Paul Kent: Why the circuit breaker of sacking an NRL coach doesn’t always work

It might not be fair, it’s definitely controversial but there are two very important reasons NRL coaches lose their jobs. And it’s nothing to do with results, writes Paul Kent.

Joe Maddon was manager of the California Angels until very recently, when he suffered an acute case of career homicide.

His crime was 12 straight losses.

As everybody who follows professional sport knows, or even school sport the way some parents rally together on Saturday mornings, usually with pitchforks and torches, any kind of loss stacked onto a loss puts a coach in mortal danger of unemployment.

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Just last week the NRL went through its own walk down death row when Michael Maguire and Nathan Brown were sacked as head coaches, which came a month after Trent Barrett was manoeuvred out of the Bulldogs, the Dogs still comically claiming Barrett resigned.

Unfortunately, the coaching changes had little immediate impact.

After getting the job last week the Tigers incoming coach, Brett Kimmorley, stated several times that he wanted to bring to the club, in terms of change, was “fun”.

On the day he got the job he was asked if he woke up thinking he would be the new head coach and he went on a run where he answered every impending question at once, at one point saying, “I’ve got to gain their trust, obviously, but I want to create a fun environment.”

A couple days later, Kimmorley was enjoying this coaching caper as much as he said he was.

“I think coaching should be fun,” he said on SEN.

Tigers interim coach Brett Kimmorley wasn’t having too much fun following Wests’ 30-4 loss to Manly. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

Then before Sunday’s game against Manly he was asked what he was hoping for from his team.

“Fun,” he said. “Make it enjoyable.”

Clearly the question now for Kimmorley, after Manly beat his Tigers 30-4, is how much more of this kind of fun can he stand?

Similarly, Stacey Jones was trying to create his own path when he took the reins at the Warriors.

For about 10 minutes it looked an inspired choice.

The Warriors began like a weight was lifted from their impressive shoulders, which is usually how they play their best football.

But then the same old bad habits soon began to appear and it became obvious Jones was experiencing the same kind of fun Kimmorley had experienced hours earlier.

If there is good news for Kimmorley and Jones, though, it is in the form of Bulldogs interim coach Mick Potter, who Monday showed the value of patience in the new job.

Bulldogs halfback Kyle Flanagan with interim coach Mick Potter. Picture: NRL Images

What Potter has done to reinvigorate the Bulldogs is being watched with keen interest.

It might not be one for the textbooks, though.

Perhaps the strongest boost for Potter’s coaching came after the Bulldogs’ round 13 loss to Penrith when the players sat around the dressing room after the game, lollygagging around, quite comfortable with the defeat, and young winger Jacob Kiraz decided he heard enough.

Kiraz, clearly not from the Kimmorley school of thinking, and in just his third NRL game, let Corey Allan know exactly what he thought of his casual acceptance of a loss and the two had a healthy altercation, of the verbal kind, in the dressing room.

The altercation was a wake-up call for some of the senior players at the club who had also grown comfortable with acceptable defeats.

By the following Monday their attitude was energised enough to attack Parramatta from the beginning, with the likes of Tevita Pangai Jr and Paul Vaughan leading the way.

Few even predicted a win, let alone the margin.

Yet Potter found his players a style they enjoyed which revived memories of the lost recipe the club is looking for, the Bulldogs Way.

Former Los Angeles Angels coach Joe Maddon.

They were aggressive in attack and industrious with the ball, breaking away from the tired structures that infect too many struggling teams.

The Dogs had their share of luck, but they ran with it.

Coaches are sacked for two simple reasons.

The first is the club has realised it needs a circuit breaker to arrest a terminal losing streak.

Secondly, it is much cheaper, and quicker, to replace one coach than it is to replace non-performing players.

And while changing the coach is often the preferred circuit breaker, over the year the smart coaches have recognised this and got in early, finding novel ways to change the routine to lift the mood, from compulsory lunches every Monday at the local to games night at training.

Over in the US last week Maddon, then the Angels manager, came up with perhaps the most novel idea to turn his team’s fortunes.

After the 12th loss he cut his hair into a mohawk in a bid, he said, to “awaken his team”.

Alas, it did no good.

Before Maddon got the chance to head into practice and awaken the team with his fast haircut Angels general manager Perry Minasian visited Maddon at his home, where he sacked him.

Maddon, 68, was left with no job and a bad haircut.

It wasn’t fun.