Daily Telegraph/Rothfield Holbrook, Hill and Coach Consolidated Mega Thread

[Bulldogs09]

If we have signed Holbrook it has given me some Faith in our board.

It shows they know last and second last isn’t acceptable. Which is clear as day to anyone with a brain.

 

[B-Train]

Feel free to speak for yourself, but the "everyone" is a tad overstated. I for one don't believe in moving anyone on unless we have a better replacement. Right now I'm not sure that we are in a position to be attractive to anyone worthwhile for a head coaching position. We can chase whoever we like, ultimately it's their decision whether they come or not. I don't see that much has changed in our attractiveness since the last time we canvased for coaches, they weren't comfortable in applying last time and I see no reason why they would be any happier to apply now. The undeniable fact is next year is still going to be an uphill battle with severe Cap constraints still in place and it doesn't take a genius to realise that.

FWIW I don't think last week's game was "close" we smashed them and they only got within 6 points (still more than a "small margin") due to a dropped ball. Which can be attributed to playing with much reduced bench rotation that resulted in exhausted players having to play huge minutes. If we had had a full bench, who knows what the score would have been. Plus we bombed a couple of certain tries, in addition to a held up over the line call that if it was the Chooks or Melbourne would have been called a try on the spot.

Winning games changes everything.

Go Dogs

Winning games doesn't change the fact that Pay isn't the right coach for next year or beyond. And Holbrook is clearly a better replacement.

We played well and with a tonne of effort the last two weeks but Cronulla would have won if Johnson could kick a goal as they scored more tries and last week against Newcastle we had more calls go our way than in the previous two seasons combined. There was no way Gavet should have been binned which changed the game.

Full credit to the team for finally playing for a full 80 minutes for the past two weeks, but that doesn't change how much the team has struggled for the past season and a half under Pay.

 

[JackDog]

Tweet from @Readingtheplay...

The Holbrook headlines linking him to Titans another Manager + media beat up. He's interested in the Bulldogs role but Manager saw this as an opportunity to beat up his availability to try and push things along for the preferred option. Manager may as well written the story.

 

[wendog33]

The board know they will be out of a job soon if they don’t deliver, if they fail it’s because they want to, so they’ve got no choice but to deliver, another year of pay will be the nail in the coffin for board surely they realise this

The board are probably holding on with Pay till the end of the year so that they have some good news and momentum leading into the elections. That will offer some hope to voting members and give the impression that the board is dealing with our problems.

 

[wendog33]

You're thinking of Nasheeds banned dupe account estoniapuppidog.

Thommo posts using the same username over on RedVee forum (St Helens Kennel equivalent).

Thanks Mr I ... it just seemed a possibility..sounded so similar lol


Estonia hahaha

 

[Kelpie03]

Feel free to speak for yourself, but the "everyone" is a tad overstated. I for one don't believe in moving anyone on unless we have a better replacement. Right now I'm not sure that we are in a position to be attractive to anyone worthwhile for a head coaching position. We can chase whoever we like, ultimately it's their decision whether they come or not. I don't see that much has changed in our attractiveness since the last time we canvased for coaches, they weren't comfortable in applying last time and I see no reason why they would be any happier to apply now. The undeniable fact is next year is still going to be an uphill battle with severe Cap constraints still in place and it doesn't take a genius to realise that.

FWIW I don't think last week's game was "close" we smashed them and they only got within 6 points (still more than a "small margin") due to a dropped ball. Which can be attributed to playing with much reduced bench rotation that resulted in exhausted players having to play huge minutes. If we had had a full bench, who knows what the score would have been. Plus we bombed a couple of certain tries, in addition to a held up over the line call that if it was the Chooks or Melbourne would have been called a try on the spot.

Winning games changes everything.

Go Dogs

I know what your saying. IMHO on the field nothing has changed in spite of 2 wins, perhaps some of us got carried away by the wins. It certainly doesn't take a genius to realize that we badly need to find 1 or 2 game breakers.
Waving the $8.5 M that is going to be available in the cap may attract some players, but it will certainly help if we could end the season with a few more wins.
AS for signing a new coach and players it is now only possible between the end of our season and November 1.

 

[Bulldogs09]

I complete Agree with btrainben.

If they stuff up Holbrook they need to go with pay. As he said we won games at the end of last season too when other teams weren’t turning up as we where fighting off the spoon.

We have now been last and second last all fucking year. A couple wins great, that’s cause we have only had that all year. We are fucking second last. Sack pay and sign Holbrook and move forward!

 

[JUNKYARD DOGS]

Looking forward to see what we can do when Foran is back, with DWZ and CHN firing we might nab them closer games we tend to be losing this year. Not much but need to start showing some promise with the quality players we do have in the squad.

 

[LoneWolf]

Welcome Ben Anderson

 

[TwinTurbo]

I complete Agree with btrainben.
If they stuff up Holbrook they need to go with pay. As he said we won games at the end of last season too when other teams weren’t turning up as we where fighting off the spoon.
We have now been last and second last all fucking year. A couple wins great, that’s cause we have only had that all year. We are fucking second last. Sack pay and sign Holbrook and move forward!

What if, they don't stuff it up and despite the Board's best efforts Holbrook decides to stay at St Helens or chooses another NRL team? Will you still blame them? Ultimately the decision is his not ours, all we can do is make the best offer possible, but he can still look at the dire Cap situation for next year and decide that it's not for him.

As for winning games at the end of last season just because other teams had given up trying and had nothing to loose, that's just complete nonsense. One by one;
Dragons, dropped from 6th to 7th due to the for and against we put on them, meaning they lost home ground advantage to Brisbane in week 1. That was rather a lot to loose.
Warriors, if they had won that game they would have finished 5th or possibly even 4th which would have given them a huge home ground advantage in the finals.
Broncos. if they had won that game they would have finished 4th which would have given them a huge home ground advantage in the finals, plus a second bite

Next time someone feeds you that rubbish, please feel free to quote the above.

Go Dogs

 

[BlackJackBulldog]

I must admit that the boards hands are publicly tied (albeit by themselves for extending Pays contract early season) as it would be hard to sign someone for a position that on the surface does not currently exist.
Perhaps this is where the rumour about offering an assistant position comes from? Then he can "step up" when Pay is fired?

Maybe we will soon hear that Holbrook has signed a 1 year extension and there is a sneaky clause in there that he can leave on a days notice if a certain position becomes available before hand? This would almost synchronise the end of both contracts aswell.

TBH the look on Pays face after the Knights win was a mix of absolute shock and relief... almost as if he had just excaped from the executioner...

 

[Real1]

I must admit that the boards hands are publicly tied (albeit by themselves for extending Pays contract early season) as it would be hard to sign someone for a position that on the surface does not currently exist.
Perhaps this is where the rumour about offering an assistant position comes from? Then he can "step up" when Pay is fired?

Maybe we will soon hear that Holbrook has signed a 1 year extension and there is a sneaky clause in there that he can leave on a days notice if a certain position becomes available before hand? This would almost synchronise the end of both contracts aswell.

TBH the look on Pays face after the Knights win was a mix of absolute shock and relief... almost as if he had just excaped from the executioner...

Pay could be the one who ends up being assistant/defensive coach...

 

[CrittaMagic69]

Yh because that worked out so well for the Raiders and Parra lololol

 

[aymz maz]

Pay needs to bite the bullet and admit he’s not up to nrl standard. Bring in hoolbrook and leave pay as his assistant.

 

[Bulldogs09]

What if, they don't stuff it up and despite the Board's best efforts Holbrook decides to stay at St Helens or chooses another NRL team? Will you still blame them? Ultimately the decision is his not ours, all we can do is make the best offer possible, but he can still look at the dire Cap situation for next year and decide that it's not for him.

As for winning games at the end of last season just because other teams had given up trying and had nothing to loose, that's just complete nonsense. One by one;
Dragons, dropped from 6th to 7th due to the for and against we put on them, meaning they lost home ground advantage to Brisbane in week 1. That was rather a lot to loose.
Warriors, if they had won that game they would have finished 5th or possibly even 4th which would have given them a huge home ground advantage in the finals.
Broncos. if they had won that game they would have finished 4th which would have given them a huge home ground advantage in the finals, plus a second bite

Next time someone feeds you that rubbish, please feel free to quote the above.

Go Dogs

You can have your views mate though that’s all they are.

You can go through the same logic of that for almost a game a round for any team. If the titans had of won another game and eels etc we might of got Spoon.

Im not entering this rubbish I’m stating why certain teams can turn up flat against a team they are expected to walk through. It happens in boxing all the time, usually the class can overcome it but if you take your op for granted as an expected it can backfire.

Again that’s last year.

Right now we beat two teams that where missing arguably their best players and we act like it’s amazing because we have barely had two wins all year. We are still 15th!!! Where 16th dead last. Still might finish there. It’s not improvement and it’s terrible football. The team we beat 2 weeks ago for Fifita back and they lost by 40 this weekend.... enough said.

 

[wendog33]

Our defence is worst in the league and people suggesting him as a defence coach?

 

[El Padrino]

What if,

Go Dogs

This is where I stopped reading, you are just speculating..... cbf reading further

You dont know what you dont know......

 

[Spoonman84]

I don't think I have heard a dumber suggestion then having Pay work with Holbrook in any capacity.

There's no upside to them working together and plenty of negatives.

 

[B-Train]

So if Pay did such a phenomenal job late last season, and we were such world beaters, then why are we 15th this season with the worst attack and defense in the comp? Even after this monumental two game winning streak... If he's such a great coach, where has this been all season? Or all of last season before the last few rounds?

How many more excuses can people make for Pay before they realise he isn't a FG standard coach who should be moved on? He was lucky to get the job in the first place because no one else wanted it. He has a 30% win rate and people want to give him a 3rd year?

 

[vegny]

Feel free to speak for yourself, but the "everyone" is a tad overstated. I for one don't believe in moving anyone on unless we have a better replacement. Right now I'm not sure that we are in a position to be attractive to anyone worthwhile for a head coaching position. We can chase whoever we like, ultimately it's their decision whether they come or not. I don't see that much has changed in our attractiveness since the last time we canvased for coaches, they weren't comfortable in applying last time and I see no reason why they would be any happier to apply now. The undeniable fact is next year is still going to be an uphill battle with severe Cap constraints still in place and it doesn't take a genius to realise that.

FWIW I don't think last week's game was "close" we smashed them and they only got within 6 points (still more than a "small margin") due to a dropped ball. Which can be attributed to playing with much reduced bench rotation that resulted in exhausted players having to play huge minutes. If we had had a full bench, who knows what the score would have been. Plus we bombed a couple of certain tries, in addition to a held up over the line call that if it was the Chooks or Melbourne would have been called a try on the spot.

Winning games changes everything.

Go Dogs

I think we will be a very attractive club for a coach to join next year. He gets to design his own team for the future and can approach anyone available next year to join from 2021 on. This was not available the last time we were looking for a coach.

It will be too late in fact for a new coach to join in 2021 and be able to have his own team. Some big name players would have been signed and they might not be who he wants as part of his team.