NRL 2022: Wests Tigers to change approach to new coach after missing out on Cameron Ciraldo
After missing out on Cameron Ciraldo, the Tigers will change their approach for hiring a new coach, with some more names added to the shortlist.
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Wests Tigers will alter their approach to selecting a new head coach after missing out on their No.1 target Cameron Ciraldo.
The Tigers are in the midst of drawing up a hit-list of potential candidates after coming up with more than a dozen names of would-be coaches.
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the likes of Stephen Kearney, Dean Young, John Morris, Jason Ryles, Shane Flanagan, Josh Hannay, Kristian Woolf and Steve Price are among the names of people who the Tigers are set to explore.
Others include Canterbury assistant coaches David Furner and Craig Sandercock. Furner has a long relationship with Tigers head of football Tim Sheens. Sheens coached Furner as part of the Raiders 1994 premiership win while Furner was Sheens’ assistant coach during Sheens’ stint as Australian mentor.
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Sandercock took control of the Bulldogs on Saturday night in the Covid-19 related absence of Mick Potter. He worked at the Tigers as Jason Taylor’s assistant coach in 2016.
North Queensland premiership winning coach Paul Green is not expected to be considered for the role while the likes of Ryles and Price have given their commitments as assistant coaches to the Roosters and Cronulla respectively for at least next season.
Kearney, who is Bellamy’s assistant at Melbourne, is reluctant to return to head coaching after unsuccessful stints at Parramatta and the Warriors.
Brett Kimmorley is also in the box seat to be retained and will be given every opportunity to show his worth as a long-term coach of the Tigers.
Unlike their pursuit of Ciraldo where the Tigers made it clear who they wanted they will enter the next phase of finding their head coach with an open mind.
That short-list will be whittled down to three or four candidates who will present their vision to the board and Sheens who will oversee the appointment.
The first question they will ask any potential coach is; ‘do you want to lead this club’? Ciraldo was presented to the club and offered a five year deal but this time around they want the coach to present to them.
The club hope to have a coach installed before the end of July.
Tigers greats Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah are expected to play a key role in assisting whoever the next coach is. The duo have dipped their toe into coaching but it is understood they are keen on pursuing a senior coaching position and have been earmarked as potential first grade coaches art the club.
Sheens may also have a more hands-on role with the coach especially if the club’s appoint a relatively inexperienced mentor. Sheens gave former coach Michael Maguire free air to coach the way he wanted.
Flanagan is considered an outside chance while the likes of emerging coaches Young and Hannay are understood to have impressed Sheens with their short stints as interim coaches.
Ex-Tiger Morris is among the favourites to return to his former club as a head coach after leading the Sharks to finals in his first two years before being dumped in favour of Craig Fitzgibbon. Morris joined South Sydney as an assistant this year.
Ciraldo is expected to remain at the Panthers for at least 12 more months. Woolf has been linked to the vacant Bulldogs job after knocking back an approach to join the Warriors.
WILL NRL’S FAVOURITE WHIPPING BOY EVER ESCAPE SCRUTINY?
—Paul Kent
The last thing the world needs right now is more rising debt, falling stocks, Blockade Australia, another Wests Tigers story or, worse, another Luke Brooks story.
But, for the sake of consistency …
Brooks continues to be the NRL’s most consistent whipping boy, a monthly headline that never loses relevance for some reason or another, no matter how his form shapes up or how many fans scratch their heads, wondering just how it works in Tiger Town, and what they’re doing to their boy.
In many ways, the Tigers are the worst thing possible for Brooks. The more they try to care, the more damage they cause him.
A week and a half ago Brooks was set to be dropped for Sunday’s game against the Warriors.
Then news of Brooks’ sacking got out and the Tigers’ honchos got together and, not for the first time, wondered how these stories keep escaping their club, and as they pondered that somebody realised the bye round provided them a rare opportunity.
It gave them time, they figured, so with the game still a week and a half away they took the opportunity to send an up yours to us meddlesome types in the media by coming up with the ingenious idea of not dropping Brooks at all.
Take that.
Given not all information was forthcoming I am not sure whether interim coach Brett Kimmorley was overruled or was part of the plan, but it certainly delighted the Tigers to prove some of those critics wrong.
This is your modern club at work, Tigers fans. Small victories become more important than finding the best chance at winning the game.
Brooks’ sacking was on the back of at least two kicks that went out on the full the last time the Tigers went out for a trot, against the lowly Canterbury, and underlined the consistent inconsistency that has underpinned his game since his debut.
It’s as simple as that, really. No doubt he can play, just not always when you have to count on him.
It is a frustration for senior players at the club, particularly the hardworking forwards.
To get technical about it, there is nothing a forward likes more after a hard slog upfield than to see his little halfback punch the ball into a corner to grant the forwards what they consider fair turnaround, the opportunity to jam their opponents in the corner and dish out punishment.
Two and hopefully three dominant tackles later goes a long way towards establishing dominance in first the set, then the game.
A poor kick downfield, though, the kind that allows a fullback to catch on the full and get to the middle of the field so the defence has to split with five players each side of the play-the-ball, is very sad news for those middle forwards.
Almost certainly, play one will be a charge at a half, a dominant run with a quick play-the-ball, and then all that earlier hard work from the forwards has gone to waste as their opponents charge upfield.
And heaven forbid if it goes out on the full.
Without labouring the point, Brooks kicked poorly against the Bulldogs and they suffered a heavy loss.
This is where the game has advanced nowadays.
For many weaned on a Steve Mortimer or an Alfie Langer, and can still recall their artistry, a kick to finish a set seems such a small part of the overall game to hold that against him, but your average coach will take one good kick to the corner ahead of any 10 good chip and chases.
When it comes to success, it is vital.
Adam Reynolds kicks like he is throwing darts. Brisbane’s surge up the ladder this year has been on the back of Reynolds’ near perfect kicking game, in choice and placement, and the energy a good kick to the corner gives his teammates.
And Penrith’s game is underwritten by Nathan Cleary’s pinpoint kicking. The Panthers are the NRL’s most dominant defensive team, set up by Cleary’s kicking game.
In recent weeks Brooks has put the ball into Row C more than once, without bounce, and not just the Bulldogs game.
Under kick-pressure, Brooks lacks the consistency the game’s elite kickers possess.
Yet his seemingly unquestioned position in the team, combined with the plaudits of his great potential _ to say nothing of the echoes of praise from his debut game _ has built a crazy narrative that does not fit the reality.
Brooks is unfairly criticised because he is not the player that exists in the thoughts of most.
The Tigers add to it by refusing to acknowledge any criticism of performance and, as we saw this week, making him accountable for a poor game.
In the past there was little option outside Brooks. The Tigers let Mitch Moses go and Jock Madden was still finding his feet in first grade.
He was still the best choice, even when he was below form.
With Adam Doueihi back this week Kimmorley was set to go with him and Jackson Hastings in the halves until word leaked Brooks was being sidelined.
For the first time in some time the Tigers had the pleasing dilemma of trying to fit three into two. It was an opportunity to try a combination without Brooks.
Then it all changed, a response to outside influences. What got little consideration was the effect on Doueihi.
He is said to be less than happy, so potentially another problem in the halves for the club that can’t get it right.
Meanwhile, Brooks will likely never escape the scrutiny, the unfortunate whipping boy.
It is unfair, but it is circumstance now.
His teammates talk of his quiet resignation at this which, given the criticism he has received over the years, is nothing short of admirable. He has certainly shouldered more than his load.
Beyond that there is a strong loyal following of Wests Tigers fans who rally behind him almost in defiance of the criticism.
As an Anzac Day crowd flowed out of the Sackville Hotel earlier this year I made my way to the middle of the two-up ring to throw a few coins and the support for Brooks in the neighbourhood was quickly clear.
On all four sides of ring young men wrote “Leave Brooks Alone” into their phones and held them to their foreheads as the coins got tossed into the air.
It was admirable to see.
And then the roar when the coins came up tails …
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