Paul Kent: Clueless club boards fuel NRL’s out-of-control coaching carousel
If it wasn’t bad enough two years ago when Ivan Cleary, Michael Maguire, Wayne Bennett, Anthony Seibold, John Morris and Des Hasler were on the move. Now the coaching carousel is cranking up again.
Opinion
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Not only do the wheels on the bus continue to go round and round, and round, so it seems does the coaching carousel.
It is never ending. And increasingly frustrating.
Coaches once drove stability at football clubs. Now they are a nomadic commodity. As ambitious as the young men they coach.
Not even two years since Ivan Cleary got off the bus at Wests Tigers and Michael Maguire jumped on, prompting a small avalanche that saw Wayne Bennett land at Souths, Anthony Seibold parachute in at Brisbane, John Morris elevated at Cronulla and Des Hasler return to Manly, it might all be on again.
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Already three coaches have been either sacked or moved on this season.
It stepped up Monday when interim Warriors coach Todd Payten revealed on NRL360 that he had knocked back the Warriors head coaching job nine days ago, prompting immediate speculation that he was ready to take over in North Queensland.
“I’m not in any process at the moment,” Payten said, “they’re just aware of my interest.”
The Cowboys job has been available since Paul Green stepped down last month. The Warriors’ job since Stephen Kearney was sacked before then.
Somewhere in between Dean Pay was sacked as Canterbury coach and Penrith assistant Trent Barrett appointed for next year.
Then Tuesday, as New Zealand went into revolt over Payten’s knock back, the Kiwis determined to be insulted, it emerged that a current NRL coach had applied for the Cowboys job.
Tigers chairman Lee Haginpantelis had already denied Tigers coach Michael Maguire was a contender for the job, even confirming that Tigers chief executive Justin Pascoe had sought assurance from Maguire that he would remain at Leichhardt.
You couldn’t make it up.
If anything, though, it highlights not only a shallow pool in coaching but the shallow pool in football administration.
Too many boards in the NRL, elected by an increasingly impatient membership, seem to be making it up as they go.
A major part of their problem, for instance, is the ridiculous interviewing process clubs now insist on to settle on their coach.
It ticks all the minor boxes that make up proper governance, at least on a surface level, but as we increasingly discover they couldn’t reveal if the new coach, in the old phrase, could coach a choko vine over an outhouse.
Instead of knowing their business — which is the best coach for their club — these men in their impressive suits, who should know better, more often reveal themselves as gullible fans, easily impressed with a flashy power point presentation, instead of exhibiting any real football intelligence.
They are, in effect, working backwards. All to placate agitated members.
The interview process ticks enough boxes to tell the members they have done their job without ever, truly, doing the job.
The error compounds when out of work coaches, desperate to be employed, take on jobs at clubs they don’t have the capacity to change. Under these circumstances, they more often ask for three years to “build their own roster” before they can win.
What they are really asking for is time to fix their own mistakes.
Board members should be a wake up to this but, perhaps because they lack the nous themselves, rarely are.
They fail to admit there was a time when coaching was working with the ones you had.
At the same time too many assistant coaches, eyeing the big chair next to them in the coach’s box, over strive and take on jobs they are not equipped for.
All in the name of ambition.
Anthony Seibold arrived in Brisbane, for instance, one of the new breed of coaching educators. Almost immediately he began to promote how he would change the culture within the club, bringing them into a more modern era following Wayne Bennett’s old school approach to coaching.
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The irony is that Broncos players are now wandering doe-eyed around training while privately whingeing they are not learning enough.
Payten took a stand against the quick fix with Monday’s revelation that he knocked back the Warriors’ job because he thought it wasn’t right for him.
It was a calculated move, and a clever one, that underlined his confidence in himself to coach.
By Tuesday night Cowboys officials were adamant Maguire would not make it to the interview process.
The Tigers remained adamant he had not even applied, with Maguire denying it on the record.
It emerged as the list for the Cowboys job grew from one current head coach interested to three current head coaches interested in the job.
You can’t make it up.