Anthony Griffin opens up on shock sacking from the Panthers
SACKED Penrith Panthers coach Anthony Griffin has gone on TV and revealed all about his sensational axing and toxic relationship with club boss Phil Gould.
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DUMPED Penrith coach Anthony Griffin has opened up on his sudden axing from the club, discussing his deteriorating relationship with Panthers boss Phil “Gus” Gould and the differing philosophies that eventually saw him sacked.
Griffin said he was brought to Penrith after the club hit rock bottom and insisted his time at the club was a resounding success with two consecutive years of making finals.
“I’m very proud of the achievements of the club over the last three years,” he said on FOX League’s NRL 360.
Gould cited Griffin’s “old school” approach to coaching and “doing things his own way” as a major reason the club had to fire him from his head coach role.
“Our relationship broke down on coaching philosophy,” Griffin said. “The issue that I didn’t involve staff (in decisions) is totally untrue.
“My philosophy is the build of the club and the promotion of the players. We went through a total reconstruction with local talent. Gus says we weren’t at our best, well a lot of clubs aren’t at their best.”
Griffin swiped Gould for meddling in the coaching process and blasted him for painting his image in a bad light in front of the public.
He said Gould’s claim that he lost the dressing room was merely “spin” to justify his decision to sack him. The 51-year-old said he’d done everything — and more — asked of him when Gould headhunted him to take charge of the Panthers before the start of the 2016 season.
“I was brought in to do a job from the inside out. Or that was my vision for the players — and it’s happening,” Griffin said.
“I know something Gus said about the next level or we couldn’t go to the next level (under my coaching). Well, we’re at the next level and we’re there quicker than I thought we would be.
Griffin continued his attack in an exclusive interview with FOX Sports on Tuesday.
“I’m not here to bullshit,” he said. “I’ve been around a long time. I’m telling my side of the story because I think I have done an exceptional job with that club. And unless I set the record straight I will get no credit for it.”
He revealed the true state of the Panthers when he arrived at the club, claiming Gould sent him a warning before he stepped foot in Penrith.
“There were short players, fat players, tall players. The place was KFC and a run around the oval. Gus warned me that it would be nothing like I was used to at the Broncos,” he said.
“The biggest thing I could see at Penrith that Gus could not see at the time was the ability to build a team from the inside out. He had been recruiting bottom eight players.
“He sat back and said ‘go for your life.’ We brought Nathan (Cleary) in, Fisher Harris, a heap of others and it was all good.”
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE TUNNEL
Griffin explained his explosive confrontation with Gould in Belmore early in the 2018 season where the Panthers boss tore into the coach for failing to properly address the playing group’s first half performance in their loss to the Bulldogs.
“So what happened there was my whole focus of that game was getting my forwards to play 40 minutes,” he said. “I couldn’t have given a f**k about the attack. Gus came in and listened to my speech at half time. I walked past him in the tunnel on the way up to the coach’s box and said ‘how you going?’”
“He says to me: ‘You didn’t even f***ing address the attack.’ I thought he was joking. I thought, he can’t be serious … I said ‘yeah, but it did happen’. That’s Gus. He wants to call me old school but I was never going to be subservient to him.”
— with AAP
