Phil Gould leaves Penrith in good shape, despite the controversies

Phil Gould leaves Penrith having done a magnificent job making himself redundant, despite the injuries caused and suffered, and finally giving Ivan Cleary the payback he’s been waiting for, writes PAUL KENT.

Phil Gould has finally done himself out of a job.

• Ugly saga that ended Gould’s Panthers reign
• Sensational bust-up pushes Gould out the door

Phil Gould’s redundancy at Penrith probably came six rounds later than Ivan Cleary would have preferred but early enough to leave him feeling quietly chuffed.

Few believed Cleary could return to coach at Penrith, where Gould sacked him four years ago because he was, according to Gould back then, “tired”, but he did and many wondered at the eventual outcome.

Cleary has now squared up.

It was delivered with an irony not lost on all of rugby league.

Gould has finally done himself out of a job.

In the same week Gould explained Cleary’s sacking way back in 2015 Gould sat at a table, big and solid and deliberate.

It was important to understand what he was saying, went the body language, that it was not about him or Cleary or anything other than the club.

Way back then he redirected the conversation from Cleary’s sacking to talk about the greater wellbeing of the Penrith Panthers and of the great strides the club was making off the field and he talked of this work trying to rebuild the Panthers.

“At the end of the day, right from day one, my job was to make my job redundant at some stage,” Gould said.

“Just as to when that job comes redundant and I’m no longer needed, me and the club will work that out when it comes.”

On Tuesday Gould was made “redundant”.

Cleary and Gould during their first stint together. Image: Renee McKay/Getty Images

Officially, Gould realised the job is done and made himself redundant and the Panthers board will respect that when it meets on Wednesday to officially stamp his papers and work out a payout.

Penrith is trying to handle Gould’s redundancy as respectfully as possible. The board will “regretfully” accept his offer to make his job redundant on Wednesday and he deserves as much after helping make the club one of the true Sydney powerhouses.

They own the best juniors in rugby league, are financially strong, and merged both those into a state of the art football academy better than any team in Sydney.

Gould insisted he and Cleary could work together but the truth of it has been revealed.

It is one of the few power struggles Gould has lost.

Cleary knew what he was returning to at Penrith. Image: Mark Evans/Getty Images

Cleary is a man who keeps to himself. His confidence is hard won.

When news first surfaced last year that he might return to Penrith few who knew him could believe it given his disdain for Gould.

He never forgave Gould for sacking him.

The official line that Cleary was “tired” explained the abruptness of his sacking and explained Gould’s sudden realisation that Cleary did not have it in him anymore to coach.

The lesser known story was that Cleary made the mistake of confiding in someone he should not have confided in.

He complained about Gould’s interference with the football team and how he prevented him doing the job he wanted to do, in slightly more colourful language.

Cleary’s mistake was that his confidante took the gripe straight to Gould and Cleary was called in for a meeting.

It’s the end of an era, of sorts, at Penrith. Image: Brett Costello

“Have we got a problem?” he asked Cleary.

Cleary said no.

Gould mentioned what he heard.

Cleary denied it.

Maybe Gould believed him. Maybe not.

Maybe a little salt and pepper was added to the version Cleary told and Gould heard.

Maybe Cleary really was tired.

Within days Cleary was gone, sacked because he was tired.

Cleary stewed on his sacking. He was paid out with a year to go but he never forgave Gould. He believed he was building towards a premiership. He believed Gould took that opportunity from him.

Anthony Griffin was pushed when he pushed back. Image: Gregg Porteous

Cleary went and Anthony Griffin was appointed unopposed, Gould not even bothering to interview for the job.

“Our decision was that Anthony Griffin, and the knowledge I had of him as a person and a coach, was the man we wanted to run this organisation,” Gould said.

“It was a case of us selling ourselves to him.”

That ended poorly, too. Griffin was sacked when he, too, he said, bucked at Gould’s interference.

Cleary was approached about a return and before he took the job he asked Gould to a meeting and told him he was taking the job, because he had “unfinished business”, and told Gould he would no longer be involved in the football team.

When some close to him expressed their astonishment that he would return to Penrith and again put himself at the mercy of Gould, Cleary showed a new steel.

Let’s just say Cleary promised it would be different this time.

This is the Cleary show now. Image: Phil Hillyard

Gould’s isolation from the team became apparent to anybody who looked. I spoke about it weeks ago, saying he was ostracised and played little role with the football team anymore.

It was denied in some quarters, as happens.

He joked on Channel 9 his job was basically reduced to marking the fields now.

Cronulla saw an opportunity and invited Gould to a meeting to discuss him doing a similar job at Cronulla that he did to turn around the Panthers. They nearly fell of their chairs when they learned what Gould was earning.

That, too, was swung around to explain that Gould was merely being sought for advice on whether Cronulla should offer Tim Sheens, currently employed as Hull KR’s full-time head coach in the English Super League and with no real reason to leave, the job as Cronulla’s general manager of football.

It’s time for Gould and Penrith to move forward. Image: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

Gould leaves Penrith having done a magnificent job despite the injuries caused and suffered along the way.

It is too early to tell but it might soon be back on the agenda again. Gould will get a payout from Penrith and is currently negotiating to increase his role at Nine and Fairfax.

History will be unkind in some parts, because history will remember the coach sackings and the money spent and the absence of a premiership which would have righted it all.

Back in 2011 he said it would take five years to get the club’s salary cap into a fit state, a comment that over time morphed into a “five-year” plan to win the premiership.

As five years became six, and six became seven, the misquote took on a different dimension, a fresh angle to question the performance of his job.

Write the eulogy.

In the end, the five-year plan took nine years to incomplete.

Originally published as Phil Gould leaves Penrith in good shape, despite the controversies