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Player indulgence comes home to roost
By Paul Kent | May 28, 2009 12:00am
BRAD Fittler is fighting for his job.
He has fallen out with some of his senior players.
Willie Mason is drinking and partying in between squeezing in the odd hit-up.
Mark O'Meley is dropped to park football the same week he gets chosen for City.
Braith Anasta is a five-eighth playing fullback via lock, and less than happy about it.
The Roosters are running second last.
The players run out with each other but not for each other.
Fittler is the only coach unsigned for next season and, in the club's attempts to reassure him, they say everything but the death-knell: "He has the full support of the board."
But don't worry, for there is good news on the horizon . . .
Todd Carney is coming next year.
Truths or untruths - depending on whether you listen to rugby league's always-reliable streetcorner tip or the Roosters PR spin - they all contribute to the dog's breakfast that is the Sydney Roosters.
Yet the problem is not so much where they are, but where they are going.
Really, will the Roosters ever get it?
For such reasons, few rivals will sympathise with them as they battle their latest problems, all too aware that they inherited those very problems from other clubs.
The best example is Mason.
It wasn't that long ago that Mason wanted to be a boxer, remember. He was playing at the Bulldogs. They resisted the idea.
Mason pushed it until his boxing career became such an issue he could no longer work with the club. At the time there were rumours, certainly believed by those at the Bulldogs, that the Roosters were privately supporting his continual agitation.
They knew the best way to acquire Mason was for the Dogs to grow tired and release him, at a time when other clubs had finished recruiting, which is exactly what happened. He left and went to the Roosters, who gladly tolerated his boxing interests. Mason since had his fight. You might not know, because it was an extremely forgettable encounter that, if you were being mischievous, seemed to have served its purpose.
Yet the Roosters are now learning the hard lessons the Dogs could have told them; when Mason's agendas don't follow the club's agendas, trouble follows.
If the pandering to players was destroying only the Roosters, 15 other clubs and their supporters wouldn't care.
But its impact is NRL-wide.
It is time the clubs changed priorities.
Years ago in America, the NFL teams learned to distinguish the difference between the team and the players.
It was a landmark moment.
When teams actually figured out that their brand was the team, the Cowboy star or the Seattle Seahawk, and actually began to promote and protect that rather than the player, great leaps forward were made.
Their popularity within their cities exploded. The NFL emerged as the undisputed game in the States.
For too long NRL clubs have pandered to their players - and the Roosters have often been the worst offenders.
Now learning their lesson with Mason, they are about to double it up when Carney arrives next year.
Will it save Fittler's career or murder it?
It is hard not to sympathise with Fittler.
His confusion must be immense.
Football has come easily his whole career, from the moment he kicked his first ball and was the star of the side to his retirement two premierships, 40 Tests, 31 Origins and 336 first-grade games later.
Now he has to work.
The Roosters look caught out by the change to the two-referees system, which has quickened the game considerably and made their bigger forwards cumbersome.
But once again the players have been given too much latitude at the expense of the club. And once again it is the coach who pays for it.
telecrap
Gotta say K*nt got it right for once! But your still a Sh!t writer Paul. One good article aint gonna make ya!
Feels so good to see the Roosters go down because of our rejects.
And which club in the NRL does the bit about the NFL getting it right remind you of? Thats right..... you guessed it! I <3 Todd!
By Paul Kent | May 28, 2009 12:00am
BRAD Fittler is fighting for his job.
He has fallen out with some of his senior players.
Willie Mason is drinking and partying in between squeezing in the odd hit-up.
Mark O'Meley is dropped to park football the same week he gets chosen for City.
Braith Anasta is a five-eighth playing fullback via lock, and less than happy about it.
The Roosters are running second last.
The players run out with each other but not for each other.
Fittler is the only coach unsigned for next season and, in the club's attempts to reassure him, they say everything but the death-knell: "He has the full support of the board."
But don't worry, for there is good news on the horizon . . .
Todd Carney is coming next year.
Truths or untruths - depending on whether you listen to rugby league's always-reliable streetcorner tip or the Roosters PR spin - they all contribute to the dog's breakfast that is the Sydney Roosters.
Yet the problem is not so much where they are, but where they are going.
Really, will the Roosters ever get it?
For such reasons, few rivals will sympathise with them as they battle their latest problems, all too aware that they inherited those very problems from other clubs.
The best example is Mason.
It wasn't that long ago that Mason wanted to be a boxer, remember. He was playing at the Bulldogs. They resisted the idea.
Mason pushed it until his boxing career became such an issue he could no longer work with the club. At the time there were rumours, certainly believed by those at the Bulldogs, that the Roosters were privately supporting his continual agitation.
They knew the best way to acquire Mason was for the Dogs to grow tired and release him, at a time when other clubs had finished recruiting, which is exactly what happened. He left and went to the Roosters, who gladly tolerated his boxing interests. Mason since had his fight. You might not know, because it was an extremely forgettable encounter that, if you were being mischievous, seemed to have served its purpose.
Yet the Roosters are now learning the hard lessons the Dogs could have told them; when Mason's agendas don't follow the club's agendas, trouble follows.
If the pandering to players was destroying only the Roosters, 15 other clubs and their supporters wouldn't care.
But its impact is NRL-wide.
It is time the clubs changed priorities.
Years ago in America, the NFL teams learned to distinguish the difference between the team and the players.
It was a landmark moment.
When teams actually figured out that their brand was the team, the Cowboy star or the Seattle Seahawk, and actually began to promote and protect that rather than the player, great leaps forward were made.
Their popularity within their cities exploded. The NFL emerged as the undisputed game in the States.
For too long NRL clubs have pandered to their players - and the Roosters have often been the worst offenders.
Now learning their lesson with Mason, they are about to double it up when Carney arrives next year.
Will it save Fittler's career or murder it?
It is hard not to sympathise with Fittler.
His confusion must be immense.
Football has come easily his whole career, from the moment he kicked his first ball and was the star of the side to his retirement two premierships, 40 Tests, 31 Origins and 336 first-grade games later.
Now he has to work.
The Roosters look caught out by the change to the two-referees system, which has quickened the game considerably and made their bigger forwards cumbersome.
But once again the players have been given too much latitude at the expense of the club. And once again it is the coach who pays for it.
telecrap
Gotta say K*nt got it right for once! But your still a Sh!t writer Paul. One good article aint gonna make ya!
Feels so good to see the Roosters go down because of our rejects.
And which club in the NRL does the bit about the NFL getting it right remind you of? Thats right..... you guessed it! I <3 Todd!
