With three NRL coaches having been booted – well, booted-ish in one case, but we’ll get to that – there has been an understandable focus on which trio will land these newly vacated gigs.
I’d say it’s a bit grubby to immediately talk about who gets the new gig rather than take a moment to reflect on the sacked blokes’ efforts, but no coach wants to read their own career eulogy.
Trent Barrett was the first to lose his job – and no, despite Phil Gould’s insistence to the contrary, he’s not the aforementioned booted-ish coach, as I’m of the firm belief he was pushed rather than jumped.
That said, while he’s now left two head coaching gigs in unceremonious circumstances and with no notable success, his relative youth and the mere fact he took both jobs on suggest Baz doesn’t believe he’s a spent force. It’ll be a few years before we see it happen, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the 44-year-old tossed one more clipboard.
Next to go was Nathan Brown “parting ways” with the Warriors and then a few hours later, Michael Maguire, who absolutely was booted, having overseen finishes of ninth, 11th and 13th during his time in charge.
Despite the Wests Tigers getting progressively worse during his tenure, the coach’s success in breaking the Bunnies’ grand final drought means he was being spoken of as a potential long-term replacement for Barrett at the Bulldogs before Madge had been given his own marching orders.
While the Warriors have emphatically ruled out making a play for Maguire, he’s another coach who you’d suspect has been sent to the proverbial bench for a spell, rather than told to have an early shower.
The Warriors said they “needed to make an immediate change” to their coaching set-up, with club legend Stacey Jones replacing Brown.
However, despite Brown’s only full season resulting in a 12th-placed finish, being in charge for the club’s worst-ever loss – a 70-10 pantsing at the hands of the Storm on Anzac Day – and the club being on a five-match losing streak at the time of Brown’s departure, he was the booted-ish mentor.
“Nathan told us he had made a personal decision that for family reasons he wouldn’t be able to relocate to New Zealand as originally planned for the long term,” said club CEO Cameron George.
“We fully appreciate his position and the call he has made.
“Given those circumstances we agreed we needed to make an immediate change.
“It’s tough for everyone involved but, in the best interests of the club, we felt we had to go in a different direction now.
“Nathan has worked so hard for our club and we are extremely disappointed it has come to this. We’re truly grateful for what he has done and wish him and his family all the very best for the future.”
Despite once again only getting sorta-fired, today we can write Brown’s coaching eulogy, with the man himself having declared on Fox Sports “my head coaching days are over”.
“I can’t coach if my daughters aren’t prepared to move anymore so it is their fault as much as I love them,” he said.
Look, Browny was just winding his girls up, as a Dad is wont to do.
But c’mon mate, maybe your days as an NRL head coach are over because you’re just not very good at it.
Coaches bring different skills to the table. Wayne Bennett is regarded as one of the all-time great man managers, while Warren Ryan was one of the best tactical minds in the game’s history.
Nathan Brown? He was the king of the press conference, an absolute master of media management.
He got four years at Newcastle, overseeing two wooden spoons in his first two seasons, before pulling the Knights out of the cellar for an 11th-place finish in 2018 and was overseeing a disappointing 2019 season when the club announced that “both Brown and Knights chief executive officer Philip Gardner feel it’s the appropriate time to move on with his career”.
Despite having had four seasons to assemble the roster he wanted and get them playing his desired style, by August 2019 the team were only a mathematical chance of playing finals footy.
Yet Brown apparently wasn’t sacked, he departed Newcastle on mutual terms – just as he’s done at the Warriors.
Even in his first stint in Australia’s premier rugby league competition, at the Dragons, Brown didn’t technically get sacked.
Despite having one of the most stacked rosters in the NRL, Brown struggled to get his charges to perform, having a success rate of 53 per cent during his 151-game stint in charge of the Red V. He was eventually replaced by Wayne Bennett, but even so, he saw out his contract to the end of 2008, seeing him amass six seasons at the helm.
All in all, Brown was in charge for 295 NRL games, winning 41.7 per cent of them.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
It’s a pretty insane stat – what other coach essentially loses six out of every 10 games they oversee yet manages to stay in charge for almost 300 games?
Well, according to the Rugby League Project, there’s only one coach with more games in charge than Brown who has a winning percentage in the 40s – Ricky Stuart, and his 49.9 per cent of victories per games played will be back to an even 50 if the Raiders get a win over the Knights next weekend.
Browny seems like a decent bloke and I suspect his ‘aww shucks’ demeanour has seen him saved from the rugby league reality – winning, or a lack thereof – that claimed the jobs of far more intense people, such as Maguire.
The wild thing is that he’ll sign off on his terms, likely confident in his own belief that he could pick up another head coaching gig if he wanted one, because he’s developed a reputation as a ‘rebuild’ coach. Honestly, he’s probably not deluded in this belief, based on everything that has happened in his career to date.
But the reality is he’s not a rebuilder, he’s a lowest-ebb coach.
Brown’s the guy who smiles when the chips are down and makes everyone feel a bit better about their misfortune. But he’s not the guy to lead you out of the doldrums – that falls on the coach who comes after him.
Which isn’t to say Brown has no future in professional rugby league – quite the contrary. His aforementioned back-rubbing experience sounds exactly like what you want in an assistant coach. And with almost 300 games on his CV, if a complete rookie gets one of the three vacant jobs going, that person could do a lot worse than at least interview Brown for a role on staff.
But after almost 20 years in three countries (even if the Warriors were based in Australia during his tenure) Brown’s time as a head coach has drawn to a close.
Congrats on a frankly ridiculous career Browny, one we’re unlikely to ever see anything comparable to again.
criag
Roar Rookie
A tired old falsehood........Your 'Guru' status has just been revoked.
Nick
Roar Guru
Yes, well recent Roosters sides were almost certainly not cap compliant so they'd likely cream the dragons of the 60's too
Randy
Roar Rookie
The current Panthers side would absolutely steamroll that Dragons team, so would recent Storm and Roosters sides. I don't think they were that good....
Nick
Roar Guru
Apologies, I meant starting props for NSW. Yes, Petero and Price were better. Doesn't take anything away from Bailey and Ryles. They were red hot. You can delude yourself into saying that these rep players weren't superstars, but until the Melbourne Storm cheats in 06-09 came along, no other team had concentrations of origin players like the Dragons did. You're coming across as desperate.
Nick
Roar Guru
I don't think anyone suggests they hold a candle to the 60's mate. But that 05 team was the best team the Dragons have assembled since the 1970's and were wildly better on paper than the Eels, Cowboys and Tigers that year. The difference is that the Eels, Cowboys and Tigers had great coaches (Brian Smith, Graham Murray and Tim Sheens). They were the best XIII in 05 and bottled it.
KenW
Roar Rookie
No bollocks, they were a good team. But there's so much hyperbole that has grown to suit the narrative that Brown dropped the ball. Saying there was 9 players that had or would have rep experience is a cool stat and does highlight that the team was strong around the park, but most of them were fringe rep players who came in and out of teams. They were not the superstars. 05 particularly? Was a great year until that semi-final :unhappy: Cooper and Gasnier was a genuinely hot centre pairing who both played for Australia - although Cooper was an injury replacement for Tahu. Ryles was a bench prop that year for the Roos (Petro and Price were first choice), he was sitting next to Barrett who was the bench utility. Bailey didn't get a run that year. Hornby and Creagh got a run against France in a tour game, that was the extent of their international careers. Timmins had run out of knees years earlier. Ennis was a fringe first grader at Saints, his NSW career started half a decade later. They were a good team, but a bit silly to say that was best Dragons team ever assembled. 1960's saw perhaps the greatest club team of all time.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
To be fair, I don’t think his time at Saints marks him as a bad coach - just clearly a tier or two below a really good one like Bennett. And he did well overseas. But that was a long time ago. He did poorly at the Knights and Warriors. If he was ever a decent coach, he definitely isn’t these days. The description of him as a ‘lowest ebb coach’ is absolutely dead-on-balls accurate. Appointing Nathan Brown coach is proclaiming to the world that you have no intention of making any progress as a football team for the foreseeable future.
KenW
Roar Rookie
Sure, he liked the bones. But he transformed the pack with Smith, Weyman, Costigan and Fien, and brought in a star fullback - it wasn't the same team Brown had. Young guys that Brown brought through like Nightingale and Morris were just coming into their own.
Nick
Roar Guru
Bit harsh to throw Dean Young in there. He's only ever been an interim and never properly considered for the full time gig. Brown was rapidly advanced by virtue of being a club stalwart. McGregor wasn't thrown a gig too early. He actually did a solid assistant apprenticeship. He just isn't a good coach. Barrett...well, he's chums with Phil Gould and has paid the price. But he is a good assistant.
Nick
Roar Guru
Rubbish. You are talking bollocks mate. Jason Ryles was the starting prop for Australia that year. So was Luke Bailey. Gasnier and Cooper were the starting centres for Australia. They were red hot. Bailey, Ryles, Cooper, Gasnier, Timmins, Creagh, Hornby, Barrett, Ennis. You had 9 people who were either playing, played or en route to Origin/international. That was the best Dragons team ever assembled. A better coach would have won 05.
KenW
Roar Rookie
I can understand Knights fans not thinking of that time fondly. My position would be that the Knights were very likely to come last during that time regardless. A great coach may well have out-performed and done better, but Brown leading them to a handful of spoons wasn't necessarily an under-performance.
Nick
Roar Guru
His failure with the storied Saints team of the mid-2000s is also something I’d politely play devil’s advocate against. He had pretty good results with a pretty good team – they weren’t superstars and were never the title favourites. Are you joking? You flatly forget who was in that team. Matt Cooper, Mark Gasnier, Luke Bailey, Trent Barrett and Jason Ryles were all in the starting team for NSW that year. Not to mention that Hornby and Shaun Timmins played in Origin the year before. Timmins retired from origin eligibility in 2005. They had SEVEN NSW Origin players in that team. That was a friggin good team. They've never ever had a team that strong since.
Nick
Roar Guru
I think it's a good summation of Nathan Brown as an NRL coach. He was a perfectly adequate and capable ESL coach. He had a game plan that was tailor made for that style of rugby league. For me, I'll never really be able to get past the fact that he had - easily - the most talented Dragons side since the 60's in 2005 and he botched it. Seven of the starting XIII played for NSW that year.
Randy
Roar Rookie
I thought he did ok at the Dragons, made a couple of prelim finals I think? I feel he was a fraud at the Knights though, seemed to convince everyone that coming dead last 2 years in a row was unavoidable.... yeah right
Succhi
Roar Rookie
Barrett, Brown, Young & McGregor all ex Dragons and all perhaps thrown into a coaching gig way too early because they were ‘nice blokes.?’
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Brown-Barrett dream team at St George next!
KenW
Roar Rookie
Look through it. Gasnier was the only player in the conversation as the best in his position (Lyon & Inglis fans may have sincerely disagreed though). Hornby and Barrett were regulars in the spine with a revolving door of players like Riddell, Ennis, Firman, Rangi Chase, Gorrell, Ben Rogers. Not terrible, but not exactly a spine for the ages. The pack was good with Ryles, Bailey, Creagh all having rep experience - but red hot? The way people talk about this team you'd think there were a bunch of future immortals sitting in it, rather than in the opposition teams they were playing (and often beating). I'm not out here pushing Brown as a top coach of his generation - or anywhere close - I just think he more or less delivered the average result in his 3 NRL teams. And was quite successful in his UK foray. It wasn't a terrible coaching career in context
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
G-H, he's many things but stupid ain't one of them.
Don
Roar Rookie
Exactly.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Surprised you’d stoop to this Joe. Something Kent and Rothfield would be envious of.