Yeah Benji is the issue alright, anyone who couldn't excel with Daine Laurie, Douehi, Will Smith, Wakeham, Tamou, Gildart, Peachey, Musgrove, Nofo in their starting squad must be crap. That lineup is so amazing it has finals written all over it.
I'm not bagging Benji for that.
I'm bagging him for saying in the post game press conference to the spoon bowl where we got spanked by 40 points, that "it's my fault for telling them to throw the ball around, but I'm a rookie coach and still learning" ... what player manager, parent, player or anyone affiliated with the game wants to go to a rookie coach? and also one that one week tells the team to play tight, the next week to play what you see, etc... no consistency.
I'm bagging him for poor game plans that dont get executed, for playing eyes up ad-lib football when the top teams play control field possession kick to the corners and emphasise defense, i'm blaming him for having the worse disciplined team in the comp, i'm blaming him for being exactly what he is -- a rookie coach with no experience that has is too arrogant to step back into an assistant role that is too afraid to put a decent assistant around him for fear of being found out for not having a clue... i'm also bagging him for being in all the training sessions... like what other coach does the drills with the players ALL the time.
I'm bagging him for telling the players that family is the most important thing in the world -- when clearly everyone knows this -- but also NO OTHER COACH says it -- they say FOOTBALL is the be all and end all -- because that's how you win comps. you need complete dedication and committment to winning -- and when you do that, you make more money which feeds your family and youre a better person because youre happy so you're a better family person to be around.
Benji is smoking the peace pipe man.
He's a media kid trying to emulate he's 75yr old 700 game mentor coach who can do that because he has presence, and is respected by players because of his history.
The players DO NOT RESPECT BENJI AS A COACH....
listen to Galvin and others "we want to do it for benji" "benji is a good bloke" -- when players have to defend the coach and say that they want to do it for them because they are a good bloke -- they've lost the respect of the players. players feel sorry for them ---
players do not feel sorry for bennet, cleary, robinson, bellamy -- they respect them.
sorry to be the bearer of bad news.... but honestly LOOK UP!!!! we've won two spoons and got spanked the last game. it's not hard to see.