Phil Gould has warned battling NRL clubs that sacking a coach won’t necessarily solve their issues.
The veteran NRL coach and commentator has argued against clubs axing coaches as a cure-all for their problems, saying there’s often a range of complex issues at play when a team performs poorly – and that a coach isn’t typically the number one issue.
“You’ve got clubs that are in a losing situation now, is that purely because of the coach?
Is that purely because of the coach’s relationship with the players? How much of it is the playing group, roster and leadership outside of the CEO and coach?” Gould said on his Six Tackles With Gus podcasts.
“There’s a lot of factors that lead to success. There are a lot of factors that lead to failure
“To my mind, it’s rarely the actual coach. It’s more with other factors within a club.
“Just to bring in another coach is not going to solve the problem.”
Gould argued that struggling clubs can’t just swap coaches and expect to improve their record.
He said: “If you gave Wayne Bennett the Bulldogs roster, they’re not going to win any more games. Same thing at the Dragons and a few of these other clubs that are really struggling.
“It comes down to the management of your roster, recruitment, development, the depth of talent, the culture within your club, the resources and money they have available that makes things easier for coaches and players to do their work. These are all major factors.”
Given so many clubs have been rumoured to be interested in a coach swap, Gould says they should take caution at simply shuffling the chairs in the coaching merry-go-round.
“There aren’t that many experienced, quality coaches available to be going into these places which means you then need to take a chance on a rookie who hasn’t done it before.
“What are the guarantees there? If you haven’t got the system to put around a young coach, it can become overwhelming for him very quickly.”