The New Zealand Warriors are expected to announce that Matthew Elliott will coach the club for two seasons starting from 2013.
This is a disastrous decision that will cost the club players, sponsors and fans. It is a decision that will lead to the complete erosion of any advantages that the Warriors have built over many years of hard work and dedication. This is a very sad day for people that want to see Rugby League in New Zealand prosper.
This is the worst case scenario.
Matthew Elliott’s record speaks for itself. I could easily write 3,000 words on what makes Matthew Elliott such a disastrous appointment. In fact I wrote about 700 words that outlined Matthew Elliott’s coaching career before realized that I had said this all before. The easiest way to sum up Matthew Elliott as an NRL coach is to look at his coaching record:
NRL Games Coached: 243
Won: 108
Drawn: 3
Lost: 132
Forget the simplistic game plan. Forget the history of appointing close friends to positions within clubs he coaches. Forget the erosion of junior development systems. Forget the Mr Magoo act he throws on for the media. Forget the fact that both NRL clubs he has coached needed a complete rebuild from top to bottom after he left. Forget all of that.
Matthew Elliott’s record speaks for itself.
I have nothing but sympathy for New Zealand Warriors fans. There is no way to talk around the fact that you can now expect to go through years worth of complete and utter despair Every win now means you have this man coaching your club for a little longer. At best you can only hope that the Warriors lose their first 15 games of the 2013 season and Elliott get fired. That is the best case scenario. That type of disaster is the only thing that will save you from feeling dead inside every time you watch your team run around for the next few years.
There is nothing about your club that will be better for Matthew Elliott’s time there. Not a single thing. His influence will be felt years after his departure as you wait for the next generation of youngsters, uncorrupted by his influence, to finally come through the tattered remains of your teams once mighty junior development system.
Matthew Elliott’s appointment comes on the back of the disastrous appointment of Brian McClennan. Everyone knew McClennan was not up to coaching in the NRL. Time and time again we have seen that success in Super League means nothing at all when you move to the NRL. Ironically McClennans appointment also came on the back of the disastrous decision by the Warriors to not offer Ivan Cleary the contract he clearly deserved. If the club is ready to offer Craig Bellamy $4 million over 3 years, you’d think they could have kept Cleary for 60% of that amount if they had been willing to offer him long term stability.
At the end of the day, bad decision after bad decision has left the Warriors with few options. Still, to appoint a career loser like Matthew Elliott is the worst thing the club could have possibly done.
This will not end well….
