- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
So Ivan Cleary isn’t going to Penrith. Great. But why did the Panthers ever think he might be the best man to replace Anthony Griffin?
The events of this past week have given the proud club a serious black eye and must have fans pretty nervous about what the people running the joint are doing.
Let’s take a bit of time to reflect on this past week, but take the surname Cleary out of the debacle.
Instead, we’ll treat it like it’s just a coach who got fired, the coach who was broadly being tossed around as his long-term replacement, and the 20-year-old halfback the Panthers are bending over backwards to keep on their books.
Analysing things from this perspective, it paints the picture of a club where the tail is wagging the panther.
Anthony Griffin
Obviously, the coach who got the chop has more-than-reasonable cause to be pissed off at the way he’s been treated. He was in charge of a young team that was decimated by injuries throughout the season, yet had four players in good enough touch to play State of Origin. He was two wins away from being top of the table when he got his marching orders.
During his two-and-a-half seasons at the foot of the mountains, his teams won 41 of 71 matches for a success rate of 58 per cent – pretty bloody good.
No, he’s never won a premiership, but considering he’s got fewer than 200 games and seven full seasons in charge of a first-grade team, that’s not that big a blot on his copybook.
In short, this bloke got screwed (he also reportedly got more than a million bucks, so I’m sure he’ll eventually get over it).
Anthony Griffin has been sacked by the Panthers. (Photo: Mark Evans/Getty Images)
Ivan Cleary
Then there’s the fella who Penrith were reportedly keen to sign up as their next clipboard holder.
While he’s four years younger than the man he may replace, he’s actually far more experienced, having begun his career as a first-grade coach in 2006, to have racked up 288 games’ experience over nearly 12 seasons.
During that time he’s won 47 per cent of his games, which is not great, but then who cares if he’s won a grand final? After all, the Panthers reportedly told the sacked coach he was getting the arse because they didn’t think he could win them a premiership.
What’s that, the bloke they wanted to hire has never hoisted the Provan-Summons Trophy either?
He must have been coming cheap then, given the seven figures they’ve just paid to get rid of the other coach. Nope, this potential suitor was all bitter at this club because they sacked him early as well, less than three years ago, so he would have made them pay through the nose to get him back.
Oh, and he’s signed to another club for the next two seasons – in charge of a team that has virtually no hope of playing the finals this year, FYI – so a significant payout to trigger a release was on the cards as well.
Why the hell would you pay that kind of money for the services of a man who loses more games than he wins, has never claimed a grand final, and you already tried as your coach once but booted because you decided he wasn’t up to scratch?
Was his dad the CEO?
Nathan Cleary
No, not quite, but let’s leave the central relationship at play here aside and instead continue our nameless exploration of the Panthers’ bizarre pursuit.
Arguably the best young halfback in rugby league is at the club, although his contract expires at the end of 2019, meaning he is free to sign with other clubs at the completion of this season.
Now, Penrith are obviously willing to do whatever it takes to make sure this insanely bright prospect doesn’t go anywhere. And this halfback has intimated that he wants to play under the coach with the losing record.
Nathan Cleary of the Panthers (AAP Image/Brendon Thorne)
You could maybe understand it if the coach had been one of the all-time great halves, because he’d have insights specific to the tyro No.7, but no, this coach was a fullback in his playing days.
But whatever, the Panthers see this kid as the future of their organisation, so they’ll do whatever it takes to keep him around – apparently even let him decide who will be the team’s next coach.
Could you imagine that anywhere else? Sure, player power has seen a coach fired plenty of times, but how often do you see one 20-year-old get to decide who a club will hire?
And that’s the only explanation for what happened here. Nathan Cleary wants to play for his dad, and the Panthers would rather blow millions hiring Ivan Cleary – who, again, Phil Gould fired at the end of the 2015 season, saying he was “looking tired” – than risk losing their young star.
In fact, Gould said a few weeks ago, “I have an agreement with Nathan. If one day he says ‘I want to go play with my dad’, let’s make it happen. I’ve got no problem with him going to play with his father whatsoever.”
Now, I know nothing about what I’ve outlined above is news, but can we all just agree that it was batshit insane?
There have been articles this week saying the Panthers are the new big players in the Sydney rugby league market, ready to take it right to the Roosters, but could you imagine Nick Politis allowing a rookie with less than three seasons’ experience dictate who his club’s next coach was going to be?
While I’m sure Nathan wasn’t marching into anyone’s office and laying down demands, there is absolutely zero other explanation for why the Panthers would have dreamed of hiring Ivan Cleary.
The equation was simply this: get Ivan, keep Nathan.
Which means, even if they had been successful in prising Ivan from the Tigers’ claws, it would have only ended in disaster for Penrith.
Because history suggests the coach would have continued his present record of losing more than he wins, and not claiming grand finals.
And how successful can your club then be if it’s built around the idea that you protect your coach because you don’t want to upset his son?
The whole debacle suggests there are bigger problems at Penrith than simply who should be their next coach.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.