Nathan Brown departs Knights, effective immediately

Nathan Brown leaves Newcastle effective immediately, still blaming Wayne Bennet

Should've acted like a grown up and seen out the season. His coaching career is now rightfully over.

Depends Gray Hand, if the rest of the front office is allowed to meddle in that. Club culture typically extends beyond the coach unless he's generational like Bellamy or Bennett's first go round. If culture is the coach's purview, and few last longer than 5 years, then I'd say most clubs don't have a genuine culture.

Gray hand you have to remember what it was like before the Wests group took over. There was really bad blood before Wests took over. And by the look of it there still is. Gardner is a pretty astute business man who doesn't mind putting a few noses out of joint.

Brown pointed to the culture of the club as his proudest achievement. Who is more responsible for the culture than the head coach? How many players and club officials have been there longer than Brown? If the culture if the Knights isn’t up to scratch, then that is a damning indictment on Brown.

Like I said, a snake oil salesman could do what Nathan Brown did, he sold the spoons so well that he has fans saying they should be thankful towards him. He timed his exit in a way that has the CEO coming off looking like the bad guy.

The point is that literally any coach could do at least as good a job as Brown has done. The only reason the Knights are in a good position for next season is that new cashed up owners arrived and certain overpriced contracts ended which meant there was extra money to spend on support and good players (who they probably overpaid in a couple of cases anyway). And Brown hasn’t even been able to get the best or even average performance out of that roster that his club has paid for. All Brown did was stay there while the old contracts wound up. Literally any other coach could have achieved the same result or better. It’s not like he’s been particularly successful at developing junior players or turning journeymen into fringe origin players. The most Brown can be credited with is keeping the fan base engaged during that period, and at least sticking it out, unlike say Trent Barrett. Except, apparently he lost the dressing room and quit mid season, so it can’t even really be said that he saw the job through. Nathan Brown, coach of the Knights for three and a half seasons from 2016 to August 2019: He turned up to work. Until he quit.

He isn't really positioning himself as a premiership winning coach though. He has positioned himself as the "rebuilding coach" so it's pretty much a "pay me for mediocre short term results for a long term gain." Not a bad position to be in as long as there is very little pressure to win, as can be evidenced from Adrian Megales articles where he reckons Knights fans should be thanking Brown.

I agree - I think the next coach will have all the tools necessary to make the finals next year. I’m saying that their current state (a poor recent record, qlosing by 40 to a mediocre opponent, playing badly) is shambolic.

It might seem that way, but every coach has a finite amount of credibility and nothing burns it like a wooden spoon. It does permanent damage to the career of a coach. Brown risked and lost a lot by taking on the Knights job. Who would want him to coach their club now? At best he might get another gig to manage the period where a club has to battle through the period where backended contracts are strangling their roster. He will never be given control of an NRL team with an open premiership window.

agreed 2019 is a lost cause but I don't think they're a shambles. They have the right components to be a force bar one - good owners/administrators, great facilities, loyal fans and a pretty useful playing roster. I compare where they are now with where Manly was at the same time last year - now that was a shambles, but to the credit of all concerned, they've got themselves back as a genuine threat very quickly. Hopefully the Knights can do the same.

Can't be that hard to coach a rubbish team for 2 wooden spoons, as long as you know that's your aim all you need is a good excuse for perpetually bad performances that the club and fans can get behind. I reckon any snake oil salesman could do that.

The team is in a shambles due to the fact that they have been playing poor football resulting in a free fall down the rankings and the reports that Brown has lost the dressing room. A competent coach could easily have a team with that roster in the middle of the 8. The Knights would be playing better football with a coach of average NRL skill. Their most recent performance was shambolic. Any coach can recruit a good roster if a lot of money suddenly gets freed up. The measure of good roster management skills is maintaining a strong roster over an extended period. Brown managed to assemble a good roster for the last 2 seasons, but since those players appear to have lost respect for him, it’s hard then to say that has really been a success. Right now, the Knights are one of the weakest teams in the competition. Only the Titans, Cowboys and Dragons could be said to be playing worse football.

how has he left them in a shambles, Gray-Hand? I'm genuinely curious because Brown looks to have put together a reasonable roster for the new bloke to take over. Sure there are guys who the new coach might want to move on, but overall, the squad is certainly not the worst in the comp.

Feel sorry for Brown in all of this. Culture at Newcastle just doesn't seem like that of a club that is going to have success sometime soon. The players should be very disappointed with their efforts. They seem to be very weak mentally which is what holds them back from being a genuine top 8 side. Nothing a good flogging over the pre season won't fix.

Well said Steve, fully agree!!!

I think the Knights will make the finals next year

Does Pongas SOO performance, the highest level of footy warrant his asking price ? No way, this blokes buying time cause he wants to be an All Black! Is Pearce a leader? Well if he was he would still be at Bondi ! This clubs full of egos nothing more ! As for Brown he’s no coach, that said his players let him down

Yep....the players (and club) should be ashamed of themselves. What a bunch of weak individuals!. You'd think they would care more about their own careers.....I wouldn't have any of that lot anywhere near my side if I was a coach. Go the mighty Titans on the weekend.....probably a forlorn hope but I hope they flog this mob.

"A scoop or two". Are you referring to a headline or ice cream?"