Watching footage of Ricky Stuart in the coach’s box at AAMI Park at the weekend prompted some unexpected flashbacks.
They weren’t flashbacks like in the movies, of sounds or scenes. They were intellectual flashbacks, dominated by ideas and emotions and narratives. I was reminded about how much the popular perception of Stuart as a coach has changed since he started in 2002.
He was cranky, innovative, ref-hating, out-of-touch, a perfectionist, passionate, abrasive.
Since he joined the club in 2014 where he made his name as a player, Stuart has finished 15th, 10th, second, 10th and now fourth.
Throughout much of that time critics have suggested he got a rails run from the Raiders because of his standing in the club and from the media because of friendships.
Another man would have been sacked after those first two seasons, many suggested. Yet here he is, perhaps on the way to the club’s first premiership in 25 years.
My point here is simple: coaches are sacked way, way, way more often than they should be. They are now the official release valve of a professional sports franchise that, right now, is not winning. Everyone just nods when a coach is sacked and cuts the club some slack.
But it’s a charade, a routine, a sham. It does stuff-all to improve results.
But, you know, that’s modern life.
Rock bands used to be nurtured by their record companies and perhaps wouldn’t have a hit until their third album. These days, there are barely record companies or albums.
Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
In order to be appointed by an NRL club, you’ve already ticked a helluva lot of boxes. You either played at a very high level (and that’s not really enough in itself to get you a job anymore) or you have coached in juniors, lower grades, England or where-ever and had success.
Logically, very, very few of these men could stuff up so badly in one season – having done all that – to prove conclusively they can’t coach after all.
Anthony Seibold will probably win a premiership for Brisbane if he’s given time.
Former Dragons boss Steve Price can clearly coach – he’s won at Wembley this year. Likewise, the things being said about Paul McGregor right now are similar to the things that were said about Stuart in his early days in the capital.
Dragons coach Paul McGregor. (AAP Image/Michael Chambers)
Trent Robinson, Brad Arthur, Craig Bellamy … all long term coaches. Des Hasler is back at Manly, where he had his greatest success. I don’t think that’s a co-incidence.
Coaching an NRL club is such a complex business that surely where you are new to that club, the odds are stacked against you. Bring some of your own staff your odds improve slightly but there are so many moving parts in a modern professional sports club that focusing just on the sport or trying to embrace an understand everything both seem like impractical approaches.
Only in years two, three and even four should we begin to get a feel for whether a coach and a club are going to mesh. By then, many coaches have already been sacked.
This is because of the ravenous beasts that all coaches can hear growling in the night: the owners and board members, the media, the fans with caustic banners and – most significantly today – the players.
Players seem to be just a step away from being able to elect their own coaches. The expression “lost the dressing room” appears more in stories like this than it ever has. It’s cheaper to sack a coach than to sack half a team that doesn’t like him.
Yet a good coach will see entire generations of players come and go. Stuart should carry the clipboard at Bruce Stadium for a decade now.
Sacking coaches greases the wheels of professional sports. It’s questionable that it does anything to improve results, which is the reason that is always given for it.
In that way, it’s one of our most enduring examples of self-delusion.
steveng
Roar Rookie
As Sticky so righteously said 'a coach is only as good as his players' cant make champions out of an ordinary lot, which he apologised for and to his past players! And that has been his roster until 2018, for me, the beginning of his 'genius stroke' was signing Josh Hodgson and all the other poms, which have lifted this side to a premiership hope, as that is where the Raiders are! I think that the Raiders are still not 100% and being 'certainties', Aidan Sezer (and a few) still do more bad than good and hold the Raiders back. The Raiders will be an 100% better side next year once their other little pom halfback, George Williams joins them and will lift this side up in 2020! This is great to see, as I've been sticking up for (pardon the punt) "Sticky" for years and have copped some beauties for doing so!
Albo
Roar Rookie
Because of those injuries, he's nowhere near his best, and he is not being used like in recent years, when everything used to go out to Leilua & Rapana and they even played a lot amongst themselves. Today the Raiders now use Wighton on the opposite side as a key attacking weapon, whilst Bateman inside the Leipana team, is the right side's key focus. Whilst Hodgson controls the middle in the attacking zone, with flat balls to Papalli on the line, or kicks to the in goal for Croker & Whitehead. They have a lot more attacking weapons whilst having also improved their defensive qualities.
Randy
Roar Rookie
His current stint at the Raiders has shown he has grown as a coach over many years and I guess he should be grateful for his continued opportunities. He took over a team nobody expected much from and has taken them to two top 4 finishes in 5 seasons. He has definitely made some mistakes in the past though. The Roosters and Sharks fell away badly after successful seasons, however it was him who brought them success. The Raiders lost their way in 2017/18 but he was given a chance and has brought them back to the top. If the Raiders had sacked Stuart after 2018 then they most certainly would not be playing a prelim final in 2 weeks, which i guess is Mascords point. Some teams just need to persist with coaches and maybe think outside the box a bit to imrpove the team. In saying that I am not sure if keeping Mary is the right thing for the Dragons, I have seen no evidence that he can coach.
matth
Roar Guru
I think what the Raiders are showing this year is that recruitment and retention are possible even more key. Of course how much input or control the head coach has over that I don’t know. What I do know is that the slow fall of the Broncos since 2006 was attributed to Bennett moving on, but in reality it was all about the late, great Cyril Connell who had a remarkable nose for getting the right young players for the club.
MadgicSH
Roar Rookie
Jordan Rapana has has FOUR separate injuries weighing him down this season. Still one of the most valuable players in the club.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Good point Steve, and the Titans would be a classic example of sacking coaches way too early. Bellamy at Storm, Bennett at Broncos showed the benefit of sticking with a decent coach long term. Some people, however, just can't cut it and keeping deadwood is severely detrimental to a club. The skill is in working that out. eg. I don't think Brennan was given long enough or the right support and copped the blame too much. Titans went downhill when Mal was appointed. On the other side of the coin, Mary has simply been at Dragons for too long and there is only pain to follow.
Rob
Guest
Ricky has copied other coaches in many ways to try and achieve success. He has always identified other coaches tactics and followed. At the Roosters he copied the Gould blue print. At the Sharks he wanted to follow Melbourne grind style and instructed Gallen to be in the officials ear copying Smith. At Parra he believed he needed a magic halfback like JT or Cronk, so he got Sandow. At the Raiders he went big bodies and worked hard on winning the ruck and fast wingers again following Bellamy. He’s has now followed Souths, success of having a high percentage of foreign international quality players to limit the impact of SOO. The best coach in my opinion right now is Brad Arthur because he has reinvented his team to play their own game and utilise the talent they have.
Rob
Guest
Agree some coaches are very good at tweaking the good teams to become consistent and win premiership whilst struggle to teach and develop young players. I’m extremely frustrated that coach Green appears to have a very short term approach to success and the Cowboys are essential a club that develops juniors to be successful. Buying players like Glen Hall, Fensom, McGuire, Kahu, Barba, Fensom, Baptise and keeping a bunch of 32 year old players whilst allowing Kikau, B. Smith, Ponga, Lowe, Horsburgh, Flegler, Uele and now I hope we don’t live to regret letting GGM and Tuala go.
Bobo
Guest
Souths juniors? If you mean Souths Logan, of course, until 2-3 years ago Souths Logan was the Feeder Club for the Raiders, Raiders helped fund and operate them, hence why their logo was on the uniforms for so long.
Rob
Guest
Strangely Leipana seem to of gone backwards this year whilst everyone else has improved. Hard to be to critical of Leilua seeing as he's been injured this year but Rapana doesn't seem to be the same player he was.
KenW
Guest
Mostly I'm with this argument. I think coaches are sacked too quickly and it rarely makes things better. I don't think you do your point any favours though by comparing to McGregor: Likewise, the things being said about Paul McGregor right now are similar to the things that were said about Stuart in his early days in the capital. Mary's trouble is that it isn't early days - McGregor and Stuart both started their current gigs in 2014. After the first couple of seasons I think the club was right to choose some stability and give him more time, unfortunately he's now 5 years in and things seem to be running downhill before they ever really peaked.
KenW
Guest
It's all true what you say - his record doesn't scream 'supercoach' - but you're not leaving a lot of room for the fact that he may have grown. What if the coach he is now is built from all of that experience you mentioned? Albo gave a great account of the way the Raiders have recruited differently to all other teams. Whether Stuart is the main brains behind that, I'm not sure, but I do know that he has at least molded this 'moneyball' style team into one of the contenders this year.
Doug Graves
Guest
Hmmmm I'm not exactly sure what the definition of "Ricky Stuart's success" is and I'm also not sure why we're supposed to be praising a coach for only occasionally delivering good results. Here are a few points to digest when we talk about Stuart being a "successful" coach. 1) Stuart has coached 393 first grade games for 195 wins, which for mine is less than a 50% win loss record (It's technically 49.62% rounded up to 2 decimal places). 2) His only premiership in 14 seasons of coaching came after he lucked out and inherited a Roosters team built by Graham Murray and Phil Gould. 3) Stuart has made the finals 3 times since 2004, let that sink in, so that's 3 times in his last 12 seasons of coaching as he did not coach 1st grade 2010-12. 4) Stuart has finished second last 3 times. 5) Stuart "won" the 2013 wooden spoon. 6) Stuart's Origin record stands at 4 wins 5 losses. So OK he's not the worst coach going around, he's marginally better then Ivan "Supercoach" Cleary and the hapless Mary Macgregor but the word's mediocre and disappointing keep coming to mind when I look at his record and I have a very hard time praising him for his "success".
Joshaz
Guest
Paul Green will always be a legend in Townsville due to the premiership. And he did have a lot to do with it. But what we are seeing now is that he added some polish to what was already there. Not every coach gets a Thurston and Scott to lead on the field and be match winners; Taumalolo to destroy oppositions; and an interchange of near starting quality prop forwards. Green's DNA is there in adding Asiata and Granville, and the way he had Lachlan Coote to help run his structures. Neil Henry was never going to win the premiership with the squad, but Henry (and Graham Murray before him) encouraged the team to play footy. That encouragement made Thurston the player he was rather than being like all the robotic young halves we see in the game today. Paul Green added structure to JT, and the team's, game after they already had some footy smarts and instincts about them. The results were there to be seen. A team who could play footy when it needed to, but could also adopt structure when it needed to. Unfortunately, we are now too far removed from instinct and backyard footy, and younger players are struggling to adapt to Green's pressure for them to win immediately, and play his way. Paul Green is far from a finished product as a NRL coach, but I don't think he suits the rebuild that is ahead for the Cowboys barring Michael Morgan finding form very quickly, and Jake Clifford progressing faster than he is likely to. Plus now the Cowboys have a very young forward pack coming through, and like the Broncos, a young pack will have its awesome and not so good days.
Rob
Guest
I think any NRL coach is obviously pretty dam good at coaching to even get a start. The support staff play a major part also IMO. Speaking from a Cowboys perspective Green had very good NRL coaches in Cartwright and Furner assisting in 2015. In saying that the Cowboys had built a very strong roster of talent with Neil Henry. Your club probably needs a reasonable amount of stability but fresh ideas coming through every 1-2 years. I’m not sure a head coach can do hands on skills, fitness, talent identification, retention and moving players on when needed IMO. You have to have a good structures and faith in others to help out in different areas when needed. The balancing of who stays and goes is where the head coach achieves his long gevity IMO.
The Barry
Roar Guru
No, I think I’m actually clarifying them but I’m so far down the hypothetical rabbit hole that I could be wrong...
Albo
Roar Rookie
What Ricky has done to turn around the Raiders fortunes this year is due to his (or the Club's) recruitment decisions and keeping these selections on the Park, so far this year. Ricky always complained that the Raiders just couldn't attract any top players from Sydney ( eg Teddy got cold feet and got out of his contract). So he ( or some genius at the Raiders) went to the English Super League to try to find some top talent to import. They found Josh Hodgson who was an instant success, so they went back again the next year and got Elliot Whitehead , proving another success. So now they go back for John Bateman and Ryan Sutton this year who have more immediate success with Bateman particularly prominent . Now they have gone again for next year bringing out Wigan 5/8 George Williams . They have picked the eyes out of the best SL players and all have proved perfect for the Raiders operation under Ricky. They have identified and recruited the right players for the Raiders. Throw in the smart idea to move Wighton to 6 and kiwi import CNK working out so well at 1 , and the Raiders are now fully firing, rather than just relying on LEIPANA , that was their main source of success previously. So now Ricky can apparently coach ! But as he says himself, it is the top players on the park that make for a successful coach. So the key to his new found success is the recruitment and retention of the right roster.
Adam
Roar Guru
Are you hypothetically clarifying his points?
Superspud
Roar Rookie
I think the truth is a little bit of both. If coaches were appointed long term and knew that their positions were safe they would recruit with a longer term view rather than looking for immediate success. However sometimes the reality is that coaches do not fit a clubs or in some cases have no idea. The decision to cut your losses needs to be made sooner rather than later.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Sorry Con You’re not allowed to say that. Please refer to Forty Twenty’s earlier comments. Barrett might have had exactly the same results if Manly hadn’t sacked him. We just don’t know. In fact, Peter Sharpe might have got the exact same results as Hasler did in his first spell at Manly so it’s impossible to even say that Hasler is a good coach and has had any bearing on Manly’s success. Same with Bellamy. If the Storm hadn’t sacked Mark Murray he could have achieved the same results. We just don’t know...