Thing is we don't exactly have a great track record when it comes appointing proven head coaches. Since Arthur Bunting was unceremoniously dismissed just before Christmas 1985 the following people have sat in the FC hot seat:
Dec 85 - May 86: Kenny Foulkes, Buntings assistant who I think was given the job on a caretaker basis until the end of the season.
June 86 - March 88: Len Casey, arrived from a lower league side as I recall, possibly York. I don't think he came back to us direct from rovers.
March 88 - May 88: Tony Dean / Keith Hepworth, part of Casey's backroom staff. Placed in temporary charge for the last few games of the 87/88 season while the board tried to come up with a cunning plan to get us out of the mess they (and Casey) had gotten us into.
June 88 - Jan 91: Brian Smith, the board's cunning plan pays dividends. Takes a side who where everyones favourites to go down and turned them into a top 4 side. Can't remember where he came from, but I don't seem to recall him arriving as an ARL head coach (though he was when he left).
Jan 91 - April 92: Noel Cleal, the board's cunning plan goes badly awry. Proving the old adage that great players don't always make great coaches, although this may possibly be due to the club over-reaching itself financially during Brian Smith's tenure with poor Cleal having to pick up the bill. (see Standee's various posts on the subject for further details).
June 92 - June 94: Royce Simmons, Again can't quite recall where he joined us from, possibly an assistant at Penrith. Don't think he was a head coach in Aus at that point but may be wrong on that score. Steadied the ship after a traumatic 91/92 season.
June 94 - Dec 94: Tony Gordon, Possibly arrived at the Boulevard via NZ club rugby. At least he had some head coach expeirence to lean back on, not that it did him much good (or us for that matter).
Dec 94 - May 95: My memory's a little foggy about this bit, but weren't a couple of senior players put in charge for the second half of the 94/95 season. Possibly Johan Windley & Russ Walker while the board worked out where to go to next.
June 95 - Aug 97: Phil Sigsworth, Like Royce Simmons I have a feeling he came over here having been an assistant at an ARL club. Manly possibly where he'd enjoyed a highly successful playing career. Again like Simmons he steadied the boat after we were dropped a division in the wake of the SL reorganisation in the summer 95. Put us back into the top division after 2 seasons downstairs.
Aug 97 - June 99: Peter Walsh, oh dear oh dear oh dear. Lloyd/Wilby replace the highly popular Sigsworth with their own puppet (or muppet).
June 99 - Sept 99: Another temporary coaching set-up. This may have been the Windley/Walker period instead of early 1995. Of course we now know the club had a far bigger fight on its hands than merely avoiding relegation, fighting for its very existance as a club.
Nov 99 - Sept 04: Shaun McCrae, hurrah at last a proven head coach with a track record and an ability to win proper big boys trophies like the league & C.Cup. Of course this is slightly tempered by the fact that we didn't actually appoint him as such. We inherited him as part of the merger.
Sept 04 - April 06: John Kear, McCrae's assistant, albeit one with previous expeirence as a head coach.
May 06 - May 08: Peter Sharp, assistant coach from the NRL (Manly?). Barely put a foot wrong during his first 6 months in charge. Barely put a foot right during the remainder of his spell. His obsession with utility players is one of the reasons we are currently floundering in mid-table.
May 08 - ???????: Richard Agar, assistant to Sharp (and Kear for that matter). Promoted above and beyond his natural level of capabilities.
Since Christmas 1985 we've had 15 different head coaches/coaching teams in place (including 4 temporary/interim coaches). Out of those only 3 (McCrae, Kear and possibly Tony Gordon?) arrived at the club with any expeirence of been head coach at the top level. As I said earlier we didn't appoint McCrae but inherited him as part of the merger package. Although Kear had been a head coach in the past (with a C.Cup victory on his CV) he was an assistant promoted up to the position in 2004.
The only inspired appointment during the last 25 years has been Brian Smith who exceeded all expectations during his time in charge by taking an average side and lifting them into the top 4. Although the ramifications of what he left behind may have contributed to the club's problems as the decade progressed.(Cue reply from Standee
). Either way, one inspired coaching appointment in a 25 year period is a shocking return and points towards repeated mistakes being made by successive boards.
Of course not all of the above have been abject failures. Some (Simmons, Sigsworth) made a decent fist of the job without a great deal to play with (player or money wise). Others (McCrae, Kear, Sharp) achieved a certain level of success without quite being able to make the final step and turn us into one of the game's powerhouses.
Most on here now agree that a change is needed in the position of head coach if we are to progress and maybe realise the full potential of this club. Removing Richard Agar is only half of the equation however. What happens after that with regards to his replacement will probably determine our standing within the game for the next few years. Looking at that list above doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the club's ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
It is to be hoped that Adam Pearson can turn 25 years of history on its head and appoints either (a) an established name with a proven track record for winning the game's major honours (like Tony Smith at Wire) or (b) an apprentice who turns out to be the king maker (ala McGuire at Wigan). If he gets it wrong there is a very real possibility that this entire decade could disappear in a welter of missed opportunities and lower/mid table mediocrity.
(As pointed out above, I can't remember exactly where some of the Aussie coaches came from prior to taking the coaching job with us. If anyone can fill the blank spaces in I'd be grateful. Of course, you may heartily disagree with everything I've said and put me right accordingly
).
