Nathan Brown: Finals or bust

"they’re a rung or two below the Roosters and Storm in particular" Last time I checked the Roosters were in 3rd place, 4 competition points behind the Rabbitohs who are coming 2nd on the NRL ladder behind the Storm. Meanwhile Souths have won their last 3 games while the Roosters have 3 wins and 5 losses from their last 8 games! But keep writing the Rabbitohs off if you like TB if you want to depart from your usual impartial facts based analysis and jump into the realms of fantasy. The red pill is here waiting for you when you want to wake up to reality and see just how far the Rabbit hole goes in 2019. ;-)

Stuart wanted to try Wighton at 5/8 earlier but the player himself didn't consider himself ready I believe. Based on some of Wightons performances he probably had a point. I'm not pretending I have the answers to coaches but the clubs are depicted as clueless by the critics who somehow seem have all the answers. As for Hasler , he had a great run at Manly , our best ever years because we won titles from a very weak position and it's all worked out great. I'm glad he didn't stay in hindsight because he lost his way as a coach. I can understand why some regarded him as a traitor and were not happy at all but those same people would be a bit silly if they were holding on to that anger now, what purpose would that serve? I'm different to most Manly fans in that I'm focused very much on the roster and haven't been part of the panic because I could see it developing. We've won titles when we had a title winning roster.

To be clear, I’m not advocating for Stuart to be sacked. I actually admire a lot of the stuff he’s done, particularly around recruitment. A coach making all the changes you’ve pointed out in year one and getting instant results is one thing. But this is Stuart’s sixth year in charge of the Raiders. If moving Wighton to 5/8 was such a great idea, why has it taken him five seasons? This is only Stuart’s second season that could remotely be called successful. Even then, while I’d love to see the Raiders win the comp this year, I think it’s pretty unlikely. Given the Raiders finished second in ‘16 and then had two poor seasons in between, there’s not much evidence that this is the start of something until he strings some good seasons back to back. How long do the Dragons persist with McGregor’s woeful results? How many bottom of the eight finishes does Brown get? At the end of the day, coaches are ultimately responsible for a team’s performance. The Dogs example is a poor one. With the back ending of contracts and the issues at the club, Hasler’s position was untenable and he had to be moved on. Whoever came in was going to struggle. It’s funny how short term a lot of Manly’s fans memories seem to be. From 2012 they wanted to lynch Hasler because he was a traitor and the back ended contracts they had but now it’s back to “in Des we trust”.

"I’m saying sacking coaches like Brown and co often isn’t the great solution that it’s made out to be." Fair point. An example of what your talking about would be clubs like the Tigers who are onto their 5th coach since 2012, clearly sacking coaches hasn't worked there. There must be something wrong with the whole culture of the club that keeps under delivering both on and off the field.

"They’ve been solid but six years of mediocrity isn’t a compelling reason to retain a coach long term…" This. It also goes for Mary McGregor who as a similar record and should go for any other coach such as Brown and even Cleary who has to deliver immediately after his mediocre run with Penrith last time.

Stuart is a good example of a coach who people write off, that's why I use him as an example. If the Raiders had a new coach this year who moved Wighton to 5/8 , bought in the fullback and a few Poms , improved the performance of most of the team. greatly improved the defence and consistency he would be hailed as coach of the year perhaps. Who should have replaced Stuart and do you think he would be doing better? I didn't say clubs need to be more patient , I'm saying sacking coaches like Brown and co often isn't the great solution that it's made out to be. Sometimes it is. How many coaches have the Raiders and Parra sacked over the years? As a Dogs fan do you think Pay is doing better than Hasler would have? Getting a coach who ha ha, ''understood the culture'' was hailed as the solution.

The Knights definitely have the roster this year. Forwards and backs and also some depth so not making the eight I think should be seen as a failed season and of course that will be put at the coaches feet. I'm actually hopeful that they will make it. You don't win six straight unless you have a decent team that can play. Losing to the Warriors and Bulldogs during Origin who provide 0 players to Origin I think isn't too alarming and neither is losing to the Storm and a full strength Roosters. I think the Knights make the eight and Brown will keep his job.

Pretty surprised the Author saying it's his worst experience as a knights supporter. I would've thought the bar was pretty high there.

yer its called the 1% champ.

You’ve held Ricky Stuart up as an example of why clubs need to be more patient with coaches a couple of times in the last couple of days, but I’m not entirely sure why. In his five completed seasons the Raiders have made the semis once and have only had a win record greater than 50% once. They’ll make the semis again this year but as things stand they’re a rung or two below the Roosters and Storm in particular. They’ve been solid but six years of mediocrity isn’t a compelling reason to retain a coach long term...

You can count the number of Bears fans on your fingers n toes

...along with the merger/relocation of Cronulla, the Bulldogs, West Tigers whilst bringing back the Bears (because ''everyone'' wants them back...)

Adrian, what's the difference, in terms of Brown's future, between your boys failing to make the finals by a whisker and sneaking into 8th place, heading down to Melbourne and getting hammered by 30 plus? It seems to me they're the likely choices the Knights are facing, such is the gap between the real contenders and those who will make up the finals. Surprises can happen I agree, but it's hard to see that happening when the Storm, Roosters, etc blow away the SOO cobwebs and really focus on the premiership.

Surprised this author didn't mention relocating Manly in his article...

If the Knights finish a gallant 9th on the ladder do they automatically lop Brown head off? I'm not sure clubs think like that all the time. Surely they take a broader view as Ricky Stuart and others have found out. If Manly and Parra make the 8 then a couple of coaches who were meant to be there will be watching the finals at home.

Not good enough, simple

Butchering 12 points in the first 20 was the death knell.

Nathan Brown has gone from going to be sacked to being in the discussion for coach of the year back to being sacked again. I liked what he said in the presser after the game, he was to the point and made it clear that there were no excuses, it wasn't good enough. I actually think that it may be a blessing in disguise that the score blew out like it did. Watching that game it did look to me as if the Roosters had the upper hand all day and were eventually going to roll over them. A loss by 8 to 10 points may have masked the issues.