Knights CEO Phil Gardner is playing the fans for fools in the Nathan Brown saga
Knights CEO Phil Gardner has been playing Newcastle fans for fools throughout the Nathan Brown saga and his latest attempt to justify it further exposes him, writes PAUL KENT.
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Knights boss Phil Gardner delivered his final insult on Wednesday.
Hopefully it was final, anyway.
Gardner posted a poorly considered letter to members and fans that begins with “You deserve answers”, which was merely another odd attempt to justify unsound decision making that has left the Knights’ season on life support.
Which he disputes was his fault.
“Suggestions of sabotage from the front office while finals were at stake is ludicrous,” he writes.
The first mention of the Knights’ season being “sabotaged” by the actions of the front office, since picked up throughout the media, came last Saturday night from Channel 9 commentator Andrew Johns.
Johns happens to also be the Knights’ greatest ever player and still has ears and eyes throughout the club.
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“They were on the verge of making the semi-finals and that has been sabotaged,” Johns said. “There is no chance now.”
Johns had just watched perhaps the single worst performance of the season, a meek surrender from his former club when a win would have put them in a strong finals position but which now leaves them likely to miss out.
There is no doubt it was the consequence of the week’s events that began when Brown quit after he lost support at the club.
Gardner fumbled the handling of Brown’s exit and the luring of Roosters assistant Adam O’Brien and is trying to dress the criticism as a media conspiracy.
He naively complained about the “information economy and transfer of favours that exists in rugby league”.
He said this a day after he called a 3.30pm press conference at 2pm knowing there was not enough time for Sydney media to make the trip from Sydney to Newcastle.
Then he peddled a biased version of events, which got no cross examination, and then thanked the local media afterwards for being so supportive.
He failed to reveal the numerous phone calls from various Sydney media he failed to return over the past week.
He denied instructing Knights recruitment manager Troy Pezet to interview Adam O’Brien to replace Brown, perhaps an attempt to explain to fellow football advisory committee members John Quayle and Danny Buderus why they were not informed.
To believe that, though, is to believe Pezet went off reservation and approached O’Brien without instruction.
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It also comes unstuck with confirmation Roosters coach Trent Robinson, aware O’Brien was favoured to replace Brown and it might disrupt this year’s finals campaign, called a meeting with O’Brien to decide whether to retain him or dismiss him immediately.
After all this, Gardner also claimed there was no actual plan to sack Brown at the end of the season.
But he says he has a spreadsheet of potential replacement coaches from under-16s up.
“We had that all done,” he said.
“We were looking at doing a review at the end of the year, and we have to have the opportunity to look at that to make decisions.”
Why do a review if there were no plans to sack Brown?
Gardner went on the hard sell yesterday with the last card in the deck, trying to blame a media agenda when there was no motive to have one at all.
All to cover his manhandling of the Brown exit and O’Brien recruitment.
But he continues to make mistakes.
Even as he complained of poor treatment at his poor decisions, he said “I’m firmly of the belief that Kalyn [Ponga] will stay in Newcastle for less money than anywhere else, as long as we have a competitive roster”.
No doubt Ponga was thrilled to hear that.