Sums it up for me…and surprisingly, this is from the Tele....
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**The Crawley Files: As Wests Tigers wear down yet another coach, where will they turn to next?**
Paul Crawley
The Daily Telegraph
July 18, 201412:00AM
THE Wests Tigers should make Robbie Farah their captain-coach for next season and be done with it.
That way the Tigers players would have nothing more to complain about and could instead get on with their job of playing football.
It seems no coach is good enough for this club.
A couple of years back Tim Sheens got sacked after losing the support of the players — now Mick Potter is in the firing line because, apparently, he is too nice a bloke.
Shoot him for that.
After The Daily Telegraph revealed this week that Potter would only be guaranteed a contract extension in 2015 if the Tigers made the top eight, it has now emerged that there is again a player-led revolt to try and get Potter’s assistant Todd Payten the top job.
An unnamed player was quoted in Rugby League Week saying: “Mick is a good bloke and everyone at the club likes and respects him. But Todd and (fellow assistant coach) David Kidwell do most of the hands-on coaching and they are the ones who really run the team. It’s nothing against Mick but the players just feel Todd would do a better job and be the best choice for the club going forward.”
Nothing against Mick?
Let’s be fair dinkum here, there is plenty going on behind the scenes to undermine Potter’s power, and it has been going on since the day he arrived.
The entire time Potter has refused to play the game out in public.
When we spoke to Potter earlier this week about not being offered a new deal he was his usual respectful self. He didn’t shoot bullets at the board or any players, on or off the record.
“I know that the team and the club are on the way up,” he said.
Asked if he was disappointed he had not been offered a new deal, Potter added: “I understand the situation with where the board is at in a transition. I will just let it take its course and hopefully it takes the right one.”.
Club boss Grant Mayer told me this week that Potter’s future had been put on hold as the club awaits the appointment of a new board, which should be in place by the end of the month.
But it still makes you wonder what on earth is going on at this club.
This week Sheens was inexplicably not invited to the club’s 15-year celebration and naming of their greatest ever team.
Sheens was the club’s longest-serving coach who led them to grand final glory in 2005.
But he is now locked in a legal fight with the club with the case due in court in December as Sheens pursues damages.
Even so, Sheens should have been invited. Sheens told the Telegraph that he only found out about the “celebration” on the night when some former players started sending him text messages, asking why he wasn’t at the function.
Tim Sheens led the club to a grand final victory yet wasn’t invited to a recent celebration.
And this raises another point relating back to Potter. Given the Tigers’ financial struggles, it is not as if they have the money to go out and pay top dollar for a supercoach like Wayne Bennett.
Potter is currently the lowest paid coach in the NRL, on about $250,000 a year, and he has done an outstanding job.
Despite the Tigers starting this season as the TAB’s $3 wooden spoon favourites, they go into Sunday’s game against the Bulldogs still in the hunt for the finals.
One of five teams on 20 competition points, they are equal with the Broncos, Storm, Dragons and Eels, with only points differential separating those teams.
And don’t forget the significant injuries the Tigers have had to contend with this year.
Farah was out injured for an extended period and also missing at vital times during Origin along with Aaron Woods. James Tedesco is gone, Liam Fulton and Braith Anasta have retired mid-season. Now David Nofoaluma is gone.
At different stages the Tigers have also been without Chris Lawrence and Tim Simona.
But on their day they have proved they are good enough to beat any team, having scored memorable wins over Souths and Manly.
And what part of their rebuilding should be contributed to the coach?
Let’s be straight on this: players don’t change culture, coaches do.
Only recently the club employed Brian Smith to come in and do a review of the coaching structure and it is speculated that review wasn’t particularly supportive of Potter.
Does that surprise anyone?
Seriously, asking for a review like this was like pointing a gun at Potter’s head.
When Potter arrived the joint was in turmoil but he had the guts to make some extremely tough calls.
He made the decision last year to drop Benji Marshall — and while it created a hell of an uproar at the time who would argue now it wasn’t the right call given the promise of Luke Brooks? Benji Marshall’s departure caused controversy — but now looks to be a wise decision.
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The club has done itself no favours by dragging on Potter’s contract negotiations for months. What this does is erode the coach’s power. Players start thinking if we don’t perform, we have a ready-made excuse.
The player quoted in League Week added: “The team has lost its way and we feel we need a different voice to get the best out of us.”
Sure, it is important at any club that the players get on with the coach — but it is equally important they also know their place.
Like the great Jack Gibson once famously said: winning starts in the front office.
Let’s hope when the new board finally takes control it gives power back to the coach.
By giving players too much say you get what the Tigers have today; an ongoing problem that a change of coach won’t fix.
