a lesser extent Matterson. Even Hastings who is now at the Sea Eagles. All probably have more upside than Brooks. So interesting the trajectory of both Austin and Martin since leaving the Tigers, compared to Brooks and Moses....
kk
Roar Pro
Me too Geoff. Cromulent is one of those beautiful words that attracts immediate curiosity and respect hoping that the meaning(s) are all that is anticipated. The word was not included in my old 1979 Collins and had to Google it. Tim is to be commended for introducing it to the Roarer's vocabulary.
armchair expert
Guest
Maybe terrence, but Benji steered WT to a premiership at 22 years of age. Mitch Moses is nowhere near the footy player at the same age. Benji can produce moments of brilliance but probably at the same standard as Moses now.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Milford looks a lot bigger than he did at the Raiders - he's probably bulked up to handle the pressure in the halves whereas at the Raiders he used to score those long range tries from full back - not sure if the extra weight has slowed him down as he is stronger in the tackle and can still cut defences to ribbons to get to the try line.
catcat
Roar Rookie
"Having four of your best players off contract in the same year, all managed by the same bloke, and paying over a million dollars out of your salary cap for blokes who are playing for someone else, well… has there ever been such a state of affairs?" plus one player throwing games in 2016 and you miss the top 8 by one point so it probably did have an impact...then sack your coach round 3 - 2017 - which looking at all of this what coach would be doing well with this board/team?? Perhaps only Brad Arthur :)
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Good. Benji always plays at another level when he plays the Raiders so Kent may have done us a favour.