@wd in perth said:
That's just not a balanced argument. Taylor has taken a team who is onside and free of injuries along with the full support of the board and CEO to practically last on the table.
Potter had a team that he had no control over in terms of signings, riddled with injuries running 5th or thereabouts before the CEO decided it wasn't good enough and Farah, Payten, Farah's minions & the board all turned on him to the point where the players basically switched off for the last 6 weeks or so of the season to have them finish in a higher position than they are this year. I hated the way potter was treated - still do.
As for Farah, I've really appreciated his toughness over the years, his guidance and his determination, but seriously, his time is up. I don't care how good he's been. You don't sign people fro a mill because they've been good for a long time.
Yours is a Potter apologist's argument.
I am not a mad Taylor fan, far from it. There are very many arguments for all our coaches about why they might not have succeeded in given seasons.
So for example, perhaps Taylor is not getting the best out of his squad because of:
- previously-installed salary cap pressures
- supportive but business-focused (not from rugby league background) board
- pressures from NRL-bailout and weakness of Balmain financial position
- late hiring and limited control over of first-year recruitment and retention
- pre-existing long-term junior retention strategies
- mid-year resignation of CEO
Not saying these are all true, but they are potential arguments. Same as you have totally valid arguments for why Potter was somewhat hamstrung.
But those who want Taylor removed NOW make the argument that the coach is firstly judged by the results, not the conditions in which the results were achieved. They also tend to dismiss statistical arguments because "there are too many other factors that can influence results";for example, where points conceded might be improved compared to 2014, they counter that things like injury tolls, weather, time of day all have an impact and render such statistics too flexible / too difficult to analyse.
I am not opposed to this argument, if the same argument is used for all parties. Fair enough, chuck out the for/against or missed tackles stats, if you chuck it out for all coaches.
But certainly you can't say that Taylor needs to go because his team is 2nd last, when his predecessor did not do any better. At least let Taylor have his second season - every Tigers coach apart from Junior has had at least 2 seasons - to see what he can do.
And if Potter lost support of Farah and "minions", if such a faction really exists and you really know how the internal machinations of the club work, then that is just another example of how he failed to get the best from his troops and to work with the tools he had.
People still call Tim Sheens "teflon", but at least the dude was not being crippled by club politics for most of his 10 season run.
