The Panthers’ stirring win on Sunday has proven one thing in 2018 – simply micro-manage your maligned coach and guarantee your team two competition points.
For those unaware, Phil Gould has been installed as the secret-but-real coach of Penrith. He hired himself to the role in the off-season in addition to his responsibilities as ambassador for Gold Coast tourism.
While everyone at the Panthers denies the supremo has relegated Anthony Griffin to chewing gum, you can trust it’s definitely true because it’s in the newspapers.
Despite loads of uncertainty, Gould’s debut as unaccountable coach was a raging success on the weekend. With doubt swirling, he transformed a team destabilised by his own ructions into a genuine Round 1 premiership chance.
The success of this undefined position he has created himself has made it the hottest coaching trend in the game, meaning there is only one thing to do – extrapolate its single moment of success and twist it around to relate to Origin.
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If New South Wales are serious about emulating Penrith, moves must be made to immediately implement Gould and his categorically-denied role into the Blues’ coaching tree.
The weekend’s events prove we have been idiotically pleading with him to take the reins for years by asking him to be head coach, and it’s been all wrong.
If the former premiership winner says he cares about New South Wales, he should man up, face the music and be the concealed de facto head coach this state needs.
Hiring Gould to a role that doesn’t exist promises endless advantages for the state, and that’s why he must be dangling over Brad Fittler like ambiguous mistletoe come Game 1.
The legend’s results as a predominant puppeteer already speak for themselves. He has a 100 per cent strike rate, he enjoys an exceptional relationship with his employer, and he will never be fined for blowing up in a press conference.
Not to mention, after spending years in Penrith’s environment of unfulfilled expectation and transience, he will feel right at home in NSW camp.
It’s a no-brainer. Following the press conference to announce the appointment which he will front to deny, it’s pretty much down to reaping the benefits.
Years of failure means the Blues need an intangible magician who can fade in to the background when things go awry, and Joe Wehbe is unavailable.
So c’mon, Gus. If you’re not coaching Penrith and doing a bloody good job of it, why not the same for NSW?
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