BATTLE FOR THE TITANS

This week Sam Allardyce was sacked as manager of Everton football club after taking over midway through a difficult season for the ‘Toffees’. While Allardyce has a proven track record for getting the best out of struggling squads, the knock against Allardyce has always been that his style of management is limited to saving teams from relegation, not taking on the clubs to the top end of the table.

Therefore, while clubs are eager to have Sam rescue them from perilous circumstances, as soon as crisis is averted they are eager to move on with a sexier management appointment. To persist with Allardyce would be to admit that the club has limited aspirations for coming seasons, which never sits well with the fans.

Born into a working class family in the English Midlands, it is no coincidence that he has found most of his success managing players that embody that same hard-nosed working class approach to football.

Perhaps the real reason ‘Big Sam’ has struggled to ascend the Premier League table is that he is unable to find common ground with the types of players who populate the upper echelons of the footballing hierarchy – the types of players who are more concerned with sports cars and endorsements than ‘Parking the Bus’ on a rainy Wednesday night at Stoke.

For now Sam Allardyce is out of a job, but as sure as the sun will set, another football club will find itself at the wrong end of the ladder and the first man they will call will be ‘Big Sam’.

Gareth Brennan took over the Gold Coast Titans under acrimonious circumstances. His predecessor Neil Henry was the casualty of a bitter power struggle between the playing group (ably led star recruit Jarryd Hayne) and the coaching staff.

Brennan was a logical choice to replace Henry, having had success nearly everywhere he coached. While at the Penrith Panthers he coached their NYC and NSW cup teams to premierships and was named NYC coach of the year in 2013. Having done his time in the lower grades, it was just a matter of time before somebody came knocking.

His career as a first grade coach began fortuitously enough - Brennan dodged a 6 foot 3 inch, 100 KG bullet when Jarryd Hayne opted out of his million dollar contract to head to Parramatta. Hayne had already put an end to Neil Henry’s tenure at the Gold Coast club and it was unlikely that a rookie coach would be able to bend Hayne and his substantial ego to his will.

However, the months that have followed have been far from smooth sailing. Despite showing promise at times, the club has managed a meagre three wins thus far, and their most recent second half capitulation against the Storm was emblematic of their struggles. Away form is a traditional measure of good coaching and unfortunately for the Titans – and Brennan himself, the team are a disappointing 1–5 on the road this season.

During his brief spell in charge of the Titans, Brennan has made several missteps in the media which have all the hallmarks of a coach who perhaps isn’t suited to coaching at this level. Like Allardyce, Brennan has proven himself to be an excellent manager of lower grade players, but based on the evidence of his efforts thus far, perhaps he isn’t ready to manage the players with the big salaries – and the big egos to match.

First was his Brennan’s ‘fan girling’ over Konrad Hurrell after the Titan’s enigmatic centre scored a match winner in their round one win over Canberra. After that match Brennan said that Hurrell was “one of my most favourite players in the NRL … I can’t tell you how many times he’s destroyed teams I’m coaching”.

Yet by round 10 Brennan had done just that, dropping Hurrell for their round 10 match up with the Storm – for a retread with a mere 34 games to his name in Brenko Lee.

Konrad Hurrell is a truly talented player and an absolute game changer when he is on. With that being said, heaping praise on a player with a lackadaisical attitude to training and a turnstile-like approach to defending at times, is hardly the best way to get the best out of him.

Following a dreadful performance from Bryce Cartwright in their come from in front defeat to the Storm in round 10. The media and fans rightly piled in on Cartwright for one piece of defending in particular:

In response Brennan was quoted saying “He could have made a better effort on that tackle, no doubt, but [Titans fullback] Michael Gordon could have as well,” and followed it up by saying:

Defending a young player against criticism like this is precisely the type of approach that made Brennan such a successful coach in the lower grades, where his role would have been as much about mentoring young men as the ‘X’s and O’s’ on the pitch.

However, when you are rushing to the defence of player being paid in excess of half a million dollars to make zero effort on the pitch, your actions will be quickly perceived by the media, fans, and the other players in the squad as being soft.

Garth Brennan arrived at the Titans with high praise from all corners of the game and he is sure to have a long career in front of him. However, if he fails to make subtle adjustments in the coaching box and the way he handles his players in the media, then he risks being pigeon holed.

In the same way that Sam Allardyce is now synonymous with relegation battles, Garth Brennan may not be too far away from being identified as an excellent lower grade coach who can’t make the leap to the big time.

THE PICKS

Last week we went a disappointing 1/3 with the Storm failing to cover the spread by a solitary half point. The Sharks were easily the pick of the round, getting +4.5 point head start despite having a perfect 5–0 record at Canberra’s home ground.

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