Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:47 am  

Not convinced myself. His teams so far have lost finals or, in the case of Hudds, have repeatedly failed to get to a Grand Final. Not only that but I don't believe a word he says about being at Saints given his record for wanting to go home every season.

If McManus wants us to win more silverware wouldn't it have been logical to appoint someone who had actually won silverware, given our failure to win it lately while still actually getting to finals?

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:48 am  

SaintsFan wrote:

Not convinced myself. His teams so far have lost finals or, in the case of Hudds, have repeatedly failed to get to a Grand Final. Not only that but I don't believe a word he says about being at Saints given his record for wanting to go home every season.

If McManus wants us to win more silverware wouldn't it have been logical to appoint someone who had actually won silverware, given our failure to win it lately while still actually getting to finals?

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:19 pm  

A great appointment for you lot, not sure you lot are gonna be convinced though because of how much Maguire and Brown ruin super league with their style of play and all that.

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:19 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

Not convinced myself. His teams so far have lost finals or, in the case of Hudds, have repeatedly failed to get to a Grand Final. Not only that but I don't believe a word he says about being at Saints given his record for wanting to go home every season.

If McManus wants us to win more silverware wouldn't it have been logical to appoint someone who had actually won silverware, given our failure to win it lately while still actually getting to finals?

As someone pointed out in the first page, what had Millward won when Saints appointed him? Same with Anderson?

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:24 pm  

Supreme Saint wrote:

As someone pointed out in the first page, what had Millward won when Saints appointed him? Same with Anderson?

Mcrea or Hanley as well

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:24 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

Not convinced myself. His teams so far have lost finals or, in the case of Hudds, have repeatedly failed to get to a Grand Final. Not only that but I don't believe a word he says about being at Saints given his record for wanting to go home every season.

If McManus wants us to win more silverware wouldn't it have been logical to appoint someone who had actually won silverware, given our failure to win it lately while still actually getting to finals?

I'm a bit skeptical myself but less skeptical than when we appointed Simmons, who was a pin the tail on the donkey kind of appointment.

On the plus side
Has Super League experience
Turned Huddersfield into a genuine contender for a top four spot
Appears to have done well with developing upcoming talent which is an important part of our ethos
Best of the Giants defence + our attack = potentially mouthwatering
Three year deal gives KC time to get involved, learn the ropes etc

Concern
He's turned Huddersfield into fringe contenders rather than consistent contenders
Safe, conservative appointment
We didn't look at what else was out there

It's not as underwhelming an appointment as Simmons or Wane but it is relatively safe and conservative which meets with Mr Big's low risk strategy when appointing coaches i.e. another with experience of coaching in the UK. I would have liked us to see what else was out there because there could have been plenty of better candidates and even if there wasn't it doesn't hurt to have a look.

Overall though this deal looks like it was struck at some point during last year which feeds into that point I've just made about us being a bit single-minded in who we wanted to succeed Simmons. Had this not been lined up for next year I doubt we'd have gotten rid of Simmons but now we know this was a done deal what has happened makes a bit more sense now.

I think he's a solid appointment and better than both Potter/Simmons.

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:33 pm  

I like it, but I'm not overwhelmed. His teams inconsitancies bother me.
HE's startning with a much better squad than he did at Hudds, though, which bodes well, and his guys do seem to have a good team ethic.

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:21 pm  

Fearnhead Cross wrote:

What had Anderson won when he was appointed?

...or Tony Smith when we signed him from Huddersfield?

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:54 pm  

McClennan wrote:

We didn't look at what else was out there

Did Eamon tell you this himself?

Or did you make it up?

Re: Brown officially named : Tue Apr 03, 2012 2:48 pm  

It seems I'm the only person who has commented on his lack of commitment to Huddersfield over the years. If you do a google search on Nathan Brown Giants, it is filled with articles about his departure from Huddersfield. From the end of 2009 there is a constant stream of them, most of which it seems he started with comments about a desire to return home. It mentions one year he was asked to return home by his Daughter, another he blamed it on his family being unsettled. Then it changed to him wanting an NRL coaching position. During his three years at the Giants, it seems there has never been a period when he has fully committed to them.

This could be a possible explanation for why their form can be so inconsistent, it must cause a lot of disruption when you don't know if the coach is staying or not. It makes contract decisions and recruitment hard to plan for and we all know the feeling of being in a state of limbo that a departing coach brings.

I really hope he hasn't accepted this job as a fallback because there are currently no NRL job offers on the table for him. It would be very disappointing to be in this situation again in 12 months because he's done a runner back to the NRL.